Sir Ratanji Jamsetji Tata (20 January 1871 – 5 September 1918) was an Indian financier and philanthropist during 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 ...

Biography

Ratanji Tata was born in Bombay in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

as the son of the noted

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 ...

merchant

Jamsetji Tata Jamsetji (Jamshedji) Nusserwanji Tata (3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904) was an Indian pioneer industrialist who founded the Tata Group, India's biggest conglomerate company. Named the greatest philanthropist of the last century by several poll ...

. Ratan Tata was educated at St. Xavier's College 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- ...

and afterwards entered his father's firm. On the death of the elder Tata in 1904, Ratan Tata and his brother

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. ...

inherited a very large fortune, much of which they devoted to philanthropic works of a practical nature and to the establishment of various industrial enterprises for developing the resources 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 ...

. An Indian institute of scientific and medical research (

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 ...

, IISc) was founded at

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 ...

in 1905, and in 1912 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 ...

began work 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 ...

, in the

Central Provinces The Central Provinces was a province of British India. It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Its capital was Nagpur. ...

, with marked success. The most important of the Tata enterprises, however, was the storing of the water power of the Western Ghats (1915), which provided Bombay with an enormous amount of electrical power, and hence vastly increased the productive capacity of its industries. Sir Ratan Tata, who 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 1916, did not confine his benefactions to India. In

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, where he had a permanent residence at York House,

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

, he founded in 1912 the Ratan Tata department of social science and administration at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, and also established a Ratan Tata Fund at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

for studying the conditions of the poorer classes. In 1909, he donated a sum of Rs. 50,000 (equivalent to approximately Rs. 40 million in 2022) to

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

to aid the struggle of Indians' right to work in the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

. This donation helped in securing the finances of Gandhi's protests against the Anglo-Boer rulers. He was a great connoisseur of arts. The

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, (CSMVS) originally named Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, is a museum in Mumbai (Bombay) which documents the history of India from prehistoric to modern times. It was founded during Brit ...

(formerly

Prince of Wales Museum Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, (CSMVS) originally named Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, is a museum in Mumbai (Bombay) which documents the history of India from prehistoric to modern times. It was founded during Briti ...

) has a section displaying the collections of Sir Ratanji Tata (acquired in 1923) along with two other sections that of Sir

Dorab 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. ...

(acquired in 1933) and Sir Purushottam Mavji (acquired in 1915).

Personal life

He married Navajbai Sett in 1893 and left for England the final time in 1915. They adopted,

Naval Tata Naval Hormusji Tata (30 August 1904 – 5 May 1989) was an adopted son of Sir Ratanji Tata and a noted alumni of the Tata Group. He is the father of Ratan Tata, Jimmy Tata and Noel Tata. The Naval Tata Hockey Academy in Jamshedpur (joint ...

from the family of a distant relative. He died on 5 September 1918 at St Ives in Cornwall, England and was buried at

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 ...

, near London, by the side of his father (Jamsetji Tata). Through an aunt, Jerbai Tata, who married a Bombay merchant, Dorabji Saklatvala, he was 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.

Legacy

After his death the

Sir Ratan Tata Trust Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) came into being in 1919 with a sum of Indian currency 8 million. It is under the ownership of Ratan Tata. Established in accordance with the will of Sir Ratanji Tata, the Trust is now one of the oldest grant bestowing ...

was founded in 1919, with a corpus of Rs. 8 million.

Notes

References

External links

Sir Ratan Tata Trust Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tata, Ratan 1871 births 1918 deaths Indian philanthropists Indian industrialists Knights Bachelor Indian Knights Bachelor Indian justices of the peace Ratanji Parsi people from Mumbai Businesspeople from Mumbai St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni Indian art collectors Founders of Indian schools and colleges Burials at Brookwood Cemetery