The Tatas traditionally have always had close relations with the Parsi community. Apart from the Sir Ratan and Sir Dorab Tata trusts that assisted countless Parsis, amongst others, the Tatas also created three housing colonies with Jamsetji Tata co-founding the Parsi Lying-In Hospital. They, along with Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Sir Cowasji Jehangir, Sir Dinshaw Petit and the Wadia family laid the foundations for Parsi philanthropy, to be followed later by the Godrej, Shapoorji Pallonji and Poonawalla families. Before them countless Parsis bestowed their largesse on the community. Hospitals, schools, cemeteries, dakhmas, fire temples, housing colonies/buildings were set up all over India; the philanthropic Zoroastrians even assisted co-religionists in Iran. The Iranian Zoroastrians over a century later reciprocated the favor by funding several Zoroastrian community centers in North America and even in the UK and Australia.
The philanthropy initiated by the Parsis for their members and others earned them much esteem. That regard was apparent in the fawning admiration the multitude bestowed on industrialist Ratan Tata when he passed away on October 9, 2024. He was given a state funeral and an over-abundance of complimentary coverage in the national Press, television channels, social media and public events. His body lay in state for some hours, even the funeral was a public affair with shouts of "amar rahé (long live)!” coupled with red-coated trumpeters and others.
All laudable characteristics, quotable quotes and acts of philanthropy were attributed to him. The distinction between what the house of Tatas had accomplished and he had done was blurred. They were synonymous in some quarters. In addition to having headed possibly the largest industrial house in the country, Ratan was revered as a visionary, saint, philosopher, ascetic. There is talk of posthumously awarding him the Bharat Ratna, the highest award the government can bestow on a person. [The same award had been given to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who three years later declared an Emergency suspending all fundamental rights including habeas corpus which the Supreme Court notoriously upheld and L. K. Advani of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the man most responsible for the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 that subsequently resulted in thousands of deaths.]
What no doubt endeared Ratan to so many was his voiced concern for the common man. J. R. D. Tata also had this trait, offering rides to strangers waiting at bus stops near his residence. But JRD did not avail of social media to reach out to people. (Social media was not the force it was at that time. JRD died in 1993 in Switzerland so was accorded a more sober and dignified funeral.)
Largely, Parsi philanthropists kept and keep a low profile. No lavish weddings and parties, no ostentatious displays of wealth. The low profile Bombay Dyeing scion Neville Wadia consistently turned down Parsiana’s requests for interviews but conceded after we requested his close confidante, lawyer Shiavax Vakil, to put in a word. Pallonji Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji and Company and his two sons were media shy. We managed a short, on-the-spot interview with Pallonji following a felicitation to him by the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC) event at the West End Hotel in 2005. He was a good friend of Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman and one-time WZCC head Minoo Shroff and so probably attended the event.
JRD and Ratan were also media shy. JRD would have had reason to dislike the community due to the shabby manner in which the then traditionalists treated his mother. Suzanne (later named Soonoo) was French and after having her navjote performed sought to enter a fire temple and have her body consigned to the Towers of Silence when she died. The orthodox Jeejeebhoys successfully opposed her admission to the community while the Petit family had rallied to her defense. Since the 1908 Petit vs Jeejeebhoy judgment, the children of Parsi women married to non-Parsis are not considered Parsis. But if JRD held any grudge he did not show it, telling the late statesman Minoo Masani that he wore a sudreh and showing a section of the garment as proof. JRD died in Geneva and was buried in Paris where he was born; Ratan opted for the Worli crematorium. Priests from various religious faiths prayed over his corpse. Though in his earlier years Ratan kept the community at bay, preferring to appoint non Parsis to senior posts, in later years he appeared closer to the community and even appointed several Parsis, including his half-brother Noel, to the Tata trusts.
He, of course, did select Cyrus Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji family as the chairman of Tata Sons after him for a five-year term but unceremoniously sacked him six months prior to its expiry for reasons he never explained. Ratan said he would carry the secret "to his grave.” His resentment towards Cyrus prevented him from even extending his condolences to the Mistry family on Cyrus’s untimely and tragic death in a car accident, ironically on a return trip from Udvada. The Mistrys had spent several crores of rupees restoring the sacred Iranshah Atash Behram structure in the coastal, south Gujarat pilgrimage center. Ratan too had been to Udvada at the time of the first Iranshah Udvada Utsav in 2015 when he received a standing ovation from the attendees. Dr Cyrus Poonawalla had sponsored the three-day gathering, just as he had the 2013 World Zoroastrian Congress in Bombay along with the Godrejs. On behalf of the Mistry family Cyrus’s elder brother, Shapoor, condoled Ratan’s death, terming him "a leader who left a lasting mark on the evolution of the Tata Group.”
Ratan’s influence on the Tata Group and Indian industry will be objectively judged in the years to come. Did JRD’s support for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s infamous Emergency and Ratan’s ties to the ruling BJP mar the standing of the Group or propel it forward? Emotions and hyperbole impede any objective assessment of their contribution to the company and the country. But two characteristics stand out: their concern for the common person and empathy for street dogs. People entering the Tata headquarters located in Bombay House could not fail to notice the stray dogs sleeping in the foyer. Whether it is the Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for animals founded by the Petits (that JRD chaired for many years and raised donations for, while Ratan served it briefly), the Sir J. J. Hospital funded by the first baronet, the Tata Memorial Hospital established by the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, the Bombay University Convocation Hall funded by Sir Cowasji Jehangir, the hallmarks of Parsi philanthropy will always remain a lasting legacy in this great, cosmopolitan metropolis.