A very strong presence of Tata family has been in India for almost eight hundred years. The family history reveals that earlier Tatas used to serve as priests or worked in the fields of education. In the Persian society Tatas had the same status as Vedic brahmins had in Aryan society. But later Tata family ventured into the fields of trade, commerce and industry. For this new enterprising spirit the credit goes to the doyen of the family ‘Naushervanji Tata’.
Naushervanji Tata
Naushervanji was the heir of legacy of Parsi tradition in India and served as the priest of Parsi community. Many generations of his predecessors had also lived on the priesthood of their society. This tradition was broken by Naushervanji. He decided to venture into trade and commerce to make a living. It was a courageous step for a member of a traditional family and society in which the customs are inviolable and sacred. The other societies and communities were also going through charges in values. In Hindu society Sanatan tradition was being questioned and it was under attack. At that time Naushervanji was living in Navasari town of Gujarat state. It was an orthox town that clung to traditional values. The light of new thinking was far, far away.
Naushervanji Tata decided to shift to Mumbai to base his trade and commerce activities. He reached Mumbai. Little did Naushervanji know that his small venture would one day become a gigantic industrial business house of India and the world. An enterprising person rarely faces defeat. He started his business in trade and banking. Naushervanji had a partner named Kalidas in his endeavour. It was a novel
experience for him and the field was alien. His business was gradually picking up.
The pioneer entrepreneur of Tata family very soon realised that he would be leaving his business tradition to the next generation. The next generation was his only son Jamshed Tata. He needed to be trained in business operations. But his son was at Navsari. He sent for him to Mumbai for the desired upbringing. Thus, the next generation of Tata family arrived at Mumbai, the most modern city of India and centre of business and industrial activities. We must appreciate the farsightedness of Naushervanji for preparing his son for the responsibilities of the business legacy he was going to inherit from his entreprising father. The son was being moulded into a worthy heir.
It is clear that Naushervanji Tata has made his novel ventures into successes and had made satisfactory progress. He was content with what he had achieved. He wanted his descendents to carry on the entreprising mindset as tradition he had started.
Now we shall take a look at the next generation which means Jamshedji Tata.
Jamshedji Tata
Jamshedji Naushervanji Tata was born in Navsari town on March 3, 1839. He was the only son of his parents. He was born when his ancestors had spent generations in performing priestly duties for the community. Jamshedji, born in a community where traditions shaped the course of one’s life was going to prove a different customer who would himself order his life and its direction. He came to Mumbai in the first half of his fourteenth year of age where his father was running his enterprises. Nausherwanji wanted good education for his son. So, Jamshedji was admitted into Elphinston College. In 1858 he completed his studies to become a ‘Green Scholar’ which was equivalent to present day graduation. The love for knowledge had got instilled in Jamshedji which lasted all his life. He ever continued to read and learn to keep upgrading his knowledge.
It was the education and the thirst for knowledge that taught Jamshedji to be serious towards the mission of life and let the learning harmonise one’s activities. Young Jamshedji was yet a raw talent and too immature to meet the challenges of the competitive business world. The education was his only shield and passport to a bright future.
In respect of business related future at that stage of Jamshedji, his illustrious descendent J.R.D. commented, ”It was a time when the colonial atmosphere was very depressing and for a new entrant the prospects were little encouraging. It was only two years into the unsuccessful 1857 mutiny or India’s first freedom struggle that failed. The ruling British looked at every native Indian with contempt and disregard. The failed attempt was being flaunted as a proof of the natives being good for nothing.
1859 was the year Jamshedji joined the business ventures of his father. The father, Naushervanji Tata was running his business activities as a trader and a banker with a partner. Jamshedji met the partner of his father and began his innings. Naushervanji guided his son into the world of business like a good master teaching the intricacies of the field and the finer points. Jamshedji imbibed all the lessons like a keen pupil. Gradually he learned the ropes of the trade and picked up business sense. Now he understood the relationship between market and the consumer goods, trading and banking operations. Nine years he spent learning, working and assisting his father in his business works.
Till the age of 29 years Jamshedji worked for his father and gained experience. In 1868 he launched his own trading company with a capital of Rs. 21,000. At this stage Jamshedji saw how business could be fraught with risks and unpredictability. His father’s banking business failed. This depressing development created a reason for Jamshedji to flee to England to be away from the botheration of creditors. In this period he learnt a lot in England. Jamshedji gained a lot of information and know-how of the textile industry.
