JRD Tata was another legend of Tata tradition. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata was born on July 29, 1904. He was the son of Ratanji Dadabhai Tata, the cousin brother of Jamshedji Tata. But in Tata Industries the contribution of JRD was enormous. He played a major role in taking Tata Industrial Empire to new heights. By the name JRD he became a national hero through his achievements that did the country proud. He himself preferred to be called as JRD Tata.
The father of JRD Tata, Ratanji Dadabhai Tata and Jamshedji Tata were cousins, being the grandsons of Irvad Tata. JRD was born in Paris to his French mother. Ratanji Dadabhai Tata was unconventional person. He went against the Parsi tenet of marrying in the community. He fell in love with a French woman while in Paris and married her. The lady continued to live in Paris even after her marriage and so did Ratanji Dadabhai Tata most of the time. All their children were born in Paris.
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai (JRD) was second of the four children of his parents. He received education in France, Japan and England. JRD had to serve in French army from one year as compulsory military service since he had French citizenship then. He wanted to make military his career but the fate had other script for him. He left French army after a year. It proved lucky for him because soon after the regiment he was in was totally wiped out in a Morocco military campaign. He realised the bitter truth of life.
JRD planned to do an engineering course from Cambridge, England but his father ordered him to come to India at once. JRD always rued not having received university education. He arrived in India and found himself in an industrial
empire he was not familiar with. Young JRD was asked to bear the responsibilities of the Industrial House his family was connected with. In 1925, on the occasion of his 21st birthday JRD wrote to his father—’One more year has gone over my shoulders. When I look back into past and look inside, the cruel eye of my conscience does not see where I have been through this year. I truly feel that I gained nothing in this year!’
In the same year JRD got entry into Tata Group as an honorary trainee. There as his guide he found a Scotman named John Peterson who had served in I.C.S. before joining Tata House. In 1926 JRD’s father Ratanji Dadabhai Tata passed away. Soon after his death JRD was included in the Board of Directors of Tata Sons, an enterprise of Tatas. Then JRD was only 22 years old. By 1929 at the age of 25, JRD realised that his future was secure in India. As an important decision of his life he gave up French citizenship. Young JRD accepted the fact that serving the cause of India was the aim of his life.
During the young years of his life one of his favourite passions was flying. He had seen the first flights of the famous flier Luis Blarriot. He himself had flown a craft at the age of 15. His early years were spent in France where his mother lived. JRD became the first Indian to receive ‘Commercial Pilot licence’ at 29 years of age. One year later, Tata office received a letter regarding a proposal to run an airmail service between Karachi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. It enthused JRD Tata and asked Peterson to persuade Sir Dorabji Tata who was then Chairman of the group to take that opportunity. Young JRD got his nod.
In 1932 Tata Airlines and Air India came into being with the first service from Drigg Road of Karachi with JRD in charge. JRD nursed the air services like his own baby. He himself flew the aircraft from Karachi to Mumbai with mail ceremoniously. It became a historic moment for India. This continued till 1953 when Nehru government nationalised Air India. JRD protested vehemently. Nehru and JRD had queer love-hate relationship. They had been friends for a long time and respected each other. But JRD never accepted the socialistic economic policies of the government. He was against them. But this difference didn’t affect their friendship. JRD was no politician and could not understand socialist principles. He always advocated free trade and industry. Years after the death of Nehru once JRD jokingly said that the steward of his Taj Hotel received more salary than Nehru as Prime Minister. At last JRD had the last laugh. Liberalisation of economic policies began in a big way since 1990s.
The Air India episode did hurt JRD but he was not the kind of person who would cry. Nehru inspired him to keep command of cargo services at national level. But in 1977 Janata Party government passed a law and got rid of JRD. It hated everything and everyone connected to Nehru. When Indira Gandhi regained power she wanted JRD to become chairman of Air India but he was no more enthusiastic about it.
For JRD Air India was not a business but his love. He had nursed it like his own baby and brought up. He loved the emotional and dedicational investment he had made in it. So much so that the officials of Tata House often complained in private that JRD cared more for his airlines than running the affairs of other enterprises of Tata Group. It was the sweat and toil of JRD that had made Air India one of the finest passenger airlines of the world. Anthony Simpson wrote in his book ‘Empires of the Sky’—’The service of Air India was very good inspite of its being opposite to the ground realities of India. The segregation of Air India planes had been handled very efficiently and the crews of proven capabilities were employed by it.’
