Jamsetji (Jamshedji) Nusserwanji Tata (3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904) was an Indian pioneer
industrialist who founded 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 continents ...
, India's biggest conglomerate company. Named the greatest philanthropist of the last century by several polls and ranking lists, he also established the city of
Jamshedpur.
Jamshedji Tata is regarded as the legendary "Father of Indian Industry". He was so influential in the world of industry that
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
referred to Tata as a One-Man Planning Commission.
:"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 Jamshedji 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
Tata, who in his early life was a merchant, went on to change the business world of India through his many ventures within the cotton and pig iron industry, and is known as one of the most important builders of the modern Indian economy. Out of his many achievements, Tata is particularly notable for the Tata Iron and Steel Works company in
Jamshedpur.
Tata was ranked first in the "
Hurun Philanthropists of the Century" (2021) by total donations of nearly $102.4 billion with the start of his key endowments way back in 1892.
Early life
Jamsetji Tata was born to Nusserwanji and Jeevanbai Tata on 3 March 1839 in
Navsari
Navsari is the ninth biggest city in the state of Gujarat in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Navsari District. Navsari is situated between Surat & Mumbai. Navsari is a twin city of Surat. It is located 37 km south of Sura ...
, a city in southern
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
. His family were a part of the minority group of
Zoroastrians, or Parsees, who came to India from fleeing the persecution of Zoroastrians in Iran.
He was born in a respectable, but poor family of priests. His father Nusserwanji, was the first businessman in a family of
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 priests. His mother tongue was Gujarati. He broke his family's priestly tradition to become the first member of the family to start a business. He started an export trading firm in
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
.
Unlike other Zoroastrians, Jamshedji Tata had a formal Western education because his parents saw that he was gifted with special abilities in mental arithmetic from a young age. However, for him to have a more modern education, he was later sent to Bombay.
He joined his father, Nusserwanji, in Bombay at the age of 14 and enrolled at
Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the ed ...
completing his education as a "Green Scholar" (the equivalent of a graduate). He was married to Hirabai Daboo
while still a student.
After graduating from the Elphinstone College in Bombay in 1858, he joined his father's export-trading firm, and helped establish its strong branches in Japan, China, Europe, and the United States. It was a turbulent time to start a business as the
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...
had just been suppressed by the British government. Nusserwanji
Tata regularly travelled to China to become familiar with the opium trade bustling at the time within a small colony of Parsees that was tightly closed off to outsiders.
Nusserwanji Tata wanted his son to be a part of this business, so he sent him to China to learn about the business there and the details about the opium trade. However, when Tata travelled around China, he began to realize that the cotton industry was booming and there was a chance of making a great profit.
Business
![Iisc-Founder](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Iisc-Founder.jpg)
Tata worked in his father's company until he was 29. He founded a trading company in 1868 with 21,000 capital (worth 52 million in 2015 prices). He bought a bankrupt oil mill at
Chinchpokli
Chinchpokli ( mr, चिंचपोकळी) is a neighbourhood in South Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station on the Central line of the Mumbai suburban railway. Historical British era spellings include Chinchpugli and Chinchpoogh ...
in 1869 and converted it to a
cotton mill
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Although some were driven b ...
, which he renamed as ''Alexandra Mill''. He sold the mill 2 years later for a profit. Later, in 1874, Jamsetji Tata floated the Central India Spinning, Weaving, and Manufacturing Company in
Nagpur
Nagpur (pronunciation: 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, Nagpur is projected to ...
because it seemed like a suitable place for him to establish another business venture. Due to this unconventional location, the people of Bombay scorned Tata for not making the smart move by taking the cotton business up in Bombay, known as the "Cottonopolis" of India. They did not understand why he went to the undeveloped city of Nagpur to start a new business.
However, Tata's selection of Nagpur led to his success. Unlike Bombay, land in Nagpur was cheap and was readily available for resources.
