Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy - JEH’ A Life Of J.R.D.Tata

The Publisher would like to thank Tata Central Archives, Pune for providing photographs of J.R.D. Tata.

Design Copyright Rupa & Co. 2005

Text Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy 2005

First Published 2005

Fifth Impression 2009

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In memory of
MY GRANDFATHER DADABHOY MEHERWANJI DADABHOY, AND MY GRANDMOTHER DlNBAI BURJOR THANAWALLA

CHAPTER 1
THE SAGA BEGINS

CHAPTER 2
THE HERITAGE

CHAPTER 3
CHILDHOOD

CHAPTER 4
A SEED IS SOWN

CHAPTER 5
BACK HOME

CHAPTER 6
JRD MEETS THELLY

CHAPTER 7
THE AVIATOR

CHAPTER 8
THE AGA KHAN PRIZE

CHAPTER 9
THE BEGINNINGS OF AN AIRLINE

CHAPTER 10
HISTORY IS MADE

CHAPTER II
THE INDUSTRIALIST

CHAPTER 12
AT THE HELM OF AFFAIRS

CHAPTER 13
TRUSTEESHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

CHAPTER14
GROWTH AND EXPANSION

CHAPTER 15
AIR-INDIA IS BORN

CHAPTER 16
NATIONALISATION OF AIR-INDIA AND BEYOND

CHAPTER 17
THE 1950S: A PERIOD OF CONSOLIDATION

CHAPTER 18
RAJAJI AND THE SWATANTRA PARTY

CHAPTER 19
THE FIRST RE-ENACTMENT

CHAPTER 20
THE ERA OF CONTROLS

CHAPTER 21
THE END OF THE MANAGING AGENCY SYSTEM

CHAPTER 22
DISMISSAL FROM AIR-INDIA AND
JRD'S FLIGHT BACK INTO HISTORY

CHAPTER 23
THE SUCCESSION ISSUE

CHAPTER 24
THE FINAL JOURNEY

I am deeply indebted to R.M. Lala, J.R.D. Tata's official biographer, for permission to draw from his work. Without his support this book could not have been possible. Thanks are also due to Murad Fyzee, |RD's close friend, and the author of Aircraft and Engine Perfect, who perused the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. I gratefully acknowledge the role of the Tata Central Archives, Pune, in providing the photographs published in this book. H. Raghunath and Freny Shroff were most supportive, and I am grateful to them both. I would also like to thank Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Erach Lala for generously providing his personal photographs for use in the book.

Finally, a big thank you to my sister Tushna Kotwal and my brother-in-law Phiroze, who politely accepted my excuse of doing research, while I idled at their home in Pune. And last, but not the least, thanks are due to my nephew Navroze, who played the role of messenger, courier and odd-job man with a minimum of fuss (apart from wondering out aloud if anyone would ever publish what I had written).

An artist's impression of J.R.D. Tata

On 15 October 1932, a slim young man dressed in white trousers and a white short-sleeved shirt takes off from Drigh Road airport, Karachi, southbound for Bombay via Ahmedabad. His only equipment consists of his goggles and a slide rule. The chief officer of the Karachi Municipality and the postmaster are part of a small party that has gathered to give him a send-off. The time is 6.35 a.m. The aircraft, a primitive Puss Moth. A few hours later the little aircraft lands. The time is 1.50 p.m. and the venue is Juhu airport, Bombay. The cargo is fifty-five pounds of mail and the achievement is the completion of India's first airmail flight. The moment is a historic one because civil aviation in India started from these humble beginnings.

Fast forward to 18 April 1971. The venue is Santa Cruz airport. The time is 8.20 a.m. A magnificent Boeing 747, resplendent in its red and white colours and escorted by two Indian Air Force Mig-21 fighters, appears in the morning sky. A slim, erect and bright-eyed sexagenarian rises to address a distinguished gathering. He is chairman of the airline, which is welcoming its first Jumbo jet into the fleet. It is a big moment for the gentleman since he was also the pilot of the first flight. His name: Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, known to the world as JRD, and affectionately called 'Jeh' by his relatives and friends. The name of the airline: Air-India International.

Sooni and Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD) was born in Paris on 29 July 1904, the second of five children of Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (RD) and his French wife Suzanne (later Sooni). JRD's father Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was the son of Dadabhoy Tata, a brother-in-law of Nusserwanji Tata, a distant relative of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the illustrious founder of the House of Tata. In 1887, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata established Tata & Sons and took as his partners his eldest son Dorab and his young cousin Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, JRD's father. The story of the Tatas starts with Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, and it would be pertinent to take a closer look at this illustrious founder of India's oldest and most respected industrial house.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was born in 1839 in a family of Parsi priests in Navsari, Gujarat. He came to Bombay at the age of fourteen and joined Elphinstone College at seventeen from where he passed out as a Green Scholar' (the then equivalent of a graduate) a couple of years later. After trading ventures in the Far East and Europe in 1868, he started a private trading firm with a capital of Rs 21,000. A lucrative contract to furnish supplies to the expeditionary force of General Napier in Abyssinia generated enough profit to launch him on his career in textiles. He floated the Central India Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company in 1874 with a capital of rupees fifteen lakhs subscribed by his friends and himself.