Before I start this narrative, I had better explain the title of the book; I have myself often been irritated when an author chooses a periphrastic title and fails to tell the reader the significance of it until almost the last page,by which time I am usually beyond caring. The fifth commandment appears in the Bible, in Exodus, chapter 20, verse 12, wherein it is said: "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." That is exactly what I am doing in writing this story; I write a book; I carve a headstone.
The only memorial to my father is a plain and modest marble tablet at the foot of his mother's grave in the Parsi burial ground in Brookwood Cemetry in Woking, under which his ashes lie. It reads: "Shapurji D.Saklatvala, eldest son of Dorabji and Jerbai Saklatvala, mourned by his sorrowing wife Sehri and their five children. Born Bombay 28th March, 1874. Died London 16th January 1936. Member of Parliament 1922/23 and 1924/29. Nothing but death could end his courage and determination in the cause of humanity. Nothing but such determination could conquer death. His work lives on."
My mother has no memorial stone. Instead, with the help of the Derbyshire County Council, I had planted a hundred and twenty trees on the hillside beside the cottage where she was born in the village of Tansley. It seemed a more creative way of commemorating her life, for she always loved nature and especially her Derbyshire 'heimat' - although she left her village when she was eighteen and lived to be eighty-eight, she never wholly lost her native accent or the colourful and unique phrases of her corner of England.
While this is primarily an account of Father's life, his story is inextricably entwined with the life of Sally Marsh who became Sehri Saklatvala when she married him in the summer of 1907. They were a diverse but devoted couple and each one fully appreciated the qualities of the other; Shapurji always said that he would not have been able to devote himself whole-heartedly to politics had he not had a sensible wife to whom he could with confidence entrust the well-being of the family. And although Sehri survived him by more than forty-one years, she spoke of him continually in her everyday affairs, quoting his views if ever she wanted to make a point in an argument and still following his advice, given years before, when she had to cope with illness or any crisis or dilemma. It was probably her constant devotion and references to him that have kept him very much in the forefront of my mind; for although I was only sixteen when he died fifty-one years ago, I still use his views as my yardstick and quite consciously refer to what I think would be his opinion when making important decisions.
Shapurji was born a hundred and twelve years ago as I write. His family situation was a complicated one which had a profound influence on his subsequent philosophies and conduct.
His great-uncle, Nusserwanji Tata, was not born into oppulence but he was a creative man of vision and determination and it was he who founded the great business house of Tata, one of the first multiple companies to emerge on the Indian commercial scene. He had fulfilled a childhood dream and planned and laid the foundations of a lavishly splendid dwelling, Esplanade House, completed after his death by his only son Jamsetji, who had worked closely with his father and whose contribution had helped to insure the prosperity and growth of the family firm; he had four daughters, Ratanbai, Maneckbai, Virbai and Jerbai. It was this youngest daughter, who was affianced in childhood to Dorabji Saklatvala, ( the son of one of Nusserwanji's business partners, Shapurji Saklatvala the elder). Dorabji and Jerbai were my Father's parents. Daddy was their second child and the eldest of four sons and he therefore enjoyed the confidence of his father, more than his three younger brothers. They lived modestly in the Fort area of Bombay.
The Saklatvala family moved to Esplanade House and all its grandeur when Shapurji was about fourteen and when Jamsetji Tata was living there with his wife and two sons, Dorab, 15 years older than my father, and Ratanji, some three years older than Shapur. Jamsetji made a home for all his nephews, saying that they were all grandsons of his Father, Nusserwanji. Esplanade House was mercifully large enough to accomodate this extended family; it was built round a courtyard, in the classical style and furnished in the European manner; for Jamsetji was a great traveller. He was also an avid reader and had a well-stocked and much-used library, which doubtless enriched my father's childhood..
