New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- In an era when Indian capital was timid and colonial firms ran the show, one man decided that Indians would sail their own ships, fly their own aeroplanes, and drive their own cars.

Walchand Hirachand Doshi, born in 1882 as the Digamber Jain son of a cotton trader in Gujarat's Wankaner, was not content with mills and trading houses. He wanted empire-scale industry, and for a while, he almost achieved it.

Walchand's journey began humbly in the 1910s, with investments in Deccan Sugar Mills and Sholapur Spinning and Weaving Mills. Sugar, the 'white gold' of the Deccan, was flush with government incentives, and its profits gave him both capital and clout in Bombay's mercantile circles. This early success wasn't glamor...