The next phase of Shapurji's life was his quest for iron ore and other minerals necessary for the formation of an iron and steel company. Jamsetji Tata was one of those rare men who dreamed splendid dreams and translated them into magnificent reality. Ancient India had had a thriving and skilled iron manufactury; the iron column of the Kutab Minar in Delhi bears witness to this; it weighs more than seven tons, and is thought to be three thousand years old. This indicated that not only was there the skill in ancient India, but the raw materials must have been there in some abundance. During the nineteenth century the British rulers in India showed a considerable interest in the possibility of developing the iron and steel industry in the country. Various official reports of prospecting for the raw materials were published. Even as quite a young man, Jamsetji cherished the vision of adding this industry to his other commercial endeavours. Out of these aspirations and his hard work and tenacity, a flourishing industry was created - although Jamsetji himself did not live to see its final blossoming and fruition. But it was out of his far-sightedness, study and tireless travelling both in Europe and America that this great enterprise was achieved, bringing such benefits and wealth to India.
To get such an enterprise off the ground, dreams and visions had to be set temporarily aside and practical difficulties had to be faced and overcome with fortitude, skill and determination. There can be no doubt that Jamsetji Tata was a supremely colourful and powerful personality who was capable of making people share his enthusiasms and to work at his side with a dedication and tirelessness almost equal to his own. He was also very adept at choosing wisely a loyal and talented group of men to assist him in his ambitious aspirations. The idea of producing iron and steel simmered for many years in his mind during which time he studied official reports and visited districts where it was thought that iron ore might be found. But it was not until 1899, when the rules governing the issue of prospecting licenses were amended and relaxed that he took positive steps to involve his company in this up and coming new industry.
In the summer of 1901, Jamsetji Tata travelled to London where he met Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India, whose great desire it was to see industries in India developed with Indian capital. He greeted Mr Tata's project enthusiastically and assured him that he would solicit the support of the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, in such an important venture. Fortified by such promises of official co-operation, Jamsetji returned to India where he obtained prospecting licenses for the Lohara and Peepulgaon areas in the Chanda District. Before setting out again on his travels, he put his son Dorabji in charge of the administrative side of the business and put Shapurji in charge of the actual explorations in the arduous search for iron ore, suitable coal and limestone deposits.It was seemingly a strange choice; Shapurji's brother, Sorab, said that Father had never been very strong or robust; also, he had only fairly recently recovered from a severe illness. To lead a team of exploration in terrain that was certainly wild and rugged, if not actually hostile, called for physical stamina as well as a strong and pertinacious character. To select Shapurji for this task shows yet again Jamsetji's perspicacity and wisdom. The physical challenge was probably the best cure for the young man's ailments and, although he and his band of workers did not succeed in their quest, this preliminary expedition was helpful to the future larger one that accomplished the final break-through; and Shapurji was to be a member of that successful team also.
The Chanda District is situated in the southernmost area of the Central Provinces. Much of the land is covered with dense forest extending over the plains and plateaux alike, surrounding small villages and covering the valley floor that is interlaced with many rivers. There were tigers and leopards in the vicinity and bears were quite frequently seen. The summer and autumn months were extremely hot and unhealthy. Transport was by bullock cart or on horse-back from the town of Nagpur in the north of the District. Nagpur was the centre and headquarters from which the expedition set forth; it was about five hundred miles from Bombay being then the terminus of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Jamsetji had had a house there ever since he set up the Empress Cotton Mills in the town in 1877.
During this early search, Shapurji set up camps in the various blocks which were to be examined for the desired minerals. From 1893 there had been very poor harvests of the rice, linseed, gram and wheat which were the staple crops of the vicinity, and in 1896 and 1897 there was severe famine in the Chanda District. The sparse population had been reduced to great poverty and hardship and shortage of both food and water. It was a predominantly agricultural community, with some fishermen working in small boats along the network of rivers. Sometimes Shapurji's team slept in the open in the bullock carts in which much of their travelling was accomplished. But quite often they shared the meagre hospitality of the villagers and slept in their huts and houses. So once again, Shapurji was thrown into the company of the poverty-stricken and simple people, this time, actually sharing their humble, often squalid, shelter. Years later, as a Member of the British Parliament, he was to demand their freedom and advocate Communism as a means of bettering their lot and offering them education and a decent standard of living. He must have been, I suspect, the only Member of that illustrious body, who had enjoyed the hospitality of these humble villagers. No wonder, therefore, that he spoke with such heartfelt and impassioned oratory on their behalf.
Once more putting Dorabji in overall charge, Jamsetji left India again in 1902 for America where he toured extensively, discussing not only the iron and steel project but looking closely into the cotton industry as well. After much journeying and meeting numerous experts in the metallurgical field, he went to Pittsburgh There he met Mr Julian Kennedy, one of the world's leading metallurgical engineers who advised him that the exploration work must be undertaken by an experienced specialist and not left to amateurs, however dedicated and persevering they might be. It was in Pittsburgh that he was finally introduced to an eminent consultant engineer, Mr Charles Page Perin, who was destined to figure largely in the success story of the Tata Iron and Steel Company. Mr Perin in his turn , being unable to go immediately to India himself, arranged for Mr C.M.Weld to leave for India straight away, even before Mr Tata himself left the United States to return home.