J.N.Tata was one of the leading lights of the Parsi community. This, of course, was when India was part of the British Empire, the 'jewel in the Crown', and the Indians were a subject people with virtually no voice in their own affairs or Government. But, on the whole, the Parsis were looked upon with favour by the British rulers - they were competent entrepreneurs and traders, cultured and educated very much in the Western mould, and not averse to co-operating with the British Raj more readily than most of the Hindu and Muslim populations. The Parsis had come to India as refugees about the year AD936 when Muslim domination in Iran (Persia), made it very dangerous for the Zoroastrians to practice their religion there. They had sought and obtained permission to settle on the West coast of India in the area of Bombay. There they have lived harmoniously with their hosts ever since, maintaining their Zoroastrian faith. Like the Jews in Europe they have perpetuated their own religion and traditions and, though comparatively few in number, have kept themselves intact as an integral fraternity. They gained the reputation of being industrious, intelligent, courageous and usually wealthy. They were also lavishly charitable. (Indeed, they are so still). I have always described us as being zoologically Persian but geographically and patriotically Indian; but since I have inherited from my father his belief in the universality of man and his dislike of anything that divides us into competing groups either of religion or of race, I offer the reader these tit-bits of information light-heartedly; and inasmuch as we all inherit and are shaped by our history, a slight knowledge of our forbears might help the reader to understand and know my father better.
Shapurji wrote to a friend in the mid-1920's, describing his and his father's view of the family relationships; whether or not it is a true picture of the situation as it really was, it reveals his attitude and feelings about his father vis-a-vis the Tatas. All these years after the events, I am not in a position dispassionately to judge the rights and wrongs of the case; for the purpose of this book, they are not important; it is Shapurji's deeply held convictions and beliefs that are important in trying to understand his later political development. Unfortunately the first page of the letter is missing and I am therefore unable to know the precise date or the name of the recipient but it must have been written about 1926, because there was a court case in 1927 and this document appears to have been written a short time before that.
"...after years of injustice and suffering, my father has gone but. through him,the duty to our past ancestors still remains. I have to hand over that burden to my children and towards them it is my equally great duty to keep on trying with unceasing efforts to leave to them the heritage of duty with their rights under the existent state of social structure, while it lasts and dominates over chances of life.
" The Tata fortune began with Nusserwanji Tata" (He was J.N.Tata's father.) " but in all early initiative stages and efforts there was an equally valuable partnership and substantial co-operation of Shapurji Saklatvala" (My father is referring here to his grandfather after whom he was named.) " When the latter died, he left entirely to the honour and discretion of the former, the fixing and distribution of the fortune to the surviving heirs, of whom my father Dorabji was the sole male heir and a special favourite almost undesirably spoilt. An ordinary trustee would have safeguarded the business rights of such an heir and also created a careful trust for the future safety of such an heir who was then a helpless minor of fourteen. This was not done but the unusual course was adopted of handing over all jewelry, house property and rupees 90,000/- to the widow, without trust conditions and with further assurance that the son Dorabji, being about to become the Trustee's own son-in-law, would have nothing to want. Well, he had to lead all his life in want and from this age he was dispossessed of all wealth as well as business rights in the firm. Further, all throughout we, his children, were brought up positively to disrespect and even to despise him with the open doctrine that every Saklatvala influence must be wrong and every Tata quality the crystal clear virtue. The open misappropriation of the rights of our father was explained to us as a thing to be made up to us and in us. Nothing of the sort has been done. I grew old enough to discover the most cruel wrong done to my father and through him to our future stock. The abominable trait in the Tata lesson to us of despising our father I see now burning again in the heart of Sir Dorabji in the relationship between myself and my children." (Sir Dorabji was J.N.Tata's elder son and my father's cousin.) " Any person of honourable social instincts would be horrified by the superior Tatas in a sort of continuous action. I am taking it with a philosophic tolerance as a fatalistic hatred that sometimes exists between closely related families.
The economic wrong stood for all these years under the excuse that Dorabji as a ward was disobedient, vicious and uncontrollable. I visualise now that he was a stripling lad of fourteen and the persons who dispossessed him were Nusserwanji, over forty years of age, a powerful,capable administrator, and Jamsetji Tata over twenty-five years of age and possessed of remarkable tact, talent and strong will.???
