Contributions of the indian immigrant- Govindasamy Pillai

Hi everyone. Today i will be talking about the contributions of this successful indian immigrant- Govindasamy Pillai. I believe that all of you have read my previous post on the biography of Pillai. Now it will be easier to explain as you all already had a brief understanding of Pillai.

He was a philanthropist, the biggest donor to Perumal Temple, founder-member of the Indian Chamber of Commerce set up in 1937, founder of the Ramakrishna Mission and a Justice of the Peace in 1939. He is remembered for his generosity and charity. He donated a large sum to the Sri Perumal Temple to build a an entranceway to the Temple and the first Indian wedding hall which bears his name -- Govindasamy Pillai Kalyanamandabam. The first wedding to be solemnised here was his granddaughter's to his son Ramakrishnan. He also donated to many other institutions including Gandhi Memorial Hall.

He also invested in properties in Serangoon Road, Race Course Road and Buffalo Road. Pillai was one of the few successful South Indian businessmen and managed to build two houses in Campbell Lane and later in Race Course Road. 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 started all over again. He did not give up but expanded his business across the Causeway and opened PGP stores in Malacca and Johor.He retired in 1963, handing over the family business to his children. Sadly, his stores ran into huge debts and closed down.

Govindasamy Pillai was a frugal man and donated many money to build schools and shops etc.

In many ways he was regarded as a a patriarch of the Indian community who was well-known for his charitable works.

Okay, enough with the contributions of Govindasamy. Now i will talk about the categories that each contribtuions fall under. Maybe this will make you all understand better.

There are alot of categories of the contributions:
Political impact
economic impact
social impact
socio-economic impact
and many more......

As for Govindasamy Pillai, by donating to schools, institutions and shops, that is a form of social impact as his charitable acts results in helping the society and improving the lives of the society.