Sarala Birla passes away

The Times of India
29 March 2015

Kolkata: Industrialist Basant Kumar Birla's wife Sarala passed away in New Delhi on Saturday. She was 90 and is survived by her husband and two daughters, Jayshree Mohta and Manjushree Khaitan, and grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla. She lost her son, Aditya, at a relatively young age.

"An accomplished academic, an extremely supportive wife, a doting mother, a philanthropist, and a pragmatist, Sarala Birla was a human being of rare quality," the B K Birla Group said in a statement.

She was born on November 23, 1924 at Kuchhaman in Rajasthan to Brijlal Biyani, a respected freedom fighter. She did her schooling from the Government High School, Akola, Maharashtra, acquiring fluency in Marathi, Hindi and English. This not only opened doors to the world outside but refined her abiding interest in the languages. She went on to complete her higher studies from Pune's Fergusson College. She developed a keen interest in the French language in the later part of her life and continued to study it till the end.

Close aides of the Birla family speak of her first meeting with the 'youthful' Basant Kumar Birla. She wanted to get to know her proposed life partner personally before committing herself; she travelled by train from Pune to Mumbai and walked into the Birla residence all by herself without any family members to meet the entire Birla clan. The engagement was held in November 1941 and solemnized by Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi, in the presence of C Rajagopalachari, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jamnalal Bajaj.

In partnership with her husband, she laid the foundations of numerous educational institutions like the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Ashok Hall Group of Schools, Mahadevi Birla World Academy, and the G D Birla Centre for Education.

Her collection of Indian art, including those displayed at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata, rank among India's most distinguished private collections.