.........Somehow an idea has always prevailed, and (been) encouraged by the latter-day Tatas, as if Jamsetji Tata had freely or even reasonably spent sums upon our living, health and education. This is absolutely untrue, and though our needs were great, with the ruination of our Father, we had to do everything in life inadequately in proportion to very slender means. When my brother Beram became of school age, the question of paying fees for the fifth child became a huge problem. There was no Tata help for him. Year after year to the very last he proved to be one of India's best brains." (This brother Beram became a renowned metallurgist in Pittsburgh, USA). "I had to go periodically to the Rector of our College, explain our household poverty, and thus got Beram educated without payment, A.B.C.- Class to his final B.Sc. Degree, on the charity of the kind-hearted Jesuit Fathers. For his post-graduate work he obtained the official Tata loan which he paid back with a per cent interest...no supplementary assistance was ever extended to us. Our respect for Jamsetji was our voluntary contribution of a moral value."
Bearing in mind that this letter was written, with such a conviction that a great wrong had been done to his father all those years before, one can imagine what an impact such a situation must have had upon him as a young boy. It is almost certain that both his father and his mother had related to him, as the eldest son, the story of how his father had been deprived of his due patrimony, (for, rightly or wrongly, this was their contention). Thus he was made aware that his father felt agrieved and wronged by the Tata family; and Shapurji, like the young Hamlet, was convinced that his Uncle, Jamsetji Tata had virtually destroyed his Father - not that he had actually taken his life but, in Shapurji's eyes,he had totally blighted it and robbed him of success, position and prestige. For the firm, initiated by Nusserwanji, grew and blossomed under the visionary helmsmanship of Jamsetji; but Dorabji Saklatvala had virtually no share in the prosperity, though his father had been a founding partner in the business.
There is no official record of the fact but Father had told my mother shortly before their marriage that his parents had separated and were living apart. My mother told me of this years later. Shapurji remained devoted to both his parents and must have felt very keenly the lack of his father's presence throughout his boyhood. Again there is no record of how often Dorabji was able to see his sons but, since Shapurji remained fondly attached to him, it would seem that they probably met quite often. Notes made from a conversation soon after my Father's death, betweem Shapurji's life-long friend, Kaikoo Mehta, and my brother Beram, merely say that Granddad was hardly ever there in the mills in Bombay. Another early acquaintance, Mr Spitam Cama, in a letter to my brother, writes that he first met Shapurji in 1890 and goes on to say: "... At this time, as far as I remember, his father Dorab was away in Madras. It was Jamsetji Tata who was the leading light in Esplanade House, and in the Saklatvala household." It would appear that the separation was not so much an emotional breach between the mother and father as a physical separation caused by the Tatas sending Dorabji Saklatvala to work in their branches away from Bombay, and at the same time, making a home for his wife and children in Bombay away from him.
This means that Shapurji as a teen-ager was brought up in the household and in the care of J.N.Tata who had been described to him by his absent father as the son of the man who had wronged his father. Had Shapurji been able to dislike Jamsetji it might have been easier for him to cope with emotionally. But Jamsetji always had been especially fond of Shapurji and saw in him from a very early age the possibilities of great potential; he gave him alot of attention and had great faith in his abilities, both as a boy and as a man. Indeed, this deep affection between Jamsetji and the young Shapur, led to Jamsetji's elder son , Dorab, being jealously resentful of this young cousin, fifteen years his junior. As boys and as men, they were always antagonistic towards each other; the breach was never healed. And while the young Shapur must have enjoyed and been flattered by the paternal attitude of his uncle, he probably felt rather guilty about it, remembering that it was that same uncle and that uncle's father who had caused such unhappiness to his parents. Also it seems from Shapurji's 1926 (?) letter that Uncle Jamsetji always belittled Dorabji Saklatvala and encouraged the sons to disparage him. I can well imagine that a sensitive boy such as my father undoubtedly was, must have been torn apart by such conflicting loyalties. Also, he definitely saw his father as an under-dog and as a man not enjoying the prosperity of other members of the family. This may well account for his early sympathies with the really poor people who abounded in the city of Bombay. Indeed, Kaikoo Mehta, Spitam Cama and his own brother, Sorab, all say that at a very early age he was perplexed and concerned by the differences between the rich and the poor, between men of wealth and influence and esteem, and those who were despised and humiliated by their poverty. Much of this could have stemmed from the differences in status he observed between his affluent and influential uncle and his much poorer and somewhat despised father.
