Jamsetji Tata Biography: Jamsetji Tata in full Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata the Founder of the Tata group began with a textile mill in central India in the 1870s.
His vision inspired the steel and power industries in India, set the foundation for technical education, and helped the country leapfrog into the ranks of industrialised nations.
He was a patriot and humanist whose ideas and vision shaped an exceptional business conglomerate. His attributes marked him an extraordinary figure.
His quality of humaneness made him unique and placed him in the pantheon of modern India’s greatest sons. take a look at his early life, family, education, business, career, etc.
Jamsetji Tata Short Introduction
Full Name | Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata |
Other names | Founder of Tata Group, Tata Steel & Founder of Jamshedpur |
Born | 3 March 1839 |
Place of Birth | Navsari, Gujarat, India |
Died | 19 May 1904 |
Place of Death | Bad Nauheim, Germany |
Religion | Parsi |
Occupation | Businessman, Pioneer Industrialist |
Parents | Father: Nusserwanji Tata ; Mother: Jeevanbai Tata |
Wife/ Spouse | Hirabai Daboo |
Jamsetji Tata Early Life, Family, Education, Marriage
Jamsetji Tata or Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was born on 3 March 1839 in Navsari, Gujarat, India. He was an Indian philanthropist, and entrepreneur who founded the Tata Group.
Jamsetji Tata Early Life, Family
Jamsetji Tata was born on 3rd March 1839 at Navsari, Gujarat, to a Parsi family.
His father was Nusserwanji Tata and his mother was Jeevanbai Tata.
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 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.
He was married to Hirabai Daboo while still a student.
Their sons, Dorabji Tata and Ratanji Tata, succeeded Tata as the chairmen of the Tata Group.
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, 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 office, and later became a Communist Member of the British Parliament.
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, the third baronet of Petits.
The baronet’s sister Rattanbai Petit, was the wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
Jamsetji Tata Education
Unlike other Zoroastrians, Jamshedji Tata had a formal Western education because his parents saw that he was gifted with special 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 completing his education as a “Green Scholar” (the equivalent of a graduate).
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.
Jamsetji Tata: Career, Business, and Vision
It was a turbulent time to start a business as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 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.
In 1868, at the age of 29, after gaining experience of about nine years of working with his father, he started a trading company with a capital of Rs 21,000 and later it evolved into a Tata Group.
The Mills Of Change
In 1869, he brought a bankrupt oil mill at Chinchpokli and converted it to a cotton mill and he renamed it, Alexandra Mill. Two years later, he sold the mill for a profit.
In 1874, he had floated a fresh enterprise, the Central India Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company, with a seed capital of Rs 1.5 lakh.
After three years, his venture was ready to realise its destiny. On 1 January 1877, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India, and Empress Mills came into existence in Nagpur. Jamsetji also embarked on the first of his fantastic odysseys at the age of 37.
Man Of Steel
His key visions were to set up an iron and steel company, a world-class learning institution that would tutor Indians in the sciences, and a hydroelectric plant.
None of these would materialise while he lived but he laid the seeds.
His enterprises were known for efficiency, for improved labour-protection policies, and for the introduction of finer grades of fiber.
He planned for Bombay-area hydroelectric power plant that became the Tata Power Company in 1906.
He began organising India’s first large-scale ironworks in 1901 and six years later these were incorporated as the Tata Iron and Steel Company (now Tata Steel).
The Tata Iron and Steel Company became the largest privately owned steelmaker in India under the direction of Jamsetji Tata’s sons namely Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata and Sir Ratanji Tata.
The nucleus of the group of companies not only produces textiles, steel, and hydroelectric power but also chemicals, agricultural equipment, trucks, locomotives, and cement.
Other commercial ventures of Jamsetji included the Taj Mahal Palace, the first luxury hotel in India.
In 1892, he established the J.N Tata Endowment which encouraged Indian students to pursue higher education.
He also donated land for a research institute in Bangalore (Bengaluru) in 1898 and his sons ultimately established the Indian Institute of Science there.
No doubt, the Tata family became the most important private funder of technical education and scientific research in India.
Jamsetji Tata: Philanthropy
He generously donated to education and healthcare. EdelGive Foundation and Hurun Research India named him the greatest philanthrope of the last century.
He also topped the list of the world’s top philanthropists of the 20th century.
Jamsetji Tata: Death
While on a business trip to Germany in 1900, Tata became seriously ill.
He died in Bad Nauheim on 19 May 1904, and was buried in the Parsi burial ground in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, England.
But to date, he is a source of motivation and inspiration for entrepreneurs all across the world.
Jamsetji Tata: Legacy
Tata’s iron and steel plant was established at Sakchi village in Jharkhand. The village grew into a town and the railway station was named Tatanagar.
Now, is known as Jamshedpur in Jharkhand in his honour. The old village of Sakchi is urbanised now and now exists within the city of Jamshedpur.
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Jamsetji Tata Quotes by him
1. “With honest and straightforward business principles, close and careful attention to details, and the ability to take advantage of favorable opportunities and circumstances, there is a scope for success.”
2. “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.”
3. “If you cannot make it greater, at least preserve it.”
4. “To lead men, you have to lead them with affection.”
5. “Most of our troubles are due to poor implementation….wrong priorities and unattainable targets.”
6. “Quality is first engineered; only then it is inspected.”
7. “Live Life a little dangerously.”
8. “Nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without deep thought and hard work.”
9. “No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people and is achieved by fair and honest means.”
10. “Uncommon thinkers reuse what common thinkers refuse.”
Therefore, Jamsetji Tata is considered the legendary “Father of Indian Industry”. He founded Tata Group.
READ| Ratan Tata Biography : Age, Net Worth, Education, Family, Quotes
Read more about Jamsetji Tata
- R. M. Lala (1 May 2006). For the Love of India: The Life and Times of Jamsetji Tata. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-306206-6.
- Dinshaw Edulji Wacha (1915). The Life and Life Work of J. N. Tata: With a Portrait. Madras.n
Source (References External links)
- TataGroup/Jamsetji official biography webpage
- History of Tata through images
- “Jamsetji Tata: A Profile”
- “Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata A Centenary Tribute”, EPW, www.epw.org.
- Jamsedji Tata’s guiding spirit- growth of Indian Steel industry by Tata legacy.
- “Taj Hotels website”.
- “Tata Steel website”. Archived from the original on 14 January 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2006.
- ^ Wadhwa, Puneet (23 June 2021). “Jamsetji Tata tops global list of top 10 philanthropists from last 100 yrs”. Business Standard India.
- “Jamsetji Tata Named Greatest Philanthrope of Last Century”.
- “Tata Group’s Jamsetji Tata tops world’s top philanthropist in 100 years, Azim Premji ranks 12 in top 50”. 25 June 2021.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 48. Oxford University Press. 2004. pp. 675–676.Article on Saklatvala by Mike Squires. In the article, he is simply called J.N. Tata.
- “Petit, Dinshaw Manockjee” . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1912.
- “How Jinnah lost his love, and political relevance – Times of India”. The Times of India. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- “Jinnah and Ruttie: Life, love and lament – Mumbai Mirror -“. Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- “Ruttie Jinnah’s last letter to her husband -I”. 24 July 2007 – via Flickr.
FAQs about Jamsetji Tata
Religion of Jamsetji Tata is Parsi. He is Born into a Parsi family.
Jamshedji Tata was born at Navsari, a city in southern Gujarat.
Jamshedpur is Indian city has been named after jamsetji tata.
The full name of Jamsetji Tata is Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. He was the founder of the Tata Group.
Founder of Tata Group, Tata Steel and Founder of Jamshedpur.
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