For the Love of India: the Life and Times of Jamshetji Tata, and Bizarro
Rather than the usual quote, I’ll start with a cartoon, because it fits in well with the book review:
I’ve been on a bit of a book-reading kick… I haven’t read nearly as much this year as I thought I would, but it seems like I’ve been catching up in the past month. The 3 books I read recently are:
For the Lova of India: The Life and Times of Jamshetji Tata, by RM Lala,
Games Indians Play, by V. Raghunathan,
and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins.
I’ve been criticized for my posts being too long so I’ll split this one up into 3, starting with a review of For the Lova of India: The Life and Times of Jamshetji Tata. It’s probably still too long as a review.
For the Love of India is a pretty good account of one of India’s first and most successful Industrialists, Jamshetji Tata. Jamsetji Tata not only built an unparalleled personal wealth but was also one of the builders of modern India. His conviction that India must change from a predominantly agricultural nation into an industrialized one put the country on the road to modernization, a road that encountered many bumps and hurdles during the socialist period of rule, but one that I think is on a better path now. Its simply amazing to me how many amazing things Jamshetji accomplished in his lifetime, and even more so including things that happened after his death but based on his plans.
Jamshetji brought to the country iron, steel and hydroelectric power, but also made fine cotton when everyone else was making coarse yarn and revived the silk industry in the South. In 1877, he set up Empress Mills in Nagpur to make cotton cloth. It was the first major industrial enterprise in the Central Provinces, and the book argues that he did a lot of world-wide innovation, both in technical prowess and in human resource management. As early as 1873, he was toying with the idea of using hydroelectric power for his mill, something that was unheard of even in the West.
The book primarily focuses not on how Jamshetji built his wealth, but rather on 4 projects he undertook “for the love of India,” in his dream to see an industrialized nation of educated people. Looking back from now, his 4 projects were amazingly ambitious for the time… they are The Taj Hotel in Bombay, Steel, Hydroelectric Power, and the Indian Institute of Science.
The Taj Mahal hotel in Bombay, which I’d argue is still the best hotel in Bombay, at a majestic location near the Gateway of India (though the gateway wasn’t there when it was built).
Here’s a picture of all of the kids from the Bombay Marathon in front of the Taj, still magnificent 100+ years after it was built.
The Taj is still owned by the Tata Group, and they now also own 77 other properties around the world. Taj Hotels have been acquiring beautiful old hotels recently, and have 3 properties in the US as well (Boston, NYC, San Fran).
Making Steel in India wasn’t seen as sort of a crazy dream at the time, but Jamshetji hired the right people from America and elsewhere to make his dream a reality. Again, Tata Steel is still in the hands of the Tata’s, chaired by Ratan Tata. Tata Steel is historically known for establishing an 8 hour workday when 12 hours was the norm, introducing leave with pay, and starting a provident fund for employees. It seems to me that the Tata’s mastered the art of being rich and successful, and also doing a lot for their employees and country. The Bizarro above is so indicative of the traditional stance towards wealth accumulation, but you can be wealthy and kind, and the Tatas have proven it.
The author doesn’t go into a lot of detail about the hydroelectric plant, and I can’t add any value there anyway, so I’ll skip over it, but I will mention that when Tata Hydro-Electric Power Supply Company was set up the only other place using hydro-electric power was Niagara Falls.
The most interesting of Jamsetji’s dreams for India was the idea of establishing an institute of higher learning that eventually took shape, after his death, as the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Tata realized that Indias educational system was severely lacking, and he wanted to make a huge impact on it. He felt that the best way to uplift his nation was not to uplift the downtrodden, but rather to create an institution for the very best to prosper and advance the nation. There are debates everyday on both sides of the issue - should x person have spent $100 million by donating it to a business school or should they have cured X African people of malaria. I don’t know the answer to that, but I think its a value judgement and I wouldn’t criticize the person for their philanthropy. Anyway, Jamshetji wanted to create a Research University, of which none existed in India at the time (and very few do today). Personally, I think one of the best things about America, and what has kept it so prosperous is the American educational system. We have the best research universities in the world, which bring the brightest students from around the world to the US, many of them for life. In the US, we teach problem-solving and value creative thinkers probably moreso than anywhere else in the world. This is true to some extent at the secondary level, but much more so at the university level, and even more so at the grad school level. This is still a huge problem in India. Jamshetji foresaw this, and decided that he would endow a large amount of money to the place. In fact almost 1/3rd of his estate went to the University, after giving 1/3rd to each of his sons. He had to fight Lord Curzon, the British Viceroy to India at the time to make his dream a reality, but finally did so (although it didn’t formally launch until after his death)
Still, many say the greatest thing about Jamshetji was his ability to make leaders. He wasn’t personally able to fulfill many of his own goals, but he showed the way to others inspired them to hold on to his dreams after his death. Interesting read if you’re interested in business biographies and have an interest in India.
Looking for a book suggestion… any good book recommendations? I’m planning to read “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits”, by CK Prahalad, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School. It’s a book I really should’ve read a long time ago, given my interest in the subject. I’m also planning to read Maximum City in the near future.
Since I started with a Bizarro, I might as well end with one. I realllly love Bizarro. I think it’s the most clever cartoon out there. Here’s one of my favorites:
I haven’t seen it in syndication here in India, probably because the jokes wouldn’t make sense here. Every month or so I get caught up with my laughs here. I have to admit though, I’m finding the recent ones less and less funny… maybe its a sign that I’m becoming more and more Indian.