His references to the kindness and charity of the Jesuit Fathers in educating free of charge his youngest brother Beram are also very significant. There has been much speculation as to whether or not Shapurji as a young man was baptised in the Catholic faith. The question was raised legally in connection with Shapurji's rights to benefit under certain family trusts. My father contended, in a document submitted to Counsel for legal opinion,that he was NOT baptised into the Roman Catholic Church as alleged by the Trustees and that he had at no time entered into the Roman or any other church. It was true, he explained, that "...many years ago while in Bombay, he was a student of Religions, and for this purpose he not only studied the Zoroastrian Religion but also the Christian Religion and he had discourses with the Roman Catholic Fathers of St Xavier's College in Bombay where he was educated, and having regard to this fact it was somehow published in a Roman Catholic newspaper of Goa that he had adopted the Roman Catholic Religion, but immediately upon this being brought to his notice, he, within a very few days, published a notice in the same newspaper, denying that he had embraced that religion." It appears that the newspaper report came to the notice of his cousin, Dorabji, who had questioned Shapurji on the subject. Shapurji had assured him that the report was false and had shown him his own publication in the newspaper denying the unfounded allegation. I think it can safely and definitively be assumed that any dip into the baptismal waters of Catholicism was an intellectual and philosophical exercise rather than a blinding flash of revelation and unquestioning faith.
Like most Parsi families of that time, the Tatas and Saklatvalas were devout Zoroastrians and great importance was laid on religious observance. At seven years old, Shapurji had his navjote ceremony, formally initiating him into the Zoroastrian faith. This, of course, entailed his learning the prayers and fundamental teachings of the religion, and he was invested with the 'sudra' (a fine cotton shift or shirt) and the 'kusti' (a holy cord of lambswool worn like a girdle round the waist). It is a solemn ceremony conducted by a priest and witnessed by the child's family and their friends. After the ceremony, gifts are given to the child and a meal is served and there is a family party. It is similar to the Jewish Bar-Mizvah' or the Christian confirmation ceremony. Later, when all four brothers were in their teens, they all attended a priestly seminary and underwent the first of the two stages for becoming a priest. This was quite usual among the families whose sons would be acceptable as members of the priesthood; it did not mean that they intended to become fully-fledged priests. The course was quite stringent and lasted for about a year. At the end of the course, the boys were presented to the Head Priest in the Temple and conducted certain religious rites.
Having thus been imbued with the teachings of the Parsi religion, the young Shapurji was taken from the vernacular school where he had started his education, and was transferred to St Xaviers School which was run by the Jesuit Fathers. His natural inclinations and interest in things spiritual, nurtured by the solemn teachings of Zoroastrianism, now turned themselves to the religion of his new environment to which his change of school exposed him. His brother Sorab, writing to my brother Beram in 1937 said of him: " As he grew up his tendency was to take things much more seriously than boys of his own age. Personally I believe he was very greatly influenced by the austere and simple life of the Jesuit Fathers of the school,more so than any of us or any of the other non-christian boys. He seldom took part in any games and did not seem to enjoy the company of rowdy boys. He had a circle of friends of his own. Though in fairly good health he was physically never very strong and that fact also accounts for his not taking part in games or not freely mixing with his school companions. All the same he was willing to be helpful to others and was fond of joining debating societies or similar organisations. When he entered St Xavier's College in 1893 his outlook on life became still more serious and the influence of the Jesuit Fathers still more pronounced. Philosophy and religion attracted him to such a degree that he even neglected his other studies. He failed to take his Arts Degree and would have made a second attempt but illness intervened. This prolonged illness made him weaker still physically but perhaps spiritually stronger. This to a certain extent filled him with bitterness which greatly changed his outlook on life. His religious propensities deepened and he began taking an interest in and freely mixing with the poorer classes. He seemed to be greatly perplexed by life's vagaries and became indecisive as to what profession in life to follow. He continued his touch with the Jesuit Fathers and the old school and took an interest in many Catholic institutions, at the same time maintaining contact with Parsi institutions also."