There was abundant farm produce, distribution was easy, and the cheap land later led to the converging of railways at Nagpur, which further developed the city. Shortly after, in 1877, Tata established a new cotton mill, "Empress Mill" when
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
was proclaimed as the Empress of India at 1 January 1877.
He had four goals in life: setting up an iron and steel company, a world-class learning institution, a unique hotel and a hydroelectric plant. Only the hotel became a reality during his lifetime, with the inauguration of the
Taj Mahal Hotel at
Colaba waterfront in
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
on 3 December 1903
at the cost of 11 million (worth 11 billion in 2015 prices). At that time it was the only hotel in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
to have electricity.
In 1885, Tata floated another company in
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 ...
for the sole purpose of distributing Indian textiles to the nearby French Colonies and not having to pay duties; however, this failed due to insufficient demand for the fabrics. This led to his purchase of the Dharamsi Mills at
Kurla in Bombay and later reselling it to buy the Advance Mills in
Ahmedabad. Tata named it Advance Mills because it was one of the most high-tech mills at the time. On top of its technology, the company left a great effect on the city of Ahmedabad because Tata made an effort to integrate the mill within the city in order to provide economic growth to its community. Through these many contributions, Tata advanced the textile and cotton industry in India. Jamshedji Tata continued to be an important figure in the industrial world even in his later stages of life. Later on, Tata became a strong supporter of Swadeshism.
The
Swadeshi Movement
The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. Before the BML Government's decision for the partition of Bengal was made public in ...
did not start until 1905; however, Tata represented these same principles throughout the time he was alive. Swadeshi was a political movement in British India that encouraged the production of domestic goods and the boycott of imported goods. Fully impressed by its principles, Tata named his new cotton mill built in Bombay the "Swadeshi Mill". The original idea for this new mill was to produce finer cloth, like the type coming from
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. Manchester was famous for producing softer cloth, and the coarse material produced in India was no longer preferred by the public.
Tata wanted to produce cloth of quality comparable with that of Manchester cloth in an attempt to reduce the number of imports coming from abroad. He had a vision for India to be the primary manufacturer of all kinds of cloth and eventually become an exporter.
He wanted India to be the sole maker of the fine cloths for which the primitive weavers of India were famous. Tata started to experiment with various ways to improve the cultivation of cotton grown in different parts of India. He believed that adopting the method of cultivation used by the Egyptian
ryot, who were famous for their soft cotton would allow for the cotton industry of India to reach these goals. Tata was the first to introduce the ring spindle into his mills, which soon replaced the throstle that was once used by manufacturers.
His successors' work led to the three remaining ideas being achieved:
*
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 S ...
(formerly TISCO – Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited) is Asia's first and India's largest steel company. It became the world's fifth-largest steel company after it acquired
Corus Group
Corus may refer to:
Places
*Çörüş, Gazipaşa, a village in Antalya Province, Turkey
Facilities and structures
* Corus Quay, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; an office tower
Fictional locations
* Corus, a fictional world that is the setting for the ...
producing 28 million tonnes of steel annually.
*
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 was ...
, Bengaluru, the pre-eminent Indian institution for research and education in Science and Engineering.
*Tata Hydroelectric Power Supply Company, renamed
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 ...
Company Limited, currently India's largest private electricity company with an installed generation capacity of over 8000MW.
Philanthropy
Jamshedji donated generously mainly for education and healthcare. He was named the greatest philanthrope of the last century by EdelGive Foundation and Hurun Research India. He topped the list of the world's top philanthropists of the 20th century with an estimated donation of $102 billion adjusted for inflation.
Personal life
Tata married Hirabai Daboo. Their sons,
Dorabji Tata
Sir Dorabji Tata (27 August 1859 – 3 June 1932) was an Indian businessman of the British Raj, and a key figure in the history and development of the Tata Group. He was knighted in 1910 for his contributions to industry in British India.
