Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For descendants of the same name, see Jejeebhoy baronets.

Sir
Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy
British India
Occupation(s)Merchandiser, business magnate

Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 1st Baronet,

Parsi merchant and philanthropist, later a British knight and baronet. He made a huge fortune in cotton and the opium trade with China.[2][3][4]

Early life and business career

Jejeebhoy was born in

Calcutta and then began his first voyage to China to trade in cotton and opium.[7]

Jejeebhoy's second voyage to

East India Company's fleet. Under the command of Sir Nathaniel Dance, this ship drove off a French squadron under Rear-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois[6] in the Battle of Pulo Aura
.

On Jejeebhoy's fourth voyage to China, the

Calcutta in a Danish ship.[6] Undaunted, Jejeebhoy undertook another voyage to China which was more successful than any of his previous journeys.[6]

By this time Jejeebhoy had established his reputation as an enterprising merchant possessed of considerable wealth.

Governor of Bombay, said of him, "By strict integrity, by industry and punctuality in all his commercial transactions, he contributed to raise the character of the Bombay merchant in the most distant markets."[8]

In 1814, his co-operation with the British East India company had yielded him sufficient profits to purchase his first ship, the Good Success, and he gradually added another six ships to this, usually carrying primarily opium and a little cotton to China.[9] By 1836, Jejeebhoy's firm was large enough to employ his three sons and other relatives, and he had amassed what at that period of Indian mercantile history was regarded as fabulous wealth.[6]

Jejeebhoy was known by the nickname "Mr. Bottlewalla". "Walla" meant "vendor", and Jejeebhoy's business interests included the manufacture and sale of bottles on the basis of his uncle's business. Jejeebhoy and his family would often sign letters and checks using the name "Battliwala", and were known by that name in business and society, but he did not choose this assumed surname when it came to the baronetcy.

In 1818, he formed the business, trading and shipping firm "Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy & Co." with two other associates Motichund Amichund and Mahomed Ali Rogay as Jejeebhoy's business associates. He was later joined by a

Jardine Matheson & Co. The connection with Jeejeebhoy was instrumental as Jardine and Matheson built up their great firm, continuing the profitable and amiable association with the Parsi entrepreneur. Jeejeebhoy long continued as one of the close associates who served as underwriters to Jardine, Matheson and Company. A tribute to their connection exists even today in a portrait of Jeejeebhoy which hangs in Jardine's Hong Kong office.[10] He was seen as the chief representative of the Indian community in Bombay by the British Imperial authorities.[11]

Philanthropy

Sketch of Jejeebhoy, 1857
The Illustrated London News print of Jejeebhoy's residence, 1858
Engraving of the Bombay Native Hospital, constructed at the joint expense of Jejeebhoy and the East India Company; it was later renamed "Sir J. J. Hospital".
Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy statue, Mumbai

An essentially

Poona) were created or endowed by Jejeebhoy, and he financed the construction of many public works such as wells, reservoirs, bridges, and causeways.[6] By the time of his death in 1859, he was estimated to have donated over £230,000 to charity.[6] His philanthropic endeavours began in earnest in 1822, when he personally remitted the debts of all the poor in Bombay's civil jail.[12]
Some of Jejeebhoy's notable charitable works include:

  • Mahim Causeway: The British Government had refused to build a causeway to connect the island of Mahim to Bandra. Jejeebhoy's wife, Avabai Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, spent Rs.155,800 to finance its construction, after whom it was named. The work began in 1841 and is believed to have been completed four years later.
  • He donated Rs. 1,00,000 to build Sir J. J. Hospital
  • Jejeebhoy donated to at least 126 notable public charities, including the
    Parsis
    and created the "Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy Parsi Benevolent Fund" in 1849.
  • He paid two-thirds of the entire cost of the Poona (now Pune) waterworks, with the remainder coming from the government.[14]
  • He gave a substantial donation to Bombay Samachar founded by Fardunjee Marzban in July 1822. The Bombay Times was launched in 1838 by a syndicate of persons, which included Sir Jamsetjee. In 1861, it was renamed The Times of India. Jamsetjee also donated handsomely to the Jam-e-Jamshed Press when it was founded in 1859.[15]
  • The
    Jaganath Shunkerseth
    .
  • Construction of Charni Road and relief to cattle. Between 1822 and 1838, cattle from the congested fort area used to graze freely at the Esplanade Maidan (now called
    Victoria Terminus. In 1838, the British rulers introduced a 'grazing fee' which several cattle-owners could not afford. Therefore, Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy spent Rs. 20,000 from his own purse for purchasing some grasslands near the seafront at Thakurdwar and saw that the starving cattle grazed without a fee in that area. In time the area became known as "Charni" meaning grazing. When a railway station on the BB&CI railway was constructed there it was called Charni Road
    .
  • He spent Rs. 1,45,403 to set up the Sir J. J. Dharamshala at Bellasis Road, and until today, innumerable old and destitute people receive free food, clothing, shelter and medicines. All their needs for the past 150 years, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, have been looked after by the Dharamshala, the first free home for the elderly in Asia.[8]
  • Whether it was the famine of Ireland (1822), the floods in France (1856) or the fire, which ravaged both Bombay (1803) and Surat (1837), this beacon of altruism gave graciously to one and all without discriminating on the basis of caste or creed.