Shapurji's closest friend through school and college and all through his life thereafter, was Kaikoo Mehta. Speaking of this period in Father's life, he said: "At College also we were together. During College, rumours and complaints that he was too thick with Catholics arose - all matters including religion. No doubt, he agreed. I can't really say what influence. We did not talk about these discussions. But evidently things seem to have developed, which made people say he had been influenced. But he still acted as an orthodox Parsi. But ALWAYS, even in early days, he always had a feeling for the poor and the underdog. He always used to go about and see these people in their cottages, discuss matters and sympathise with them and discussed the forces which kept them poor."
Another old acquaintance of Shapurji (I would not go so far as to describe him as a friend though they remained in touch for most of their lives), was Spitam Cama. He wrote, also to my brother in 1937, "During 1892-1895 when Shapurji was between 18 and 21 years of age, we were together in St Xaviour's College. He shone there in mathematics and English literature and was altogether a brilliant student. During these years we met almost every evening at Marker's Ground in Bombay, where we played cricket or football or some other sport. With us were the Mehta boys, Patel, Petit and,sometimes,
Shapurji's brothers. It was during this period also that Shapurji made his first attempt at any sort of public speaking. This was at the 'Gwalia Circle', a club of which he was one of the founders. Among his fellow members were the sons of Sir Pherozeshaw Mehta, J.R.Patel, subsequently a leading lawyer, S.Cama, young Lalkaka who became a Collector in Karachi, and J.B.Petit who was destined to sit in the Indian Legislative Assembly. This club was a well organised affair with reading rooms and a meeting place in the Kamballa Hill district. There the young men used to meet for debates and discussions. These were mostly of a purely literary nature, and nothing political was ever brought up. Shapurji, with considerable debating experience within the College itself and full of enthusiasm for things literary was a leading figure at these semi-public functions. ...
"1900-1901. Some time during this period Shapurji was quite seriously ill. ..... He seemed to be toying rather seriously with the idea of christianity. It should be emphasised that, although all the teachers at St Xaviers were Jesuits, he had never - apparently, been influenced at College towards their religion. "(This does not tally with the views expressed by Uncle Sorab, my father's brother, above. I think his brother's views were probably the more accurate and knowledgeable of the two.) " It was during and particularly after this period of illness that he first showed such tendencies....Shapurji's tendencies in the direction of Catholicism greatly displeased his family, and led to frequent quarrels. In these, Jamsetji himself never joined, but he was always very fond of Shapurji, showing him an affection and trust greater than he showed to his own boys, Dorab and Ratan."..........
Certainly Father always had a certain regard for nuns and priests as teachers, contending that, because they were not encumbered with the frictions and worries of family life and other mundane matters, they were able to take a greater interest in the development of children in their care. For this reason, he sent my younger brother and myself to a convent school. But he stipulated that we should not attend services in the chapel, nor were we to be given any religious instruction. He encouraged us always to read about and discuss religions but he did not want us to be influenced by any one teacher in a matter so wide and so important. But he clearly thought that the simple and austere way of life of the nuns would serve as a good guide and example for us to follow. He believed that the core and the fundamental tenets of most religions, led people to a good life. But the ritual of religions he thought to be divisive and the cause of much human dispute. But clearly religion and philosophy were the predominant passions of his early life and far outweighed all other interests. The quest only ended many years later when he finally embraced Communism as his creed.