Haji Mastan MirzaBorn(1926-03-01)1 March 1926Ramanathapuram, Madras Presidency, British India(now in Tamil Nadu, India)Died25 June 1994(1994-06-25) (aged 68)Mumbai, Maharashtra, IndiaPolitical partyBharatiya Minorities Suraksha MahasanghSpouseSafra BaiChildren3
Haji Mastan (1 March 1926 – 25 June 1994), popularly known as Sultan Mirza, was an organised crime gang leader, originally from Tamil Nadu and based in Mumbai. He was one of the infamous trio of mafia gang leaders in Mumbai for over two decades from the 1960s to the early 1980s, along with Karim Lala leader of the Pathan gang, and Varadarajan Mudaliar, another famous gang leader from Tamil Nadu in South India.[1]
At his peak, Mastan operated a powerful smuggling syndicate in Mumbai and along the Gujarat coast and later diversified into film financing and real estate business.
Mastan was known to be a shrewd businessman and a cunning deal-maker. He always maintained friendly relations with the police and government officials and often promoted peace between rival gangs, and was good friends with Lala, Mudaliar, Hassan Patni and Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.[1][2]
Very early in his career, Mastan realized the importance of being seen among famous personalities from politics and the film industry as a symbol of power. Therefore, he hobnobbed among the city's rich and famous and was frequently seen with Bollywood personalities at public functions.[2]
Mastan was arguably the most influential mafia don of his time. He was also seen as a "style icon" by many due to his extragant lifestyle including immaculate white clothes, white shoes, white Mercedes cars and expensive gold watches. Mastan flaunted an extragant lifestyle to appear affluent and influential.[1] His life served as an inspiration for the character Sultan Mirza in the 2010 Hindi feature film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai.
Early life[edit]Haji Mastan was born in 1926 in a Tamil Muslim family in Panaikulam, in the Madras Presidency (modern-day Tamil Nadu) of British India. He lived in the coastal town of Cuddalore before migrating to Mumbai with his father at the age of 8.[3][4]
Mastan started doing odd jobs as a small boy in the famous Crawford Market and soon joined the docks and started working long hours there.[citation needed] During his early twenties, due to the high import duty on gold, people started smuggling gold from overseas. Working in the docks made it easy for him to participate in smuggling and soon Mastan started his own business. Mastan began making a decent sum of money by diverting his sectors into this business. At an early age he also went on Hajj, after which he got the prefix Haji with his name.[1]
Adult life and death[edit]Mastan joined hands with Sukkur Narayan Bakhia, a smuggler from Daman to control the illegal items smuggled into Mumbai and Daman from the countries in the Persian Gulf. Mastan purchased properties at various locations in South Mumbai including a sea-facing bungalow at Peddar Road. He lived in a small room built on the roof of his bungalow.[5]
Mastan ventured into film financing later in his life, providing producers in Mumbai with some much-needed funds. He eventually turned into a film producer himself. He also had business interests in real estate, electronic goods, and hotels. He owned several electronic shops in Musafir Khana near Crawford Market.[5]
Mastan maintained good relations with the other gang leaders. When inter-gang rivalry in Mumbai began to increase, he called all the top gang leaders together and split Mumbai between the gangs so that they could operate without coming into conflict. In this the mafia queen, Jenabai Daruwali helped him.[6] Earlier Jenabai was known as Chalvali, as she was doing business of selling ration in black market. But as she was ambitious, she developed contacts with the then liquor producer and seller, Varadarajan Mudliar alias Varda Bhai. After this, she came to be known as Jenabai Daruwali. Jenabai had good relations with Mastan, the Dawood Ibrahim family, and Karim Lala Pathan. So with the consent of Mastan she arranged a meeting of all rivals under one roof of Mastan's pedder road bungalow called Batul Suroor.[5]
Later in life, Mastan did not take a direct role in running his gang, but instead, he depended on right-hand men like Lala and Mudaliar to carry out his smuggling operations and intimidate rivals and debtors.[7] Mastan was especially close to Mudaliar as they were both from Tamil Nadu. When Mudaliar died, Mastan hired a private chartered plane to bring his body to Mumbai for the final rites.
During the Indian Emergency, he was imprisoned. Whilst in prison, he was influenced by the ideals of politician Jaiprakash Narayan and also began learning Hindi.
After his release from prison, Mastan entered politics and formed a political party in 1980-81 and named it Dalit Muslim Surakhsha Maha Sangh in 1985 which was later renamed as Bharatiya Minorities Suraksha Mahasangh currently led by Sundar Shaekhar[citation needed]
Haji Mastan Mirza died of cardiac arrest in Mumbai on 25 June 1994.
References[edit] ^ a b c d Maheshwari, Dhairya (16 January 2020). "Haji Mastan Mirza: Revisiting the story of underworld don often portrayed as Mumbai's Robinhood". www.indiatvnews.com. ^ a b Bureau, ABP News (16 January 2020). "Not Just Indira Gandhi, Sena Founder Bal Thackeray Also Met Underworld good friend of Don Haji Mastan". news.abplive.com. abplive. {{cite news}}: |last1= has generic name (help) ^ "When Tamil dons ruled Bombay". The Times of India. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2018. ^ Singh, Neeta (27 December 2007). "Aaquib Hussain's daughter serves legal notice on Don's 'adopted son'". dnaindia.com. Mumbai, India. Retrieved 20 May 2018. ^ a b c Zaidi, Hussain (9 July 2010). "The reluctant Mafioso". Livemint. ^ Varma, Anuradha (29 April 2011). "Meet these Lady Dons from the Underworld | Work & Life". iDiva. ^ Virani, Pinki (2001). Once Was Bombay. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-93-5214-074-9. Retrieved 26 July 2020. External links[edit] Haji Mastan at IMDb vteOrganised crime in IndiaGangs D-Company Kala Kachcha gang Chaddi Baniyan gang Ashok Mahto gang Thak Thak gang Gangsters M. P. Jayaraj Kotwal Ramachandra Haji Mastan Karim Lala Varadarajan Mudaliar Bada Rajan Dawood Ibrahim Tiger Memon Yakub Memon Chhota Rajan Arun Gawli Atiq Ahmed Jayendra Thakur Anandpal Singh Manya Surve Maya Dolas Anees Ibrahim Chhota Shakeel Muthappa Rai Abdul Latif Abu Salem Ri Pujari Ali Budesh Ejaz Lakdawala D. P. Yad Nirbhay Gujjar Subhash Bhaskar Nair Gopal Rajwani Pappu Kalani Santokben Jadeja Mukhtar Ansari Munna Bajrangi Vikas Dubey Kamdev Singh Henchmen Dilip Buwa Maya Dolas Jamim Shah Encounter specialists Aftab Ahmed Khan Daya Nayak Pradeep Sharma Rindranath Angre Vijay Salaskar Sachin Waze Laws Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crimes Act Puducherry Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act Movies Attahasa Company D Gangs of Wasseypur Nayakan Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Shootout at Lokhandwala Shootout at Wadala Class of '83 Kaalaa Kabali Categories Encounters in India Indian politicians convicted of crimes