bookstore founded allahabad 1877 key people mile moreau and t. k. banerjee co founders website www.ahwheeler.com a. h. wheeler & co. pvt. ltd. commonly known as a. h. wheeler or simply wheeler is an entirely indian owned company . it owns a bookstore chain that was co founded by emile moreau a french author t k banerjee an indian businessman and others in allahabad in 1887 operating from railway stations . this chain grew to have stores at railway stations all over india especially in the north . 1 2 56 according to jhilmil motihar writing at livemint.com the first store was opened at allahabad station in 1877 . 3 the banerjees took over the company in 1950 . in 2004 it had a bookstores in 258 railway stations all over india . it contributed to about 80 % of the revenue earned by the indian railways made from book sales . 1 it had a monopoly on selling books on railway stations which it lost . 4 it is headquartered in allahabad and the distribution network is managed from there . 3 contents 1 loss of monopoly 2 name 3 rudyard kipling 4 references loss of monopoly edit an a.h. wheeler bookstore at sawai madhopur railway station rajasthan in 2004 an indian railways circular informs that wheeler had operated book stalls on all zonal railways except southern railways and a part of south central railway . it states at present m s. a.h. wheeler & co. is enjoying sole selling rights for running bookstalls at platforms on which this company had been running the same till 01.01.1976 . it has now been decided that m s. a.h. wheeler & co. shall not have any sole selling rights henceforth and their rights are brought at par with others . the number of bookstalls held by m s. a.h. wheeler & co. and m s. higginbothams ltd. are at present frozen . since the sole selling rights of m s.a.h. wheeler & co. have been withdrawn and their rights have been brought at par with others the freezing on the holding of stalls by m s. a.h. wheeler & co. and m s. higginbothams ltd. is also removed . in view of the need for decongesting the platform any fresh allotment of any new bookstall to any category at the stations where railways had frozen the holding of m s. a.h. wheeler & co. and m s. higginbothams ltd. should have to be amply justified before any such decision is taken . the allotment at such stations should be done only with the personal approval of general manager irrespective of the type of station . 5 6 the following restrictions have been introduced by the railway on the nature of books sold on its platforms sale of all types of obscene scurrilous smutty pornographic offensive or objectionable publications including pirated books is prohibited at all bookstalls . zonal railways should exercise strict supervision and in case any licensee is found indulging in sale of such literature serious view should be taken including termination of licence 5 11 according to the financial express this loss of monopoly was a result of a new book policy being implemented by the indian railways . it also carries wheeler s claims that it was the first indian company to be granted total rights of any business by the british which it gained in 1937 . 6 name edit ah wheeler borrowed its name from the then successful london bookstore arthur henry wheelers . 7 rudyard kipling edit plain tales from the hills and six other stories of anglo indian written by rudyard kipling were issued as the indian railway library series by wheeler . 8 these were the first publications of kipling s collection of stories . 9 these books were sold on railway stations . they cost one rupee then fifteenth part of a pound . richard jaffa considers them amongst the early paperbacks . 10 references edit a b singh garima 2004 07 07 . wheeler wheeler more dealers . kolkata the telegraph . retrieved 9 april 2012 . derek o brien 1 january 2006 . the penguin cnbc tv18 business yearbook 2006 07 . new york . isbn 978 0 14 310098 0 . retrieved 9 april 2012 . a b motihar jhilmil 2011 08 19 . the original wheeler dealers . new delhi ht media . retrieved 9 april 2012 . chaterjee rimi b. may 2011 . five centuries of print . kathmandu the southasia trust . archived from the original on january 1 1970 . retrieved 9 april 2012 . cs1 maint unfit url link a b kant kamal 2004 07 07 . commercial circular no. 19 of 2004 sub bookstall policy 2004 pdf . new delhi government of india ministry of railways railway board . retrieved 9 april 2012 . ah wheeler s future uncertain . new delhi the indian express online media pvt ltd. 2004 07 04 . retrieved 9 april 2012 . sethi atul 2011 09 04 . train of thoughts . mumbai bennett coleman & co. ltd. retrieved 9 april 2012 . j. w. cunliffe 30 may 2005 . english literature during the last half century . kessinger publishing . pp. 171 172 . isbn 978 1 4179 8898 3 . retrieved 9 april 2012 . nanette hale ; tabish khair 2001 . unhinging hinglish the languages and politics of fiction in english from the indian subcontinent . museum tusculanum press . pp. 46 . isbn 978 87 7289 672 4 . retrieved 9 april 2012 . richard jaffa 2 june 2011 . man and mason rudyard kipling . authorhouse . pp. 96 . isbn 978 1 4567 8134 7 . retrieved 9 april 2012 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title a. h. wheeler & oldid 741369143 categories publishing companies of indiaallahabadcompanies established in 1886bookstores of indiabook publishing companies of indiahidden categories cs1 maint unfit urlpages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 27 september 2016 at 02 08 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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