Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata
Jamsetji
Nusserwanji Tata (1839 – 1904), industrialist, is hailed as the man who took
India into the industrial age. The founder of the Tata industrial empire, he
was a great visionary with ideas far ahead of his time.
Living
in a time when India was under British rule, he envisaged projects that laid
the foundation for the nation’s development once it attained independence.
The
institutions he founded continue to set the pace for others in their respective
areas even today.
Jamsetji
was born on March 3, 1839, in Navsari, Gujarat, as the eldest of five children
of Nusserwanji Tata, a Parsi merchant and banker.
His
ancestors had been Zoroastrian priests, and Nusserwanji was the first in
the family to venture into business.
He
moved from his native Navsari to Bombay with his wife,Jeevanbai.
Jamsetji
was educated in Bombay, graduating from Elphinstone College in 1858.
The
same year, he joined his father’s trading firm.
An
eager learner, he quickly gained knowledge about commodities and markets,
trading and banking.
While
still a student, Jamsetji had been married to Hirabai. The couple later had two
sons, Dorabji and Ratanji.
After
working with his father for nine years, Jamsetji started a trading company of his
own in 1868.
His
foreign trips convinced him that there was tremendous scope for Indian
companies in the British-dominated textile industry.
In
1869, he made his foray into the textile industry by buying an old oil mill in
Bombay, which he converted into a cotton mill.
Two
years later, he sold this mill to a cotton merchant at a good profit.
He
then visited England to study the Lancashire cotton trade in depth.
On
his return, he worked towards setting up a state-of-the-art cotton mill.
His
efforts culminated in the launch of the Empress Mill in Nagpur in1874.
The
cloth produced in the mill was sold in India and exported to other countries in
Asia and the Middle East, fetching the Tatas huge profits.
However,
Jamsetji was not content with being a mere textile merchant.
A
great patriot, he had three ambitious dreams that would put the nation on the
path to progress: setting up an iron and steel company, generating hydroelectric
power, and creating a world class educational institution that would tutor
Indians in the sciences.
He
spent the rest of his life chasing these dreams, all of which seemed impossible
at that time.
Although
none of them came true in his lifetime, the seeds he sowed and his hard work ensured
that all three did eventually become a reality.
The
Tata Iron and Steel Company, set up in 1907 by his successors, represented the
culmination of his vision.
It
was fitting that the industrial township envisaged by him came to be known as Jamshedpur
after him.
The
Indian Institute of Science, setup in 1911 in Bangalore, was also the fruit of
his efforts as he drew up its blue print, garnered political support for it,
and contributed Rs. 30lakh from his personal funds towards its establishment. Jamsetji
travelled widely, and many of his business ideas were born during his travels.
He
was quick to bring back to India the technologies he saw abroad.
One
of his ventures that did bear fruit in his lifetime was the Taj Mahal hotel, a
luxury hotel that matched international standards.
Legend
has it that Jamsetji was once denied entry into a five-star hotel for being an Indian.
Enraged,
he decided to build a world-class opulent hotel where his countrymen could
enjoy every luxury.
Thus
was born the Taj Mahal in 1903 – India’s finest luxury hotel and Bombay’s first
building to use electricity.
A
large-hearted man,
Jamsetji
was always ready to spend money for the public good.
Sensitive
to his employees’ welfare, he laid out plans for them to have a conducive
workplace and employee benefits such as provident fund and gratuity –long
before these were made statutory worldwide.
On
May 19, 1904, the titan breathed his last.
But
his legacy, in the form of the industrial group he founded and his
philanthropic projects, lives on, enriching the lives of Indians to this day.
