Dorabji Tata
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Dorabji Tata | |
---|---|
1st President of Indian Olympic Association | |
In office 1927–1928 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala |
Personal details | |
Born | Philanthropist | 27 August 1859
Known for | Founder of Tata Steel, Tata Power and Tata Chemicals |
Sir Dorabji Tata (27 August 1859 – 3 June 1932) was an Indian industrialist 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.
Early life and education
Dorab was the elder son of
Tata received his primary education at the Proprietary High School in
Upon graduating, Dorab worked for two years as a journalist at the Bombay Gazette. In 1884, he joined the cotton business division of his father's firm. He was first sent to
Marriage
Dorabji's father, Jamshetji, had visited Mysore State in south India on business, and had met Dr. Hormusji Bhabha, a Parsi and the first Indian Inspector-General of Education of that state. While visiting the Bhabha home, he had met and approved of young Meherbai, Bhabha's only daughter. Returning to Bombay, Jamshetji sent Dorab to Mysore State, specifically to call on the Bhabha family. Dorab did so, and duly married Meherbai in 1897. The couple had no children.
Meherbai's grandfather was the industrialist Dinshaw Maneckji Petit and her brother, Jehangir Bhabha, was a reputed lawyer. He was the father of scientist Homi J. Bhabha. Thus Dorabji was Homi Bhabha's uncle by marriage. The Tata Group funded Bhabha's research and his research institutions, including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
Industrialist career
Dorabji was intimately involved in the fulfilment of his father's ideas of a modern iron and steel industry, and agreed to the necessity for
Dorabji accompanied the
Founder of New India Assurance Co Ltd. in 1919, the largest General Insurance company in India, Dorabji Tata was knighted in January 1910 by Edward VII, becoming Sir Dorabji Tata.[3]
Non-business interest
Dorabji was extremely fond of sports, and was a pioneer in the Indian Olympic movement. As president of the Indian Olympic Association, he financed the Indian contingent to the Paris Olympics in 1924. The Tata family, like most of India's big businessmen, were Indian nationalists.[4]
Tata was a member of the International Olympic Committee during most of the years between World War I and World War II.[5]
Death
Meherbai Tata died of
On 11 March 1932, one year after Meherbai's death and shortly before his own, he established a trust fund which was to be used "without any distinction of place, nationality or creed", for the advancement of learning and research, disaster relief, and other philanthropic purposes. That trust is today known as the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. Dorabji additionally provided the seed money to fund the setting up of India's premier scientific and engineering research institution, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Dorabji died in Bad Kissingen, Germany, on 3 June 1932, at the age of 73. He is buried alongside his wife Meherbai in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, England. They had no children.
References
- ISBN 0-19-861398-9.Article on Saklatvala by Mike Squires, who refers to Jamsetji as J. N. Tata.
- ^ "Tata, Dorabji Jamsetji (TT877DJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "London Gazette, 21 January 1910".
- ^ Claude Markovits, Indian Business and Nationalist Politics 1931–39: The Indigenous Capitalist Class and the Rise of the Congress Party (Cambridge University Press, 2002) pp. 160–66
- ^ The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism
Further reading
- Choksi, R. "Tata, Sir Dorabji Jamshed (1859–1932)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) accessed 28 Jan 2012, a brief scholarly biography.
- Nomura, Chikayoshi. "Selling steel in the 1920s: TISCO in a period of transition," Indian Economic & Social History Review (January/March 2011) 48: pp 83–116, .