The Sarabhai family was a prominent Indian family active in several fields. The patriarch, Ambalal Sarabhai, was a leading industrialist. While he created significant wealth, his children interested themselves in a wide variety of other endeavours, and the family is better known for those activities, rather than for industrial enterprise, which is now all but defunct.
The Sarabhai family are a major business family in India belonging to the Shrimal Jain Bania community.[1][2]
Its twentieth century doyen Sheth Ambalal Sarabhai, was a Jain industrialist. He had five daughters and three sons who were involved in the family business as well as the Indian independence movement. After India's freedom, the family remained involved in developmental tasks undertaken by the government of India.
Ambalal Sarabhai was a prominent mill owner and also interested in philanthropic activities. His wife Sarladevi Sarabhai was impressed by the Maria Montessori philosophy and in the year 1922, Montessori sent E. M. Standing to India for the homeschooling of Sarabhai children.
Sarabhai Enterprises branched out after India's independence and many pioneer ventures were made in fields dominated by foreign companies. The manufacture of drugs and pharmaceuticals, chemicals and intermediates, dyes and pigments, industrial and household detergents, soaps and cosmetics, industrial packaging and containers, and later engineering and electronic products.
Prominent members of the Sarabhai family include:
No.4 was renamed the Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre after Dr. Sarabhai’s death in 1971. No.18 & 19 were merged under the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre after Dr. Sarabhai’s death in 1971. Nos.21,22,23,24,25 and 26 were merged under the Space Applications Centre after Dr. Sarabhai’s death in 1971. No. 31 was renamed Vikram Earth Station after Dr. Sarabhai’s death in 1971.
The Sarabhais are Gujarati (Jain Bania Shrimali) from Ahmedabad.