...
and
Ratanji Tata
Sir Ratanji Jamsetji Tata (20 January 1871 – 5 September 1918) was an Indian financier and philanthropist during the British Raj.
Biography
Ratanji Tata was born in Bombay in British India as the son of the noted Parsi merchant Jamsetji Ta ...
, succeeded Tata as the chairmen 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 continents ...
.
Tata's first cousin was
Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, who played an important role in the establishment of Tata Group. His sister Jerbai, through marriage to a Mumbai merchant, became the mother 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 Tata employed to successfully prospect for coal and iron ore in Odisha and Bihar. Saklatvala later settled in England, initially to manage Tata's
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
office, and later became a
Communist Member of the British Parliament.
[Article on Saklatvala by Mike Squires. In the article, he is simply called J.N. Tata.]
Through his cousin, Ratanji Dadabhoy, he was the uncle of entrepreneur
J. R. D. Tata and Sylla Tata; the latter was married to
Dinshaw Maneckji Petit
Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, 1st Baronet (30 June 18235 May 1901) was an Indian entrepreneur and founder of the first textile mills in India, as well as a great philanthropist. He was part of the Petit family and became the first Petit baronet ...
, the third baronet of Petits. The baronet's sister
Rattanbai Petit
Rattanbai Jinnah (''née'' Petit; 20 February 1900 – 20 February 1929), also known as Ruttie Jinnah, was the wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, an important figure in the creation of Pakistan and the country's founder. Additionally, Rattanbai Petit ...
, was the wife of
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
.
Death
![Jamsetji Tata Mausoleum Brookwood](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Jamsetji_Tata_Mausoleum_Brookwood.jpg)
While on a business trip to Germany in 1900, Tata became seriously ill. He died in
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany.
As of 2020, Bad Nauheim has a population of 32,493. The town is approximately north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a wor ...
Jamsedji Tata's guiding spirit- growth of Indian Steel industry by Tata legacy
Tatasteel100.com. Retrieved on 28 July 2013. on 19 May 1904, and was buried in the Parsi burial ground 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 Regi ...
, Woking, England.
Legacy
Tata's iron and steel plant was set up at Sakchi
Sakchi was the village in north eastern India territory of Singhbhum which was selected by Jamsetji Tata to be the location of a planned steel city, which in 1919 became Jamshedpur. Sakchi is now part of the city between the Tata Steel site ...
village in Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...
. 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 his honour.
The old village of Sakchi
Sakchi was the village in north eastern India territory of Singhbhum which was selected by Jamsetji Tata to be the location of a planned steel city, which in 1919 became Jamshedpur. Sakchi is now part of the city between the Tata Steel site ...
(now urbanised) now exists within the city of Jamshedpur
Tata became the founding member of the Tata family
The Tata family is an Indian business family, based in Mumbai, India. The parent company is Tata Sons, which is the main holding company of the Tata Group. About 65% of the stock in these companies is owned by various Tata family charitable trus ...
.
![Jamsetji Tata 1965 stamp of India](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Jamsetji_Tata_1965_stamp_of_India.jpg)
Quotes
"Freedom without the strength to support it and, if need be, defend it, would be a cruel delusion.
"In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but, is in fact, the very purpose of its existence."
"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... oweverwhat 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."
—''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 Tata's death''
"While many others worked on loosening the chains of slavery and hastening the march towards the dawn of freedom, Tata 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; Tata worked for freedom for fashioning a better life of economic independence."
—'' Dr Zakir Hussain, the former president of India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
''
"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
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...
, the viceroy of India, following Tata's demise''
References
Further reading
*
* n
External links
TataGroup/Jamsetji official biography webpage
"Jamsetji Tata: A Profile"
"Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata A Centenary Tribute"
''EPW'', www.epw.org.
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Indian company founders
Founders of Indian schools and colleges
Steel industry of India
Elphinstone College alumni
Parsi people
Indian emigrants to Germany
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Burials at Brookwood Cemetery
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