Baronetcy

Jejeebhoy's services were first recognised by the British Empire in 1842 by the bestowal of a

Queen Victoria upon a British subject in India.[6]

On Jejeebhoy's death in 1859, his Baronetcy was inherited by his eldest son

Cursetjee Jejeebhoy, who, by a special Act of the Viceroy's Council in pursuance of a provision in the letters-patent, took the name of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy as second baronet.[6]

When he died in 1859, Jeejeebhoy was remembered in an obituary by a Bombay-based newspaper as, "Simple in his tastes and manners, and dignified in his address, the personal appearance of Sir Jamsetjee, in later years, was a picture of greatness in repose. He had done his work, and entered upon the sabbath of his life.…"[17]

Advocate of non-violence

In 1855, under royal patronage, the Patriotic Fund was launched to aid the wounded soldiers and widows of those who had died in the Russo-Turkish war. Jamsetjee donated Rs. 5,000/- for this cause. But some remarks from his speech on this occasion are most significant:

Of none of the great evils which afflict our race do we form such inadequate conceptions as of the evils of war. War is exhibited to us in the dazzling dress of poetry, fiction, and history, where its horrors are carefully concealed beneath its gaudy trappings; or we see, perhaps, its plumes and epaulettes, and harlequin finery, we hear of the magnificence of the apparatus, the bravery of the troops, the glory of the victors, but the story of the wholesale miseries and wretchedness and wrongs which follow in its train is untold … What nation is not groaning under war-debts, the greatest of national burdens! Had the inconceivable sum wasted in the work of human butchery been applied to promote individual comfort and national prosperity, the world would not now be so far behind as it is in its career of progress … Our duty to relieve the sufferers in this great war would have remained the same whether the war had been a just one or not; but, considering the nature and objects of this war, we extend this relief now more as a privilege than as a duty … To the call of our gracious Sovereign, and to the call of humanity, the Parsis, my lord, will cordially respond.

His non-violent attitude extended also to the animal kingdom. He would not allow any form of cruelty towards animals. The East India Company introduced a rule "for the annual destruction of dogs in Bombay island, and a considerable number were from time to time destroyed, in spite of frequent petitions from the public". This mass dog killing led to a serious riot. To alleviate this suffering, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, Jagannath Shankarsheth and Motichand Amichand founded Bombay Panjrapole on 18 October 1834.[18]

General and cited references

  • B. K. Karanjia (1998). Give Me a Bombay Merchant Anytime!: The Life of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Bt., 1783–1859. University of Mumbai.

References

  1. ^ JEJEEBHOY of Bombay, India[usurped]. leighrayment.com
  2. ISBN 9004121145
  3. ISBN 9350291665
  4. ISBN 0739108867
  5. ^ Jansetjee Jejeebhoy. Retrieved 16 August 2015. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bhownagree, Mancherjee Merwanjee (1911). "Jeejeebhoy, Sir Jamsetjee". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 300.
  7. ISBN 0-521-07354-5
  8. ^ a b "Yatha Ahu Vairyo Mohalla". 30 January 2012.
  9. ISBN 978-1136833137
    .
  10. ^ "Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy: China, William Jardine, the Celestial, and Other HK Connections".
  11. ^ Karaka, D. F. (1884). History of the Parsis. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ "Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy". www.robinsonlibrary.com. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ^ "Sir JJ College Of Architecture, Bombay– Home". Sir JJ College of Architecture. Accessed 23 May 2010.
  14. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  15. ^ "SIR JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY – LESSER KNOWN FACTS" (PDF). 12 July 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 July 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  16. ^ "No. 22003". The London Gazette. 19 May 1857. p. 1770.
  17. ^ "What it takes for Sir J J Agiary in Pune's Camp to keep the flame alive". The Indian Express. 29 April 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  18. ^ "History | Bombay Panjrapole". www.bombaypanjrapole.org.in. Retrieved 4 May 2018.

External links

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Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Bombay)
1857–1859 		Succeeded by
Cursetjee Jejeebhoy
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