Coal Field Fire, Jharia, Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India

After first world war was over other communities from Kutch, Gujarat, Marwar and Bengal followed notable among them were Amritlal Morarjee, Kriparshankar Worah, Jatashankar Dossa Chanchani, Amritalal Ojha, Lala Karamchand Thapar, Kalyanji Mavji, T.K. Khanna, Ramjush Agarwalla, J.K. Agarwalla, Kesabji Pitamber, Haithibhai Patel, Chaturbhai Sangjibhai who made their name in Jharia coalfield post World-War-I. Amritlal Ojha & Karamchand Thapar later went on to become President of International Chamber of Commerce. After second world war and independence of India, Jharia coal mines owner prospered beyond imagination but in 1971 the coal mines were nationalized by Indira Gandhi by an act of parliament. A major chunk of these coal bearing region including Raniganj and Paraskole was with the Jharia miners like Chanchani & Worah, Poddars, Agarwallas, Mistris of Kutch, etc.
Rai Bahadur D D Thacker started a Labour's School in Jharia to train labors for coalmines. While the Gujrati Primary School at Jharia for children was started by Mestri Colliery owners, who felt the need of a Primary School at Jharia. Although, after nationalization of the coal mines in 1971-73 all of them lost their mines and assets and a downturn in fortune of coal mining community came. But history is witness to the fact that the credit of being the first Indian to start coal mining in Jharia goes to Seth Khora Ramji from Mistri community of Kutch, who broke monopoly of British and European companies in coal mining field, a fact noted by British themselves in Life-sketch of Khora Ramji Chawda in Encyclopedia of Bengal, Bihar & Orissa.
After the mines were nationalized in 1971, due to easy availability of coal, many steel plants are set up in close proximity to Jharia. Many steel companies such as Tata Steel, IISCO, SAIL have taken coal field on lease in Jharia.