How Dhirubhai Ambani took the stock market into middle-class homes and became "Audhyogik Gujarat na Nath"
Gujarat has always understood commerce, thrift and calculated risk. But it took a man from Chorwad to show the state, and the country, what that spirit could truly achieve.
In those days, the Indian stock market belonged to a small circle of wealthy traders and established business families. An ordinary middle-class household saved in gold, land or a bank deposit. Owning part of a large company was simply not on the horizon.
Dhirubhai Ambani changed that. He inherited no empire and came from no business dynasty. What he possessed was far rarer: the ability to dream on a scale others thought impossible, and the conviction to invite ordinary people into that dream. He was living the first-generation founder's story long before India spoke of startups and unicorns. In many ways, Reliance was India's original startup.
His story began in 1932, when he was born into a modest family in Chorwad, on the Saurashtra coast. As a teenager, he left for Aden in Yemen in search of work, joining A. Besse & Co. first as a clerk and later managing an oil-filling station linked to the firm's petroleum business.
Aden was his real classroom. Watching tankers, traders and merchants deal across borders, he learnt what no school could teach: business is not about what you own, but about the opportunities you can see.
When he came back to Mumbai, he began a small trading venture. Spices gave way to yarn, trading gave way to manufacturing, and in 1966 a textile mill at Naroda in Gujarat gave India the Vimal brand, which soon became a household name.
Dhirubhai's most important idea was a simple but revolutionary question. If millions of Indian families saved diligently for their children's future, why should they be only consumers of what big companies made? Why could they not be owners too?
His answer came in 1977, when Reliance Textile Industries went public. The issue was oversubscribed seven times.
Suddenly, a schoolteacher, a small trader or a salaried clerk could hold a share in a growing industrial company and follow its progress through annual reports, dividends and bonus issues.
He did not create India's stock exchanges; those existed long before Reliance. But he brought the market into ordinary homes on a scale never seen before. Dhirubhai was a pioneer in spreading the equity cult in India, turning share ownership from a privilege of the few into an aspiration of the many.
Reliance's growth created substantial wealth for many early shareholders. More importantly, it created trust: the belief that a company's success could be shared with the people who backed its journey.
At a time when Indian industry was dominated by names such as Tata, Birla and Bombay Dyeing, Dhirubhai arrived as a first-generation challenger. He proved that the next great business house could rise from modest beginnings.
Gujarat saw this as a matter of pride, not merely a corporate milestone. In the state's cities and towns, where saving and investing run deep, Reliance found a receptive audience. Dhirubhai was one of their own. His success confirmed what generations of Gujarati families had always believed: that enterprise, perseverance and the courage to take risks can transform one's destiny.
It was Gujarati asmita expressed through entrepreneurship, which is why Dhirubhai Ambani is remembered as "Audhyogik Gujarat na Nath", the patriarch of industrial Gujarat.
The greatest gift Dhirubhai gave Gujarat in 1977 was not a factory, and not a brand. It was an invitation to stop watching India's growth from the outside and to become part of it. Those who accepted became partners in one of the country's great success stories. The invitation has since passed through two more generations and has never been withdrawn. So, for Gujarat, the question is what it was nearly fifty years ago: when the next chapter opens, will you be part of it?
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