Archive · 16 Aug 2026
How a jobless young man built India's greatest hotel empire
Mohan Singh Oberoi was born in a small village in India in 1898, when his father had already died.
His 18-year-old mother raised him alone, and the family had no money.
As a young man, he went to the hill town of Shimla hoping to become a government clerk, but he failed the exam.
With no plan, he walked into a hotel called the Cecil and got a job weighing coal for the water heaters.
He worked very hard and learned everything about running hotels.
One night he stayed up to type an urgent report for an important leader, who gave him a 100-rupee tip that made him feel hopeful.
Years later, he bought his own hotel by borrowing against everything he owned, even his wife's jewellery.
He kept buying and fixing famous hotels, and even turned a palace into a luxury hotel.
By the time he grew old, he had built one of India's biggest hotel companies, which his family still runs today.
Mohan Singh Oberoi, born in 1898 in rural Punjab and disowned by his family, failed a government clerk exam in Shimla before landing a boiler-room job weighing coal at Hotel Cecil for Rs 40 a month.
A Rs 100 tip from Motilal Nehru, who had asked him to type an urgent report overnight at the Cecil, was a turning point in his career.
In 1934 he bought Clarke's Hotel by mortgaging his property and pledging his wife's jewellery; in 1938 he leased Calcutta's Grand Hotel, which had shut after a cholera epidemic killed more than a hundred foreign guests.
He became the first Indian to run the country's largest hotel chain after acquiring Associated Hotels of India in 1943, and opened India's first modern five-star hotel, the Oberoi Intercontinental in Delhi, in 1965.
He served in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha between 1962 and 1978, died in New Delhi in 2002 at age 103, and his family retained control of EIH through the fourth generation.
- Who
- Mohan Singh Oberoi, founder of the Oberoi Group, whose son P.R.S. (Biki) Oberoi and grandson Arjun Singh Oberoi later led the company.
- What
- A jobless young man built one of India's grandest hotel empires, starting with a boiler-room job at Hotel Cecil in Shimla and expanding through landmark hotel acquisitions and restorations.
- When
- The story spans from 1922, when Oberoi moved to Shimla, until his death in 2002 at age 103; the family-led group continues operating today.
- Where
- Shimla, Calcutta (Kolkata), Delhi and Bombay (Mumbai) in India, with later properties in Cairo and Melbourne; Oberoi was born in Bhaun village in undivided Punjab, now in Pakistan's Chakwal District.
- Why
- Oberoi's grit and determination drove his rise after he was disowned by his family and had no money or connections, with a Rs 100 tip from Motilal Nehru marking a key turning point.
- Founder
- Mohan Singh Oberoi
- Born
- 15 August 1898, Bhaun village, Jhelum district, undivided Punjab
- First job
- Weighing coal sacks at Hotel Cecil, Shimla, for Rs 40 a month
- First hotel
- Clarke's Hotel, bought in 1934, financed by mortgaging property and pledging his wife's jewellery
- Died
- 3 May 2002, New Delhi, at age 103
- Honours
- Rai Bahadur (1941) and Padma Bhushan (2001)
- Group scale at his death
- Around 30 hotels and five luxury cruisers across six countries
- Political career
- Rajya Sabha 1962-1968 and 1972-1978; Lok Sabha 1968-1971/72 from Hazaribagh on a Jharkhand Party ticket