A peep into history of the Tatas

 

The book deals with the life of J.R.D Tata.

I am giving some excerpts only to kindle interest of any prospective readers.

I have given the highlights only about Jamsetji Tata and his son Dorab ji and how the University of Science and Tata Steels came to be established in this country.

EXCERPTS:

In 1896 Jamsetji Tata offered half of his fortune consisting of fourteen buildings and four landed properties worth three million rupees (Around Rs 170 million in 1991) to the British Government to establish a University of Science.  For the last eight years of his life he tried to enthuse the British Government to make a contribution equal to his gift and pass an enactment to start a university to offer post-gratuate courses in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering, various aspectos of the humanities to enable students to do research into history and archiology.

Lord Curzon delayed the project thinking Jamsetji was aiming at getting baronetcy. 

In 1903 the Secretary of State for India Lord Hamilton, wrote to Lord Curzon that if the Government delayed the project any further, Jamshedji may withdraw the offer and divert the amount to iron and hydro-electic projects.  Though anyone else would have done so, Jamsetji did not go back on his word.

But only a year after his death, Lord Curzon agreed to the scheme for the University of Science with equal share by the Government to that of the benefaction of Jamsetji. (p 5 & 6)

 ....

In 1860s when Jamsetji Tata was about thirty, he went to a talk in Manchester by Thomas Carlyle.  The steel age was just beginning. With vision Carlyle had declared: ‘The nation that has the steel will have the gold’.

That made Jamsetji start the Iron and steel industry in India. (p 43)

....

When J.R.D. Tata and his wife Thelly were driving down by car after their honeymoon, they were stopped for over an hour on the road in bitter cold at Kolkatta to give way to the Governor’s car. JRD and his wife decided to register their protest.  When the Governor’s car came, Thelly and JRD stepped up before the Governor’s car and when it stopped, JRD went up to his window and shouted, ‘ Who the hell do you think you are, keeping five hundred people, women and children in the cold for an hour?  You damn fool!’.  Among those shivering in the cold was a British Anglican priest, who went up to JRD and said, “Sir I do not approve of your language but I certainly approve of your sentiments’. (p 63, 64)

...

In 1907 Tatas were advised that the kind of capital needed for their projected steel plant was not available in India and that they would better tap the London market.  But the london market was going through a bad patch.  Tata decided to try their luck in India.  To Tatas’ amazement, investors beseiged their Bombay office at Navsari Building, from morning till nate at night and in three weeks the eintre capital was subscribed.  Dorab Tata wrote: ‘,Above all, it was a swadeshi enterprise, finance by swadeshi money, managed by swadeshi brains’. Jawaharlal Nehru had picked the year thatTatas raised funds as the turning point in the country’s struggle for independence (p 68-69)

...Mahatma Gandhi visited the Jamshedpur factory at the invitation of the Directors and workers.  When he was shown the room in which he was to stay, he was taken aback to see the British mattresses and pillows, drapes and carpets.  Gandhiji requested them to be removed.  After his wish was obeyed and the room looked pretty barren, he was asked, ‘Will you be quite comfortable with so many things removed from the room, Mahatmaji?’.  He said, ‘I am quite comfortabe with just a garment’. (p 47)

 ....

Sir Doraab’s finest hour was in 1924, when he pledged his private forutne including his wife’s jwellery for a loan to save a public limited company – Tata Stee.  In the jwellery that he pledged to the Imperial Bank, was the clebrated Jubilee Diamond (245.35 carats) more than twice the size of th Kohinoor. (p 72)

...

When reading about the pledging of the jewels of Tata's wife to save the company I was reminded about a similar instance told to me by an employee of M/s Salzer Electronics, Coimbatore where its founder had also done so to save the company and had refused advised of others to concentrate on farming on the lands instead of having an industry. The MD Mr. Doraiswamy is reported to have said that he had to safeguard the families of the workers of his factory.  

India lives by such great industrialists.

More on JRD himself, later...