Wassiamull Assomull

{{Short description|19th-century Sindhi businessman}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

Wassiamull Assomull, also known as Seth Wassiamull Assomull Mahtani, was a Sindhi workie who established overseas trading-firm businesses in Singapore, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Hong Kong, China, and Australia.{{Cite book |last=Harjani |first=Dayal N. |title=Sindhi Roots & Rituals |year=2018 |quote=The firm W.Assomull was founded in 1866 by Seth Wassiamull Assomull Mahtani who made inroads in the Far East network with phenomenal success and the first to enter Singapore in 1873 and thence in Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and first to establish branch in Melbourne in 1876 and had 21 branches in their cap.}}{{Cite book |title=Voices from the Past: Hong Kong, 1842-1918 |date=Jan 1, 2002 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |editor-last=Bard |editor-first=Solomon |pages=354}}{{Cite book |last=Yong |first=Tan Tai |title=Singapore-India Relations: A Primer |last2=Major |first2=Andrew J. |publisher=NUS Press |year=1995 |isbn=9789971691950 |editor-last=Yong |editor-first=Mun Cheong |pages=9 |chapter=1: India and Indians in the Making of Singapore |quote=Initially, most of the major business concerns then were in the hands of European houses, but gradually, however, as Singapore began to flourish as a free port, and with the expansion of trade, Indian businessmen began to realise the economic opportunities available in Singapore and started to move to the British station. One such entrepreneur was Wassiamull Assomull, a Sindhi textile merchant who brought his textile business to Singapore in 1864. An Indian businessman with extensive trading connections outside India, Assomull was believed to be the first Sindhi ever to set foot in Singapore. |editor-last2=Rao |editor-first2=V. V. Bhanoji}}{{Efn|His name is also spelt as 'Wassiamull Asoomull' and 'Wassiamall Assomull'.|group=note}} His international company was known as Messrs. Wassiamull Assomull & Co.{{Cite book |title=Something Rich and Strange: Sea Changes, Beaches and the Littoral in the Antipodes |publisher=Wakefield Press |others=Sue Hosking, Susan Hosking |year=2009 |isbn=9781862548701 |pages=199 |quote=The transnational Sindhi company, Wassiamull Assomull and Company, had offices and representatives in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and briefly in Adelaide ...}}{{Cite book |title=Society |date=Sep 1, 1997 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=9789622093935 |editor-last1=Faure |editor-first1=David |pages=147}} The company had around fifty-two branches worldwide, with specialization in the trade of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian products (especially silk and curios).{{Cite book |title=Thacker's Indian Directory |year=1918 |pages=221}} Other companies, such as those associated with D. Chellaram, M. Dialdas, J. T. Chainrai, Wassiamull Assomull, and Chotirmal, operated on a similar model based around a transnational Sindhi-origin family.{{Cite web |last=Lentin |first=Sifra |date=8 February 2024 |title=The Bombay-Cairo connect |url=https://www.gatewayhouse.in/bombay-cairo-connect/ |access-date=13 Feb 2025 |website=Gateway House}}