With the vision of serving the humanity, Kaka Pribhdas founded Tolani Charitable Trust and established various educational institutions, hospitals and other organizations in Kutch district where the displaced Sindhis were resettled.
Remembering Kaka Pribhdas who passed away on July 10, 1988
Kaka Pribhdas Sakhawatrai Tolani, born on 25th August 1893 in Larkana Sindh, was a selfless soul, who despite being uprooted and forced by the Pakistan government to leave his motherland in 1949, continued serving the humanity in India, as he did in Larkana.
Kaka Pribhdas was one of the richest Zamindars of Sindh and was also famous for his charity. He paid properly to labors of his farm and also provided them facility of proper housing and other amenities. He served as president and chairman of Larkana Municipality for 28 years and shown great progress in the city.
He was secretary of district Congress Committee and actively participated in many freedom movements. After partition he was put in jail by Pakistan government on the false charges of espionage because he had refused to leave his motherland. He was released after a period of 100 days on the condition to leave Pakistan empty handed within 5 days.
He reached Mumbai in 1949 at the age of 55. After reaching Mumbai, he started his work afresh with his children. He started contract business, particularly construction of dams etc. and worked very hard day and night with full dedication, hard work and honesty. This was the time when he remembered the days he had passed in jail and his promise to god for doing the service to the humanity, once he earns resources.
With this vision, he founded the Tolani Charitable Trust. The Trust was registered on 12th November 1960. However the Trust was renamed as ‘Tolani Foundation’ in 1969.
Kaka Pribhdas breathed his last on 10th July 1988 but the Tolani Foundation continues to serve the humanity. Tolani Foundation with the vision of Kaka Tolani developed its mission of providing education, health and spiritual development of the people in not only Mumbai but Kutch, Gujarat area. The Trust is run only with the funds of Late Kaka Pribhdas Tolani. The Trust focuses on scholarships for education to needy particularly women; establishing and developing educational institutions; providing medical relief to needy; establishing and running medical centers/hospitals for poor and needy, and all other works of general public utility and relief to poor.
It was dream of late Kaka Pribhdas to develop skilled, creative and socially sensitive engineers to meet the needs of a changing society. He desired imparting value added technical education for skill development through adequate resources, while developing aptitude for life-long learning and promoting creativity, innovation and entrepreneur spirit.
Currently, a number of institutions are imparting education to the youths. Some of these institutions are Tolani Foundation Polytechnic Institute Gandhidham having enrollment of over 900; College of Arts and Science Adipur with over 2200 students; Tolani College of Commerce; Tolani Institute of Law; Tolani Institute of Pharmacy; Tolani Institute of Management Studies; Tolani Institute of Excellence, all in Gandhidham and Adipur, the twin towns of of Sindhis in Kutch district of Gujarat State, and Tolani Commerce College Mumbai.
Click here and have a look at Tolani College of Commerce
The Gandhidham Collegiate Board was formed with the objective of developing higher education in remote district Kutch and Kaka Pribhdas himself was its founder President.
The Collegiate Board, a tiny seed sown in 1961, sprouted into a sapling in the midst of Rann of Kutch. Today that sapling, nurtured by Tolanis has taken a form of a huge tree with deep roots – Vidya Mandir – with branches spreading in to different streams of education like Polytechnic, Arts, Science, Commerce, Pharmacy and Management. This Educational Campus is spread across 43 Acres of Land. Kaka’s view of education was truly grand and not restricted to construction of college buildings only. What he had visualized was a full-fledged educational campus with all the modern facilities and an educational environment. That is explained by Kaka’s decisions to bring more of his hard earned resources to construct staff quarters for the people who joined hands with him in making his dream a reality.
The Tolani Foundation also runs an Eye Hospital & Research Center – established especially for the people suffering various eye infections and diseases due to dry climate in the Kutch region.
Moreover, Sri Ramakrishna Seva Kendra was formed for developing youth on campus spiritually, so as to spread the knowledge of the Philosophy of Youth Power preached by Swami Vevekananda and Sri Ramkrishna.
Late Kaka Pribhdas firmly believed in following quote, which became motto of his life:
Far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in bookmarks grove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean.
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Source: Jayanti Thakkar/All Sindhis Hope Association FB page, lurncampus.com, Target Study, Tolani and other websites
