Sir Dorabji Tata (27 August 1859 – 3 June 1932) was an Indian businessman of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
, and a key figure in the history and development of the
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...
. He was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in 1910 for his contributions to industry in British India.
Early life and education
Dorab was the elder son of Hirabai and
Parsi
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. Through an aunt, Jerbai Tata, who married a Bombay merchant, Dorabji Saklatvala, he was a cousin of
Shapurji Saklatvala
Shapurji Dorabji Saklatvala (28 March 1874 – 16 January 1936) was a communist activist and British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. Saklatvala is notable for being the first person of Indian heritage to become a British Member of Parliamen ...
who later became a
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
Member of the British Parliament.
[Article on Saklatvala by Mike Squires, who refers to Jamsetji as J.N. Tata.]
Tata received his primary education at the Proprietary High School in
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
(now Mumbai) before travelling to England in 1875, where he was privately tutored. He entered
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...
in 1877, where he remained for two years before returning to Bombay in 1879. He continued his studies at
St. Xavier's College, Bombay
St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education institution run by the
Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on January 2, 1869. The college is affili ...
, where he obtained a degree in 1882.
Upon graduating, Dorab worked for two years as a journalist at the ''Bombay Gazette''. In 1884, he joined the cotton business division of his father's firm. He was first sent to
Pondicherry
Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
, then a
French colony
The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that existe ...
, to determine whether a cotton mill might be profitable there. Thereafter, he was sent to
Nagpur
Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...
, to learn the cotton trade at the Empress Mills which had been founded by his father in 1877.
Marriage
Dorabji's father, Jamshetji, had visited
Mysore State
Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's capital. ...
in south India on business, and had met Dr. Hormusji Bhabha, a Parsi and the first Indian Inspector-General of Education of that state. While visiting the Bhabha home, he had met and approved of young Meherbai, Bhabha's only daughter. Returning to Bombay, Jamshetji sent Dorab to Mysore State, specifically to call on the Bhabha family. Dorab did so, and duly married Meherbai in 1897. The couple had no children.
Meherbai's brother, Jehangir Bhabha, became a reputed lawyer. He was the father of scientist
Homi J. Bhabha
Homi Jehangir Bhabha, (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Colloquially known as "Father of Indian nuclear pro ...
. Thus Dorabji was Homi Bhabha's uncle by marriage. The
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...
funded Bhabha's research and his research institutions, including the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a public deemed research university located in Mumbai, India that is dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the D ...
.
Business career
Dorabji was intimately involved in the fulfilment of his father's ideas of a modern iron and steel industry, and agreed to the necessity for
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
electricity to power the industry. Dorab is credited with the establishment of the
Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
conglomerate in 1907, which his father founded and
Tata Power
Tata Power Company Limited is an Indian electric utility company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India and is part of the Tata Group. The core business of the company is to generate, transmit and distribute electricity. With an installed electri ...
in 1911, which are the core of the present-day
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...
.
Dorabji accompanied the
mineralogist
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...
s searching for iron fields. It is said that his presence encouraged researchers to search areas that would otherwise have been neglected. Under Dorabji's management, the business that had once included three cotton mills and the
Taj Hotel Bombay grew to include India's largest private sector steel company, three electric companies and one of India's leading insurance companies.
Founder of
New India Assurance
The New India Assurance Co. Ltd., is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. "It is the largest nationalised general insurance company of India ...
Co Ltd. in 1919, the largest General Insurance company in India, Dorabji Tata was knighted in January 1910 by Edward VII, becoming Sir Dorabji Tata.
Non-business interest
Dorabji was extremely fond of sports, and was a pioneer in the Indian Olympic movement. As president of the
Indian Olympic Association
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) or Indian Olympic Committee (IOC) is the body responsible for selecting athletes to represent India at the Olympic Games, Asian Games and other international athletic meets and for managing the Indian teams ...
, he financed the Indian contingent to the
Paris Olympics in 1924. The Tata family, like most of India's big businessmen, were Indian nationalists.
Tata was also a member of the International Olympic Committee during most of the years between World War I and World War II.
[''The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism'']
Death
![Dorabji Tata Mausoleum Brookwood](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Dorabji_Tata_Mausoleum_Brookwood.jpg)
Meherbai Tata died of
leukaemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
in 1931 at the age of 52. Shortly after her death, Dorabji established the
Lady Tata Memorial Trust
Lady Tata Memorial Trust is a philanthropic body established by Sir Dorabji Tata in April 1932 in memory of his wife, Lady Meherbai, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1930 at the age of 50, and succumbed to the disease on 18 June 1931. The Trust ...
to advance the study into diseases of the blood.
On 11 March 1932, one year after Meherbai's death and shortly before his own, he established a trust fund which was to be used "without any distinction of place, nationality or creed," for the advancement of learning and research, disaster relief, and other philanthropic purposes. That trust is today known as the
Sir Dorabji Tata Trust
The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust was established by Sir Dorab Tata (fondly called ''Sir Dorabji''), the elder son of Tata Group founder Jamsetji Tata. Founded in 1932, it is one of the oldest non-sectarian philanthropic organisations in India.
Histo ...
. Dorabji additionally provided the seed money to fund the setting up of India's premier scientific and engineering research institution, the
Indian Institute of Science
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute wa ...
,
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
.
Dorabji died in
Bad Kissingen
Bad Kissingen is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is one of the health resorts, which be ...
, Germany on 3 June 1932, at the age of 73. He is buried alongside his wife Meherbai in
Brookwood Cemetery
Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...
,
Woking
Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...
, England. They had no children.
References
Further reading
* Choksi, R. "Tata, Sir Dorabji Jamshed (1859–1932)" in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004
accessed 28 Jan 2012 a brief scholarly biography.
* Nomura, Chikayoshi. "Selling steel in the 1920s: TISCO in a period of transition," ''Indian Economic & Social History Review'' (January/March 2011) 48: pp 83–116, .
External links
Biography at the Dorabji Tata TrustBiography at Tata Central ArchivesTata family tree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tata, Dorabji
1859 births
1932 deaths
Dorabji
Parsi people from Mumbai
Businesspeople from Mumbai
Burials at Brookwood Cemetery
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Knights Bachelor
Indian Knights Bachelor
Indian industrialists
Indian businesspeople in mining
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Indian philanthropists
Founders of Indian schools and colleges
Indian businesspeople in insurance
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Indian emigrants to Germany
International Olympic Committee members
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