Father of Industrialization, Jamsetji Tata's 183rd Birth Anniversary

Jamsetji Tata is the Indian pioneer industrialist and the founder of India's biggest conglomerate company Tata Group. He established the city of Jamshedpur. From about 1880 to his demise in 1904, Jamsetji was devoured by three great dreams for India: an iron and steel company producing hydroelectric power and a world-class educational institution that would tutor Indians in the sciences. None of these could materialize while Jamsetji lived, but the seeds he sowed, the toil he did, and the sheer force of will he demonstrated in fulfilling this triumvirate of his dreams ensured they would soar high with an enigma to find expression.

Jamsetji was motivated to set up an iron and steel company on his trip to Manchester while attending a lecture by Thomas Carlyle. Come the 1880s. He had glued his heart on building a steel plant that would compare with the best of its kind in the world. Yes, the WORLD! 

At the Tata Steel Archives in Jamshedpur, one can see the plans Jamsetji had formed for the steel company he had dreamt of and relentlessly sought for years. The plans include minute details of a bigger dream. The steel venture had become an essential piece of his vision of an industrialized, independent India.

Of course, a dream this ambitious would not be without its challenges. The industrial revolution that had changed Britain and other countries had, by and large, bypassed India. Interfering government policies, the hostile investment environment of colonized India, the intricacies of prospecting for steel in barely accessible areas and his failing health, Jamsetji saw his path blocked at every other turn by what his biographer, Frank Harris, called "those curious conditions which dog the steps of pioneers who attempt to modernize the East".

The Wanderers

The door of a crowded office in New York opened wide. Charles Page Perin sat at the table surrounded by books, a geologist and metallurgist with the wisdom of iron and steel that made him the most sought-after mogul. Sitting there poring over account books, there he was; there was nothing he liked less.

A voice enunciated, “At last, I have found the man I’ve been looking for.” Perin listed his eye off the books, pleasantly glad at the interruption, a little surprised by the apparition standing tall before him. Here was a stranger in an even stranger attire— a man in a simple white coat wearing a strange headgear. He would later identify the outfit as the Parsidugli and pagdi. Who was he?

Even as he wondered, Charles Perin already knew the answer somewhere at the back of his mind. This man right there was the Parsi gentleman from India whose dream was to build a steel plant for his country; Julian Kennedy had written to him about him. For some time, the two men stared at each other in silence, two men from different continents, poles apart in every way.

Charles' visitor said in an in-depth voice, "Are you Charles Perin?" The metallurgist nodded. And Jamsetji Tata said, "At last, I have found the man I've been looking for." His communication was precise and concise. "I have spoken to Mr Kennedy. He will build the steel plant — wherever you advise. And I will foot the bill. Will you come to India with me?" As Perin recalled years later, he was dumbfounded, struck by the character, the force, and the kindliness that radiated from Jamsetji Tata's face. Perin's answer was short, "Yes," he said, "yes, I will go with you."

Discovering Sakchi

Perin embarked on one of the unique adventures in his life. On his way to Aden, he received a telegram asking him whether to ride a bicycle. A bicycle? Mystified, he responded in the affirmative. He reached the village of Sakchi and found the reason for this strange question. Miles of rutted road stretched out before him, defying any conventional mode of transport. Several gruelling hours later, he found himself in the middle of the jungle, propping his bicycle with one hand and holding the twisted handlebar above with the other. Fortunately, a passing bullock cart arrived at his rescue.

There would be many more hurdles ahead. It was a harsh, demanding land, where the temperature could climb to 125º (F) in the shade. Heatwaves made the ground tremble as if with ague. Man-eating tigers and road elephants were dangerous adversaries, though a friendly bear would occasionally cub under a table. Cholera and malaria would sweep the hillside, forcing workers to run overnight in panic. It wasn't easy going, but Perin and his team ultimately found more than they ever dared to hope for — perhaps 3 billion tons of ore, located just 45 miles away from the railway station.

Unfortunately, Jamsetji would not see his ambition—the one he had fostered for 30 years—come to fruition. As a triumphant Perin was getting his report together, the sad news reached him. Jamsetji Tata had expired in Germany. It fell on Jamsetji’s son, Sir Dorabji Tata, and his cousin RD Tata to see his vision to completion. Tata Steel came into existence in 1907 and held the reputation of being Asia’s first integrated steel company.

