Biography of an indian immigrant- Govindasamy Pillai

P. Govindasamy Pillai (b. 1887, Mayavaram, Tamil Nadu, India - d. 1980), was a well-known and successful South Indian businessman who established the string of PGP stores.


Govindasamy Pillai grew up in an indian village of Koorainadu, Mayavaram, Tanjore District, Tamil Nadu. He ran away from home to Singapore when he was a teenager, landing at Tanjong Pagar in 1905. He gained employment at a provision store at 50 Serangoon Road after many attempts to look for jobs. It was a hard and tiring job and he was given no wages, only food and accommodation.

In 1929, he went back to India and got married. Returning to Singapore, he found that the provision store was put up for sale on the owner's demise. Pillai decided to buy the shop by borrowing S$2,000 from the chettiars and started a business selling spices, oils and grains etc. At first, he named the store Dhanalakshmi Stores, after his eldest daughter, and later changed it to P. Govindasamy Pillai or PGP Stores. Being thrifty, he managed to save enough to invest in properties and to start other businesses PGP saree shops were popular and his sons later continued this business. The Little India Arcade currently occupies the place where P. Govindasamy Pillai saree shop once stood. During the Japanese occupation, Pillai and his family were unharmed for they were in India but his property and goods were confiscated. He returned to Singapore in 1945 and his goods disappeared due to the Japanese Occupation and started all over again. He did not give up and succeeded. He retired in 1963, handing over the family business to his children. Sadly, his stores ran into huge debts and closed down.

Pillai died of heart attack in 1980 at the age of 93.