Original unicorn: How Annamalai Chettiar built India’s 1st financial powerhouse

Had Annamalai Chettiar (Satappa Ramanatha Muthiah Annamalai Chettiar) been alive, he would have been called upon to deliver TED talks on banking without borders. Instead, this pioneering businessman from Tamil Nadu, who wrote the playbook for colonial banking in India, remains largely forgotten outside academic circles, though the posh Raja Annamalai Puram neighbourhood in Chennai is named in his honour.

At a time when Indian companies are going global with unabashed ambition, his century-old blueprint for international expansion reads like a modern startup story. The man who co-founded Indian Bank with his brother Ramaswami Chettiar, and became governor of Imperial Bank (now State Bank of India), cracked the code of cross-border finance long before most Indians had even heard of it.

Born into the influential Nattukottai Nagarathars community in September 1881, he inherited a business ecosystem of south and southeast Asian venture capital. Steeped in the Chettiar model of leveraging community ties, his unique ability lay in institutionalising these sprawling yet vetted networks, in the process connecting diasporas across geographies.

This allowed him to access money transfers more quickly, through what we would call correspondent banking. The modern equivalent would be a Paypal and Western Union rolled into one but with cultural connectivity and driven purely by relationships. Over time, Annamalai Chettiar became a huge landlord, though his actual net worth is shrouded in mystery.

Institution builder

Perhaps his most underrated achievement was his role as an institution builder, which stemmed from his belief that wealth creation came with social responsibilities and investment in human capital. Indeed, long before corporate social responsibility (CSR) became a byword, his approach to philanthropy centered on long term investment rather than on immediate relief.

In 1920 he set up the Sri Meenakshi College in Chidambaram in the firm belief that education was the primary need of the country. Later this became part of the well known Annamalai University, his master passion that today offers education to millions. A patron of the arts, he also funded the Tamil Isai Sangam for music.

This faith in the utility of non-business enterprises was strengthened after the Great Depression of 1929, which served as a reality check that tested everything Annamalai had built, and brought new thinking to the Chettiar fold.

As the economic crisis that originated in the US swept through Asian economies, Burmese cultivators defaulted on their loans. This placed the Chettiar banking network, which had flourished in Ceylon, Burma and Southeast Asia, under siege, as crop prices tanked. A reliable source of profit now became a nightmare of foreclosures and losses.

The colonial governments instituted banking enquiries in the spate of these collapses. For Annamalai, this was a moment of reckoning, one that forced him to look at institution-building instead of pure commercial expansion. That’s where the focus on charity and education took shape.

This didn’t dim his obsession with palatial architecture, which led him to build multiple residences including the grand Chettinad Palace in Chennai. He also built the Kanadukathan palace, which used the best materials imported from all over, and took seven years to complete.

Tryst with politics

As was customary for successful businessmen of that era, Annamalai entered politics. In 1920 he stood for election to the council of state, the upper house of the Imperial Legislative Council of India, and held his seat for three consecutive terms. While he received a knighthood and the distinction of Rajah of Chettinad from the British, domestic honors took longer. It was only in 1980, 32 years after he had passed away, that the government of India released a stamp in his honour.

His son, Sir Muthiah Annamalai Muthiah Chettiar, became the first mayor of Madras. Continuing the legacy, his grandson Palaniappan Chidambaram became the finance minister of the county.

The Annamalai Chettiar story matters in 2025 because it challenges fundamental assumptions about Indian business history and capabilities. While we often trace the story of Indian entrepreneurship to the post-liberalisation era, Annamalai’s example shows how entrepreneurs were building international businesses with remarkable sophistication long before 1991. His approach, combining cultural understanding with institutional innovation while leveraging community networks and aiming for global scale, reads like a modern business school case study on emerging market strategy.

For today’s entrepreneurs, his story offers more than historical inspiration; it gives us perspective. Annamalai Chettiar built his empire without venture capital and government support, on a clear understanding of what we now call network effects. In India’s economic history, he represents a critical but under-celebrated archetype, the quiet capitalist philanthropist whose influence rests not on spectacle but on building institutions.