The admirable way Air India was run showed the efficiency of JRD. The same quality was evident in his other activities related to Tata Group. During the licence-permit regime one faced a lot of hassles. There was nothing to cheer about. Industries were a hostage to government policies that were negative to a frustrating level. The socialist principles showed the capitalist system as a beast that needed to be kept bound and shackled. JRD bore with it without believing in it. Those outdated and regressive policies and negative mindset of the politicians gave JRD and Tata Group a feeling of suffocation and despair. Tatas wanted to take the country on the broad path of industrial progress but there were an unending hurdles of economic policies of the rulers. Had the present day liberal economic policies been there then India would have been fifty years ahead abreast with China today.
In 1938 JRD got the top job of Tata Group. He became the chairman in place of Sir Navrojji Sakalatwala. He was then the youngest man on the board of directors. For the next fifty years Tata Group made remarkable strides, set up new industries and expanded impressively under the stewardship of JRD. During this period Tatas stepped into the new fields of chemicals, automobiles, tea and IT sector.
JRD gave a new shape to the existing business traditions in the industry. Till then business houses used to be run by members of the main family and controlled every activity. JRD changed all that and made management a professional exercise. He turned Tata Group into a business federation where talent and capability of the managers were main considerations instead of connections. It had some bad side effects also. Due to competitions there were also some fracas and disputes. Tata culture got some bad publicity. It posed a challenge.
Tata Group was moving towards the end of family proprietorship. JRD sensed the dangers. He knew the failure could be disastrous and Tatas could lose hold over several enterprises. As the top man JRD had to find a solution and the hold of Tata Group needed to be strengthened. JRD had the courage and power to deal with the barrage of problems. Situations were delicate and needed careful handling with intelligence. JRD had great reserve of inner energy and his talent was never in doubt. And he had a thinking mind.
He played an important role in the fields of science and medicine that were in a pitiable state in India. Through his initiative came up Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Institute of Social Science, National Institute of Advanced Sciences and National Centre for the Arts, all examples of the highest standard and qualities. The superlative success of these organisations was made possible by the incredible drive and the talent of JRD Tata.
Then, in India ‘National Interest’ was taken to mean ‘all things for all the people’. JRD gave a new definition of ‘National Interest’. According to it the national interest was nation’s scientific and economic progress. His thinking was that if we are to banish poverty from India the efforts needed to scientifically crafted and financially funded. In that sense he did his part beautifully by providing those institutions. The government could also play its part by reforming and liberalising economy to create funds. He did not believe doling out money in the name of charity. He believed in constructive and productive efforts of permanent value. In 1944 multipurpose ‘Tata Trust’ was set up to avoid limiting its scope. JRD preferred to make productive investments. A few years later JRD sold most of his shares and set up ‘Thelma Tata Trust’ The principal aim of this trust is to improve the lot of Indian women who are deprived of the gains of progress and development.
The special thought of JRD was concerned with the population growth and gross national product. He was worried at rapid increase in population that went on outstripping the national product. He was not getting support of politicians on population growth concern. Infact Nehru was of the opinion that populousness of India was its strength. It did not make sense to JRD Tata.
In his own time JRD spared time to think of way to check the growth of population and worked towards that end. He even made funds available for this effort. His initial efforts to control the growth of population was not appreciated. But in 1992 ‘International Institute of Population Studies’ recognised the worth of his attempts and honoured JRD with ‘United Nations Population Award’.
Although JRD was not immensely popular due to his reserved nature and laconic habit, yet there were no dirth of awards and recognitions that fell in his way. He never hankered after any award or recognition. It is an incredible fact that having so many achievements to his credit did not fire him with desire for honours.
When JRD was told that the Indian government was considering him for the highest civilian honour of ‘Bharat Ratna’ he retorted, “Why me? I don’t deserve it. Bharat Ratna is generally given to the dead people or politicians. I am not ready to accept the fact of government honouring me for my past or present deeds. I am not dead and I am no politician.”
JRD is defined as a person who considered himself an ordinary man. He was a curious and thinking person and affectionate too in his own way. He was not pretencious. It was difficult for him to accept the damage censed by stupidity. Self praise was not in his nature. His thinking carried wisdom, frankness and brotherhood of all.
The joke of an address
An interesting episode occured regarding his name. The close ones used to call him ‘Jay’. Once a friend addressed him with that name ‘Jay’ in his letter. JRD wrote back—’I deeply searched the dictionary. I learn that ‘JAY’ is a European bird that is chirpy and very noisy. It has big feathers. It is considered purposeless and slow brain. For the future remember that my brief name is ‘JEH’, taken from Jehangir part of my name. Any similarity between me and that bird is accidental.’ This incident shows JRD did not accept even a small error or fault. To pick out the mistakes of others he could take recourse to dictionary. For not to hurt others with his frankness he would add a touch of humour.
