Jamshedji Tata, founder of Tata Steel, IISc, after whom Jamshedpur is named. Industrialist, visionary, one of the builders of modern India.
He was born in the town of Navsari in Gujarat, on March 3, 1839, Jamshedji’s father was a small-time businessman himself. His father relocated to Bombay, to pursue business opportunities there, and did well, starting off as a small-time trader. A graduate of Elphinstone College, Jamsetji was quite a bright student and joined his father's trading firm in 1858. The year 1858 when J.N.Tata stepped into business was significant, the Brits had crushed the 1857 revolt, and were in full control.
J.N.Tata was sent by his father to Hong Kong to expand the business interests there, and he was there for 4 years. During his 4 year stay in Hong Kong, he played a major role in expanding the business and consolidating it there. By 1863, Tata and Sons were first set up in Hong Kong, and soon he was expanding the business to China and Japan too. The failure of the bank, also meant that the Tata group's companies all over India and East Asia had to bear the losses too.
At the age of 29 in 1868, he started his own trading company and began to work on acquiring cotton mills. The Empress Mill set up by J.N.Tata in 1874, in Nagpur was one of his very successful ventures, and made huge profits. He was one of the early industrialists who believed the welfare of the workers was important, a policy followed by Tata to date. Medical facilities were provided for sick employees and women with children. On-the-job training was provided to workers, accident compensation was given, as also provision of pensions.
It was J.N.Tata who again negotiated with the Japanese Govt to reduce the freight charges that were affecting Indian traders.
A world-class hotel, iron and steel plant, a learning institution, and a hydel power plant was what he aspired for. During his lifetime though, J.N.Tata would only be able to see the dream of a world-class hotel come true, the Taj Mahal in Mumbai. Sitaram Vaidya and D.N.Mirza were the Indian architects for the Taj Mahal Hotel, which eventually opened on Dec 16, 1903. During WWI, The Taj Mahal Hotel functioned as a 600-bed hospital and was the first to use steam elevators. The steel plant though was, however, a dream, J.N.Tata cherished more than anything else, after a trip to London. During one of his trips to the UK, J.N.Tata attended a lecture by Thomas Carlyle, at Manchester, which motivated him to establish a steel plant.
The story of how Tata Steel came into being is itself fascinating in many aspects. Thomas Carlyle's quote "The nation that controls iron controls gold too" was said to be the chief inspiration for the steel plant. Though J.N.Tata wanted to set up the steel plant, the obstacles were formidable, the Industrial Revolution had not still taken root in India.
However, a report by German geologist Ritter Von Schwartz about iron ore deposits in Chanda dist motivated him. He did a lot of painstaking groundwork before setting up the steel plant, studying various processes over the world. Charles Perrin, one of the world's top engineers in the US, agreed to come to India, to help J.N.Tata build his dream project.
In the US, J.N.Tata studied the coking processes for a steel plant at Birmingham, AL, and also the ore market at Cleveland, OH. He not only had to face a stubborn bureaucracy, but also scorn from senior British officials over his steel plant project. "I will eat every pound of steel, the Tatas make"
Sir Frederick Upcott, Chief Commissioner of Great Indian Railway.
This is what he had to face. It was not just the steel plant, in a letter to his son, Dorab, J.N.Tata also outlined his vision of a township for the employees. And that vision resulted in Jamshedpur, one of the early planned cities in modern India. While Tata was a philanthropist, he did not believe in charity and doles, rather he felt education was the way ahead. He established the J.N.Tata Endowment in 1892 for meritorious students irrespective of caste, class to pursue higher studies.
The Indian Institute of Science again was another brainchild of J.N.Tata of establishing a world-class scientific institution. He pledged 30 lakhs of his own personal property to set up IISC at Bangalore and sought everyone's assistance. Swami Vivekananda backed the idea of IISc, when J.N.Tata met him, in 1899, saying that it was much needed for India. He however passed away before he could see his dreams come true in 1904.
Tata Steel, Tata Power, and IISc were all completed after J.N.Tata's death, but his legacy left a mark on these 3 institutions. From the Tata group to Jamshedpur to the Indian Institute of Science, J.N.Tata would be remembered as a builder of modern India.
