- Gokool
Haji Gokool Meah (1847–1939) was an industrialist and philanthropist. He was born in
Kashmir , in what was thenBritish India . He was originally named Modhoo. His father died shortly before his birth and his mother remarried.As a small child, his family left Kashmir and ended up in
Calcutta where in 1852 they signed up as indentured labourers bound for thesugar cane fields ofTrinidad . OnJanuary 25 ,1853 they arrived in Trinidad aboard the "Benares ". They were indentured at theConcord Estate inPointe-à-Pierre . After three months, his mother died ofmalaria and his stepfather took little interest in him. He was informally adopted by aHindu couple who gave him the name Gokool.Once he was old enough, Gokool secured his own indentureship contract with the Concord Estate. He renewed his contract once it expired, and then went out on his own. He purchased a
donkey cart and made a living hauling sugar cane to the factory atUsine Sainte Madeline , then the second largestsugar refinery in the world. After a few years of this trade, he sold his cart and established a shop inDanglade Village on the road to San Fernando (now part of thePetrotrin oil refinery at Pointe-à-Pierre).He married Rojan and had 17 children, 11 of whom survived. From shopkeeping he moved on to
cocoa cultivation, establishing one of the early cocoaplantation s in theDiego Martin valley. From cocoa he moved on thereal estate , becoming one of the major landlords inPort of Spain . He also established himself as a cinema magnate, establishing the Metro cinema in collaboration withMGM . He later split with them and renamed his cinema the Globe Cinema, eventually operating a string of five cinemas in Port of Spain and San Fernando.In 1922 he performed the
Haj (Muslim pilgrimage toMecca ). In his will, he established the Haji Gokool Meah Trust, a trust to continue the charitable works which had earned him the title "Meah" (benefactor).References
* de Verteuil, Anthony. 1989. "Eight East Indian Immigrants: Gokool, Soodeen, Sookoo, Capildeo, Beccani, Ruknaddeen, Valiama, Bunsee" ISBN 976-8054-25-5
* [http://www.whoswhotnt.com/publisher.asp?id=613 As Cool As Gokool] - Who's Who in Trinidad and Tobago Business 2001-2002.
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