Love and marriage
Generally, a Parsi is expected to carry forward his blood protecting its purity by marrying in the community. But for JRD matter of heart was more important than matter of the purity of blood. Like his father he met a French girl named Thelma in Paris and fell in love with her. Their romance led to their marriage. JRD Tata listened to the call of his heart. The marriage took place in 1930 when JRD was 26 years old. The union was full of bliss. This happy romance and wedding had one sad aspect. Thelma could not mother any child. JRD reconciled himself taking it as his fate. He loved children very much and felt at ease with them. Their company used to give him joy. But with adults JRD felt some complexity and uneasiness.
The demise
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata was a man of high thought, compassion and generosity. The generosity was always visible in his business dealings and in private life as well. He was a transparent human being. Amongs people he alway stood tall and had a special personality. JRD was not born in India and he did not die in India. On November 29, 1993 he breathed his last at Geneva.
JRD lived a long life and what a great life it was! Anyone would be proud of such a life full of accomplishments. With his demise an age came to an end that Tata Group knew as JRD Era. That was the age of golden progress and change. To a large extent India lived in JRD and Indianness reflected in his personality.
Salient features of JRD era
The outlines of prominent developments of JRD-Era would clearly reveal how much JRD contributed to consolidate and expand the Tata Empire of industries:
❑ JRD Tata was not direct descendent of the founder of Tata Group, Jamshedji Tata but was related to his cousin family. Still the stewardship of Tata Group was entrusted to him. There was no cousin rivalry or mistrust. Tatas had a long tradition of affectionate relationship amongst all the clan members.
❑ His father was looking after the affairs of Tata Group and he wanted his son JRD too to dedicate himself to the service of Tata enterprises.
❑ JRD did not get direct entry into Tata Group. He had to work hard to create a niche for himself. He was first taken on as honorary apprentice. Only after the death of his father in 1926 he was taken on the Board of Directors of Tata Sons. Surely during his years as apprentice he had shown his talent and potential.
❑ After becoming the member of the Board of Directors JRD was not sure if he wanted to live in India or go back to France. He rendered his services to Tata Sons till 1929 and only then he knew India was his home. He gave up French citizenship.
❑ JRD became first Indian to get the licence of Commercial Pilot. In 1932 he started Tata Airlines.
❑ JRD got the chairmanship of Tata Group in 1930. He was the youngest on the board. His term is known as golden age of Tata empire. He broke tradition of industrial houses packing the boards with members of the families. JRD brought in talent and capability into the account instead. The qualified persons got a chance to show their merit. It was a risky move. Its failure could have put a question mark on the merit of the thinking of JRD.
❑ In a true sense JRD had worked out the correct equations which led to Tata industries moving up to the world standards and getting global acceptance as symbol of quality.
❑ JRD also fulfilled the social responsibilities and ideals set by the founder Jamshedji Tata for his enterprises. Tata Group followed the humanitarian policies.
❑ JRD was a bitter critic of India’s anti-private sector economic policies. He was against a private entrepreneur getting enmeshed in licences and permit dragnet. He was also against industrialists exploiting workers and employees. To prove his point he gave the example of his Taj Hotel steward getting more salary than Nehru, the prime minister of India. All the industrialists were not slave drivers but generous towards the employees and rewarded them suitably.
❑ JRD thought that population explosion was a big problem, a danger to India’s progress and prosperity. He talked of need to control the population explosion at a time when Nehru was calling the excess population as the strength of the country. Based on the rate of the growth of population and corresponding ratio of the increase in gross product he proved that over population was basic cause of social and economic disparities in India. For this study JRD received ‘United Nations Population Study Award’.
❑ His reaction to the news of his being considered for ‘Bharat Ratna’ clearly showed he was very disappointed of politicians and their negative mindset. He had no wish for any honour bestowed by them. He rarely attended any award-function.
❑ The credit of taking Tata Group from family venture to the height of the corporate world goes to JRD.
❑ As his successor JRD prepared Ratan Tata in every way and every aspect. No doubt about it.
❑ In the industrial revolution of India JRD holds the same lofty place as Gandhiji in freedom struggle. Gandhiji fought British Raj and JRD battled against Licence-Permit Raj that was keeping Indians enslaved to poverty.
❑ JRD knew French better than English and the latter better than any vernacular language. He saw the tragic end of Kalpana Chawla onT.V. JRD was deeply interested in astronautics. He wanted India too to move into the space.
❑ With his demise JRD Era ended but today his successor Ratan Naval Tata is carrying on his legacy and the Tata tradition. The present liberal economic policies are surely helpful to Ratan Tata. Tata Industrial Empire seems safe in his hands and is going places in ‘Nano’ car.