The torturous twists and bends the steel project took would have beaten lesser men, but Dorabji and RD Tata were firm in their determination to see Jamsetji's dream come to fruition. Along the way, they had to sorrow the contempt of individuals such as Sir Frederick Upcott, the chief commissioner of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, who swore to "eat every pound of steel rail [the Tatas] succeed in making". There is no record of Sir Frederick's first nugget of steel rolled out of the plant's production line in 1912. Jamsetji had been dead eight years by then, but his soul it was, as much as the struggles of his son Dorab and cousin RD Tata, that made real the impossible.

Every generation of Tata Steel management and employees continues to live Jamsetji’s dream each day, translating his ideals into reality in everything they do. Nowhere is this more apparent than in their commitment to the welfare of employees, the community and the nation. 

In fact, the brick-and-mortar endeavours that Jamsetji planned and executed were but one part of a grander idea. How much of a man of the future he was can be gauged from his views about his workers and their welfare. He spelt out his concept of a township for the workers at the steel plant in a letter he wrote to Dorab Tata in 1902, five years before even a site for the enterprise had been decided. "Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick-growing variety," the letter stated. "Be sure that there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens. Reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks. Earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques and Christian churches." It was only fair that the city born of this sterling vision came to be called Jamshedpur.

In 1907 a hospital was set up in Sakchi to bring much-needed medical care to the village before the plant began working.

No wonder then that even before the steel plant was set up in the distant little village of Sakchi, the firm founded a hospital to bring much-needed medical care to the region. In 1908, the first ingot of steel was introduced to the Sakchi plant four years later, in 1912.

In those early years, there were also diverse industry firsts: an eight-hour working day for labourers was moved out long before it became the norm worldwide. The necessary free medical services were launched based on health supervision, and the maternity benefit scheme was begun. The retirement gratuity scheme began in 1937. A few years later, it was even decided that the families of contract workers suffering accidents at Tata Steel premises would be offered cover and benefits through a scheme called ‘suraksha’. These welfare criteria were well ahead of their ages and enforced in the true spirit of empowering employees, so it is hardly surprising that the last workers’ strike settled in the firm was as far back as 1929.

The era of conflict 

The urgency of World War I and the lack of materials in Europe thrust India into the forefront. The Steel in large quantities was required to construct railways to transport troops and supplies. Tata Steel's contributions were so significant that it acted as Viceroy of India, Lord Chelmsford, on his visit to the plant in 1919, "I can hardly imagine what we would have done if the Tata Company had not given us steel for Mesopotamia, Egypt, Palestine, and East Africa." Sakchi was rechristened Jamshedpur to honour the founder Jamsetji Tata, and the steel city's railway station, Kalimati, was renamed Tatanagar.

Tatanagars, used in desert combat in North Africa, was built with armour hulls made by Tata Steel.

When the next world war began, Tata Steel pledged its entire output to the allied war effort just two decades after WWI ended.

Displaying exemplary ingenuity Tata Steel’s scientists produced 110 varieties of steel in only five years despite the hardships and shortages of war. Its other significant achievements included manufacturing 1,000 tonnes of armour plate per month from a mill setup in 1942 and building a benzol recovery plant in 1943 to produce toluene used to make explosives.

WWII also honoured the start of the Tata group’s legacy of strategic partnerships with the Indian armed forces. A remarkable plant of the Tata Engineering & Locomotive Company (TELCO) in Jamshedpur built 4,655 units of the Wheeled Armoured Carrier Indian Pattern or ACV-IP — popularly known as the Tatanagar — between 1940 and 1944. It played a significant role as a forward observation and reconnaissance vehicle in the desert warfare in North Africa during WWII. It also saw action in the 1950 Korean war.

Steeled for the Upcoming

From standing as a precursor and, later, a symbol of Indian industrialisation and national pride, Tata Steel has grown into an enterprise that has claimed its place in the global business space. The journey wasn’t easy, but the company survived the course.

The turning moment came in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, when India’s economic liberalisation pushed the company to revisit its business processes, including its strategy to quality and customers. Tata Steel took the challenge head-on, arising a more intelligent, wiser and more agile entity.

Over the last decade, the organisation has carried to the global stage with the same passion that once made it a national entity. A string of purchases, starting with NatSteel in 2004 and showing up to Corus in 2008, have seen Tata Steel carry not only itself but the more well-known Tata brand to the fore in international business circles. 2018’s joint venture with Thyssenkrupp swears to transform the company into a leading pan European high-quality flat steel manufacturer with a strong focus on performance, quality and technology leadership.

The company continues to be contrived by Jamsetji’s vision through it all. From nation-building, it has evolved into an enterprise dedicated to building every nation and society in which it functions, pursuing this goal with the exact steely resolution that drove Jamsetji to achieve the impossible.