MP family claims grandfather gave ₹35,000 loan to British govt in 1917; now they want their money back

Back in 1917, when India was a few decades away from gaining independence, the British government in the Bhopal State was in need of some money. At the time, a prominent businessman in Madhya Pradesh's Sehore advanced a sum of ₹35,000 to WS Davis, the then political agent in Bhopal under the British Raj.

This came to light after a third-generation member of the family claimed that the British had taken a ₹35,000 war loan from his grandfather that remains unpaid to this day, PTI reported.

Late businessman Seth Jumma Lal Ruthia's grandson, Vivek Ruthia, now wants to take action regarding this loan — 109 years later. He is planning to send a legal notice to the UK government, asking it to repay the money. He says the amount now runs into crores.

What does the MP family claim?

According to a report by The Times of India, the Ruthia family said that the amount was given to the government to assist in the administrative management of the Bhopal State. Vivek Ruthia now claims that the money was never paid back to his family, and the British went out of India three decades after the incident.

Ruthia is now consulting lawyers to understand how international law may work and whether the sovereign government in Britain can now be held accountable for the loan transaction of the colonial era.

Ruthia claims to be in possession of documents about his grandfather's loan to the British government, and said that even after leaving the country, the Britishers are yet to repay the loan.

As per an alleged certificate that is doing the rounds on social media, dated 4 June 1917, Seth Jumma Lal of the firm Seth Rama Kishan Jaskaran Ruthia “subscribed ₹35,000 to the Indian War Loan and thereby showed his loyalty to the Government and Empire.”

The alleged document also bears the signature of WS Davis as the Political Agent in Bhopal.

“My grandfather was into charity. This was a loan given to the British government during the war and it was never returned. My father never pursued it, but I am exploring legal options now. I will move to recover the money with interest as per the statutes of present-day law,” he was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

Vivek Ruthia said he found the documents in the grandfather's will detailing correspondence with the then British government, which clearly shows that the British borrowed the money. Seth Jumma Lal Ruthia died in 1937, 20 years after giving the loan to the British government, and the colonial rulers left India a decade later in 1947.

According to TOI, officers like WS Davis maintained relations with local rulers, looked over at governance matters and made sure that the locals were aligned with British authority.

Can the Ruthia family get their money back?

Stating that he has all the supporting documents, Vivek Ruthia said he is preparing to send a legal notice to the UK government after consulting his legal counsel.

The family, according to TOI, feels that if they calculated a 5.5% interest rate for 109 years (1917-2026), the amount would already rise to crores. If indexed with gold, this would further skyrocket as the gold price has increased more than 3,000 times since 1917.

However, it was not clear if the Ruthia family would get their money back as complications may arise due to the calculation and the fact that the UK government is not ruled by the monarchy anymore.