Centuary Mattresses Bedtime Counter-Story :TATA Legacy

These articles are created with for light reading just before the lights are out and should be taken in a lighter tone.

Within the Indian Business landscape, Tata Group is not just looked upon with awe for its sheer size and diversification, but also for its strong code of Business Ethics. In fact, Tata Steel plant at Jamshedpur was the world's first factory to introduce an 8-hour work week which is now been adopted by the international labor organization. Another example was more recently during the 26/11 Taj attack. The Taj staff had locked many of the rooms from the outside with the guests inside to give the impression the rooms were empty, in spite of putting great risk to their own lives.

In this piece we are going to talk about a legacy they are not so well known for, but yet it is a very important to the founding of the group.

The Founder of the group is considered to be Jamsetji Tata, He is attributed for his contributions as “the father of modern industry”. He is considered as the force behind grand projects as the TATA steel plant in Jamshedpur (The city is named after him), IISC India’s best university, Tata Hydroelectric Power Supply Company which today is India’s largest power company Tata Power and the famous Taj hotel in Mumbai.

Though interestingly with an exception of the Taj hotel he had passed away before the setup of the other organizations, yet he is credited as the founder of the enterprises, also he was not the main financier of these projects.

The person who was financier and instrumental in setting up these industries was Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata. Surprisingly he isn't credited as one of the founders or even as one of the directors of the industry. There is a reason to this, he made most of his fortune in the very controversial Opium Trade. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the opium trade was legal in India but not in completely in China. It was considered extremely controversial in both countries for the following reasons.

In India, opium cultivation was forced upon the local farmers by the zamindars as it was extremely profitable. This lead to great famines like the Bengal famine which had a death toll on the local population far exceeding the numbers of other comparable human tragedies of its time like the Holocaust. Millions died every year in these famines as there was less grain production in places like Bengal as they were replaced with opium production.