Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was an Indian pioneer industrialist, who founded the Tata Group,
India's biggest conglomerate company. He was born to a Parsi Zoroastrian family in Navsari
then part of the princely state of Baroda. He founded what would later become the Tata
Group of companies. Jamsetji Tata is regarded as the legendary "Father of Indian Industry".
"When you have to give the lead in action, in ideas – a lead which does not fit in
with the very climate of opinion – that is true courage, physical or mental or spiritual,
call it what you like, and it is this type of courage and vision that Jamsetji Tata showed.
It is right that we should honour his memory and remember him as one of the big founders
of modern India."— Jawaharlal Nehru
Early life Jamsetji Nusserwanj Tata was born to Nusserwanji
and Jeevanbai Tata on 3 March 1839 in Navsari, a small town in South Gujarat. Tata was the
first businessman in a family of Parsi Zoroastrian priests. It was only natural that Nusserwanji,
would, as usual join the family priesthood, but the enterprising youngster broke the tradition
to become the first member of the family to try his hand at business. He started trading
in Mumbai. Jamsetji joined his father in Mumbai at the
age of 14 and enrolled at the Elphinstone College completing his education as a 'Green
Scholar'. He was married to Hirabai Daboo while he was still a student. He graduated
from college in 1858 and joined his father's trading firm. It was a turbulent time to step
into business as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 had just been suppressed by the British government.
Jamsetji's knowledge expansion happened through successive trips abroad, mainly to England,
America, continental Europe, and other places that convinced him that there was tremendous
scope for Indian companies to forge through and make a foray in the British dominated
textile industry. Business
Jamsetji worked in his father's company until he was 29. He founded a trading company in
1868 with Rs. 21,000 capital. He bought a bankrupt oil mill at Chinchpokli in 1869 and
converted it to a cotton mill, which he renamed Alexandra Mill. He sold the mill two years
later for a profit. He set up another cotton mill at Nagpur in 1874, which he christened
Empress Mill when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on 1 January 1877.
He devoted his life to four goals: setting up an iron and steel company, a world-class
learning institution, a unique hotel and a hydro-electric plant. Only the hotel became
a reality during his lifetime, with the inauguration of the Taj Mahal Hotel at Colaba waterfront
in Bombay on 3 December 1903 at the cost of 42 million rupees. At that time it was the
only hotel in India to have electricity. His successors' work led to the three remaining
ideas being achieved: Tata Steel is Asia's first and India's largest
steel company. It became world's fifth largest steel company, after it acquired Corus Group
producing 28 million tonnes of steel annually. Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the
pre-eminent Indian institution for research and education in Science and Engineering.
Tata Hydroelectric Power Supply Company, renamed Tata Power Company Limited, currently India's
largest private electricity company with an installed generation capacity of over 8000MW.
Personal life Jamsetji Tata married Hirabai Daboo. Their
sons, Dorabji Tata and Ratanji Tata, succeeded Jamsetji as the chairman of the Tata group.
Tata's sister Jerbai, through marriage to a Bombay merchant, became mother of Shapurji
Saklatvala, who Jamsetji employed to successfully prospect for coal and iron ore in Bihar and
Orissa. Saklatvala later settled in England, initially to manage Tata's Manchester office,
and later became a Communist Member of the British Parliament.
Death While on a business trip in Germany in 1900,
Tata became seriously ill. He died in Nauheim on 19 May 1904, and was buried in the Parsi
burial ground in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, England.
City named after him Tata's iron and steel plant was set up at
Sakchi village in Bihar. The village grew into a town and the railway station there
was named Tatanagar. Now it is a bustling metropolis known as Jamshedpur in Jharkhand,
named in honour of the Jamshetji. The old village of Sakchi still exists within
the city of Jamshedpur, as its suburb. Quotes
"Freedom without the strength to support it and, if need be, defend it, would be a cruel
delusion. And the strength to defend freedom can itself only come from widespread industrialisation
and the infusion of modern science and technology into the country's economic life."
"There is one kind of charity common enough among us... It is that patchwork philanthropy
which clothes the ragged, feeds the poor, and heals the sick. I am far from decrying
the noble spirit which seeks to help a poor or suffering fellow being... [However] what
advances a nation or a community is not so much to prop up its weakest and most helpless
members, but to lift up the best and the most gifted, so as to make them of the greatest
service to the country." "Be sure to lay wide streets planted with
shady trees, every other of a quick-growing variety. Be sure that there is plenty of space
for lawns and gardens. Reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks. Earmark areas
for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques and Christian churches." — Jamsetji Tata in
a letter to son Dorab about his vision for the township that would eventually become
Jamshedpur. "He was not a man who cared to bask in the
public eye. He disliked public gatherings, he did not care for making speeches, his sturdy
strength of character prevented from fawning on any man, however great, for he himself
was great in his own way, greater than most people realised. He sought no honour and he
claimed no privilege, but the advancement of India and her myriad peoples was with him
an abiding passion." — The Times of India on Jamsetji Tata's death
"While many others worked on loosening the chains of slavery and hastening the march
towards the dawn of freedom, Jamsetji dreamed of and worked for life as it was to be fashioned
after liberation. Most of the others worked for freedom from a bad life of servitude;
Jamsetji worked for freedom for fashioning a better life of economic independence." — Dr
Zakir Hussain, the former president of India "That he was a man of destiny is clear. It
would seem, indeed, as if the hour of his birth, his life, his talents, his actions,
the chain of events which he set in motion or influenced, and the services he rendered
to his country and to his people, were all pre-destined as part of the greater destiny
of India." — J. R. D. Tata "No Indian of the present generation had done
more for the commerce and industry of India." — Lord Curzon, the viceroy of India, following
Jamsetji Tata's demise References
Further reading R. M. Lala. For the Love of India: The Life
and Times of Jamsetji Tata. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-306206-6.
Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. The Life and Life Work of J. N. Tata: With a Portrait.. Madras.
External links TataGroup/Jamsetji official biography webpage
History of Tata through images Brief Lifestory of Jamsetji Tata
Short video documentary about Mr. Jamsetji Tata on YouTube
EPW at www.epw.org.in Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, A Centenary Tribute