During his stay in England and the subsequent tours of that country he found enough ground to believe that Indian textile industries have enough talent and manpower to pose a potent challenge to the strong monopoly of England in that field. Jamshedji had seen that it was Indian fine cotton and thread that went to England and came back as finished textile products. The entire textile industry of England depended on Indian raw material. Jamshedji decided to try his luck in textile industry. It was not just a blind decision. A lot of study and thinking had gone into it.
So, in the year of 1869 Jamshedji Tata stepped into the textile field in India. He bought a worn out oil mill at Chinchapokli that had gone bankrupt. It was situated at the heart of Mumbai and looked good for the business. This property he converted into a textile mill by the name ‘Alexandra Cotton Mill’. The production started very soon. Jamshedji ran it for two years and realised it was not proving as profitable as he had anticipated. He sold the cotton mill to a textile businessman at a reasonable profit. Jamshedji again headed to England. This time, he closely studied the textile trade at Lancashire.
According to the business belief of those days the city of Mumbai was the best place for textile trade and manufacture as traditionally established centre. The newly erudite industrial mind of Jamshedji, thought otherwise. He had assessed that to be successful in textile industry he needed to consider three vital factors; the first was to base the mill at a centre where cotton was grown, the second was that the place be well connected with railway services and the third factor was that water and coal be easily available in industrial quantities. With all those factors in view Jamshedji opted for Nagpur that was situated in the middle of Maharashtra. And it was a prominent city of the state, not a small town. It offered the best prospects for the textile industry. In 1874 the 35 year old Jamshedji Tata set up an enterprise there called ‘Central India Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company’. Then, the setting up of this enterprise cost Rs. one and a half lacs. The destiny was to reward Jamshedji for his courageous step.
On January 1, 1877 Queen Victoria of England was declared as the Empress of India as the British government took over the management of India from East India Company. India had formally become the colony of the British Empire. To commemorate this event Jamshedji started ‘Empress Mills’ at the age of 37 years. Compared to a private ‘East India Company’ the British colonial government was expected to be more responsive to the aspirations of the native Indians. It was such a dark period of India that even the colonial rule of the British crown appeared a reprieve.
It was the real endeavour of Jamshedji. The earlier efforts were experimental or explolatory. Now he was a very busy man. He had some bitter memories of earlier period. The period from 1880 to 1904 was the time when he concentrated his mind on three great objectives he wished to work for :
1. Founding an Iron and Steel production company.
2. Hydro electric Project.
3. Establishment of a world standard scientific laboratory in India.
But unfortunately Jamshedji Tata died in 1904 without realising any of his three dreams. But he did seed the ideas in the minds of his associates and near and dear ones. The initial works done by him in this regard like assessments and plans were later going to be put in concrete shape by his descendents and dedicated to his memory.
The idea of iron and steel industry came to the mind of Jamshedji when he visited Manchester to inspect a textile machine. There he had heard a speech of Thomas Carlyle and made up his mind to set up an iron and steel making unit in India as an industrial venture. It was a known fact that India had vast reserves of iron ore. From the same ore England was producing fine quality iron and steel. It happened in the year 1880. At that point of time it was a grand vision to set up an iron and steel factory in the colonial state of India by a native.
Through natural resources of India an industrial revolution was starting in England and other western countries. The policies of the colonial rulers were not conducive to enterprising vision of Jamshedji. The British were not interested in seeing big industries come up in India. For them India was only a market for goods produced in England. The path of Jamshedji was strewn with thorns and obstacles. A British writer Frank Harris writes—”Because of the adverse situation and hurdles the progressive idea of Jamshedji became meaningless. To lead on the path of progress there was a guide like Jamsheji Tata but the regressive policies of the colonial rule barred the path of the guide.”
In starting an iron and steel industry there were tiresome bureaucratic maze of rules, regulations, conditions, provisos and terms that could make ‘The Trial’ of Franz Kafka read like a mild sequel. But Jamshedji was not deterred. He tried and bore with humiliations. The chief of Peninsular Railway, Fredrick Upcott spurned him but later he admitted that Tatas could produce enough steel for railway lines but it was in the hindsight. The successors of Jamshedji had set up Tata Iron and Steel Co. at a place named after him as Jamshedpur to pay tribute to the idea of the great man. It started production in 1912, eight years after his death. But his inspiration and idea made his son, Dorabji Tata and his cousin brother Ratanji Dadabhai Tata realise his dream.
