Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, the owner and CEO of MDH passed away at the Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in New Delhi, having suffered cardiac arrest in the wee hours of Thursday. Gulati studied till fifth grade and dropped out only to join his father Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati, the founder of MDH in their business. He was born on March 27, 1923, in Sialkot (Pakistan) and post-partition moved to a refugee camp in Amritsar and later shifted base to Delhi. Gulati opened a spice shop in Karol Bagh, and in 1953 had rented a second shop in busy Chandni Chowk in the national capital. Finally, in 1959, the Mahashian Di Hatti Private Limited manufacturing firm was set up.
In 2017, Mahashay Dharampal Gulati took home a salary of Rs 21 crore, leaving behind Adi Godrej and Vivek Gambhir of the Godrej Group, Sanjiv Mehta of Hindustan Unilever and YC Deveshwar of ITC. He was also awarded India’s third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan in 2019 by President Ram Nath Kovind. He was also known for his philanthropic nature. Gulati is survived by a son and six daughters.
