Ammembal Subba Rao Pai (19 November 1852 – 25 July 1909) was a leading lawyer in Mangalore, India. He was the founder of Canara Bank, now one of India’s leading banks, and Canara High School in Mangalore. Though he was a lawyer and a banker by profession, he was an educationist and social reformer by temperament. He helped shape the future of the Dakshina Kannada District and of the GSB community in Karnataka.
Pai was the youngest of the four sons of Upendra Pai, a lawyer practicing in the Munsif’s court at Mulki, near Mangalore. Born on 19 November 1852, at Mulki, near Mangalore, he underwent early schooling at Government High School, Mangalore, and it was the early demise of his mother that is believed to have profoundly influenced him to take to studies seriously.
In 1876, following the demise of his father, he returned to Mangalore and successfully practiced law (it is said that he often attempted to persuade amicable out-of-court settlements for his clients, although this sometimes cost him his fee).
Pai was also an admirer of the nationalist leaders of India. He held Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (later known as Sri Aurobindo) in great admiration. He was an avid reader of Aurobindo’s paper ‘Yugantar’. Pai was a patriot at heart and a humanist by action. In 1891, four teachers, whom he had met in Madras, approached him with a proposal to start a school in Mangalore, and thus was born the Canara High School, on 22 acres of land donated by Upendra Pai, his father in Mangalore.
Among his important contributions to the GSB (Gaud Saraswat Brahmin) community was the setting up of the ‘Poor Boys Education Fund’ (which became ASRP Memorial Fund as per the decision taken at a meeting of the GSB community held in the Bhuvanendra Hall on 1 August 1909) under the aegis of Gowda Saraswat Brahman Parishad, of which he was one of the founders.
Picture Credits – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammembal_Subba_Rao_Pai