In his own life time Jamshedji had done the initial thinking of an industrial enterprise and prepared its outlines. Much of the credit of visualising an industrial house must rightfully go to Jamshedji. He had drawn up a detailed plan for his dream project anticipating several of its aspects and related provisions :
❑ Jamshedji had made provisions for employees welfare scheme in his plan. The workplace was to be airy and working hours had been kept generously limited.
❑ The plan had provident fund provision. At that time even Western countries had not devised provident fund scheme and no law was in force regarding gratuity or such fund.
❑ In 1902 Jamshedji had written about above ideas in a letter written to his son Dorabji. There also were instructions about wide roads at the site chosen for the setting up iron and steel works with shady trees lining up on both sides. Fast growing trees he wanted planted. Five years after the letter was written Tatas selected a place for their enterprise which is today knows as Jamshedpur, a premier industrial town of India.
❑ Not only tree line roads, Jamshedji had also suggested gardens and parks at the plant site. For the recreation of the employees he had plans for hocky and football grounds.
❑ Jamshedji had visualised his steel city with temples, mosques and churches to create a secular atmosphere. His heir faithfully translated his dream and rightly named it Jamshedpur, India’s first steel town.
❑ A spirit of charity and philanthropism was deeply ingrained in him. He firmly believed that India would gain victory over poverty. For works of charity Jamshedji founded J.N. Tata Trust in 1892.
❑ Jamshedji also made his contribution to the task of educationally empowering the students without consideration of caste and creed. He sent several promising students to England for higher education.
❑ To keep his spirit alive Tatas started Tata Scholarships to meritorious students from the year 1924.
❑ In his own life time Jamshedji may not have succeded in realising his dream of Steel Plant but the idea he had deeply etched into the minds of his successors. His dream took practical shape in Tata Iron Steel Plant, Jamshedpur after his death.
❑ Jamshedji had drawn a plan of an institute with a capital fund of 30 lac rupees. About it Swami Vivekananda wrote—’I don’t know if any other plan could be so timely that would technologically strengthen the Indian roots. It is proof of Jamshedji’s farsightedness and his generosity and charitability.’
❑ That institute came up in 1911 at Bangalore (Bangaluru) as ‘Indian Institute of Sciences’ and began functioning as he had envisaged.
❑ Frank Harris write about him—’Jamshedji was such a character that even after his death his dreams plans and visualisations kept taking concrete shapes and he remains in the minds of Indians as an indelible idol. The true tribute to that great man would be in giving practical shapes to his ideas’.
❑ Some of his mega dreams did come true in his own life time. He wanted a fine hotel in India, a class in itself which should amaze even foreigners. It took shape in the form of Mumbai’s famous landmark ‘Hotel Tajmahal’. When Jamshedji revealed his hotel idea even his family members and friends were very doubtful of its success. Everyone was sceptical about it. It looked against the grain of his mill and factory oriented mind. His sisters jokingly asked, “Are you really going to built a bhatiyarkhana (dhaba)?” But Jamshedji did not abandon the idea.
❑ But when in 1903 Hotel Tajmahal opened up, its grandeur made people gape at it with jaws open. It was better than his dream. Even at that time it had cost Rs. 4 crores and 21 lacs.
❑ ‘Hotel Tajmahal’ was just the example of modern luxuries. It was the first building in Mumbai that was electrified. It has American fans, German elevators and Turkish baths. The kitchens were manned by English butlers. The hotel had all the modern facilities and works. It became one of the best hotels of the world, the very symbol of business rich Mumbai.
A holistic analysis of Jamshedji’s character and achievements plus dreams clearly show that he was not only a contemporary successful entrepreneur but also a visionary who looked into the future. Had the business situation been like today Jamshedji could have driven India amongst the leading industrial powers of the world on his own. In colonial India his talents remained buried finding no outlet to burst out from. He explored new ideas and thoughts all his life.
The American essayist L.H. Laphap wrote about Jamshedji—’His life shows that a person can become a means of employment like a tool or an implement. Such people are like incarnations of God born to make miracles happen. Jamshedji Tata dedicated all his possessions to the service of India and the Indians’.
This pioneer of Indian industries died in Germany in 1904. As his legacy were his enterprises and for the protection and furtherance of the legacy, he had two sons. The elder son was Dorabji Tata and the younger one, Ratan Tata. And to guide them there was his cousin brother Ratan Dadabhai Tata.