Therefore, in April 1903, Mr Weld, Mr Dorabji Tata and Shapurji set out together for further rugged exploration ., They endured great heat, shortage of drinkable, clean water and suffered many privations. Villages were scattered and for the most part they were in wild and hostile country; they only procured tents after they had been in the field for some time, and lived very primitively and underwent great physical hardship. Mr Weld was to spend four years on the project and he and Shapurji apparently got on well together. Talking to my brother, Beram, soon after Daddy died, Kaikoo Mehta said of this period in Father's life:
"He (Shapurji) went out working with Mr Weld. He was always rather a favourite with J.N. (J.N.Tata) in spite of his eccentricities - he thought him to be a talented young chap. When J.N. made use of him, he was in entire agreement with J.N.'s views regarding the Tata Iron and Steel Company, whereas Dorabji was not. Dorabji also agreed to go but did it in an orthodox manner, whereas Weld and Shapur used to rough it and prospect. He got on well with the labouring classes who used to be forced into service; but this he always condemned...the unofficial means of getting things done in India - tyranny! tyranny! ...imposed by the underlings of the great Sahib. But Weld was a nice chap - they got on well.
"There was disagreement with Dorabji who was always opposed to him. He used to put Shapur down as much as possible in negotiations. Dorabji's views were different - he wanted to back out and said his Father was on a wild goose chase." (It was a wild goose that subsequently was to lay a generous clutch of golden eggs!) "He felt that European expertise was needed. But J.N. always had the idea of making these enterprises entirely Indian...Shapur agreed with him and helped him - of course, as a younger man. But J.N.relied on him and gave serious consideration to his views. But Shapur never got on with Dorabji who could not stand Shapur's unorthodox views. They always held each other in mutual contempt - more on Dorabji's side than Shapurji's"
Kaikoo Mehta is a very reliable witness of Shapur's early days and his relationships within the family. Kaikoo's father, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta was a close and intimate friend of Jamsetji and the two men met regularly at least once a week when they were both in Bombay. Kaikoo also worked for the firm of Tatas and, after an initial period in Japan, worked for the firm in London all his life. He and Shapurji remained close and affectionate friends right up to the time of Shapurji's death in 1936, and he spent most week-ends with us and was really like a second father to all of us children.
Perhaps Mr Spitam Cama, being not quite such an intimate friend as Kaikoo Mehta, is a slightly less dependable chronicler of those early years; but his version of Shapurji's status within the family supports what Kaikoo Mehta contends; he wrote:-
"..Your Father went to school when he was ten. He was always Jamsetji's favourite. J.N. would always say to Shapur and not to Dorab, 'get this - do this..' and formed the habit of entrusting all jobs to him. So that although Dorab handled the financial side of T.I.S.C.O. (Tata Iron & Steel Co:) foundation, it was Shapurji who was given the more difficult and responsible job of the actual prospecting. Dorab never overcame this boyish jealousy, and this, I think, was the cause of most of their later quarrels. They were always at loggerheads as children and remained so as men."
Kaikoo Mehta said on a similar theme that the two brothers, Dorab and Ratan were constantly quarrelling so Jamsetji finally decided to let Dorabji find his own quarters in Malabar Hill. This was in 1898, the year of Dorabji's marriage to Mehrbai Bhaba; but normally he would have continued to live in his Father's house. Ratan had married in 1892 and he and his wife Nawajbai continued to live with Jamsetji until his death in 1904. Kaikoo Mehta also said that 'the Saklatvalas moved out' and that only Shapurji and his mother remained in Esplanade House with Jamsetji, Ratan and Nawajbai. Ratan and Shapurji always remained affectionate and good friends up to the time of Ratan's early death in 1918. But, of course, it was Dorabji as the elder son, who always had more power and influence in the firm.
According to Sorab Saklatvala, after working with Mr Weld and Dorabji for a while, it was decided to give up prospecting in the Chanda district; at this point, Dorabji left this work and Shapurji and Mr Weld went on alone to continue the search in another area called Dondi-Lohara
While Shapurji and Mr Weld were on their adventurous task, the health of J.N.Tata was causing all the family great concern. He was persuaded to have a short holiday in Egypt and, from there, Dorabji, who was already in Europe, insisted on taking him to Vienna to consult an eminent doctor there. While he was passing through Naples he learned of the death of his wife in Bombay. This shock and grief could only make his own condition worse. He went to take treatment in a clinic in Vienna. Dorabji and Mehrbai were with him; and Shapurji's youngest brother Beram, who was studying metallurgy in Berlin at this time, also went there. The ailing Jamsetji went then with his family doctor to stay in Baden Nauheim but his condition quickly deteriorated and Dorabji and his wife ,who had stayed on in Vienna, were sent for. There, surrounded by his son and daughter-in-law, his nephew Beram, and his cousin, R.D.Tata, he died, on 19th May, 1904. They all accompanied his body to England where he was buried in Brookwood Cemetry in Woking .His marble mausoleum, and those of his two sons, still stand in the Parsi burial ground there.
I can find no record of where Shapurji was when he learned of the death of his uncle, but it seems likely that he was still in the wilds with Mr Weld. His brother Sorab, writing to my brother Beram after Daddy's death, said that Shapurji was very depressed by the loss of his uncle. There is no doubt that there had always been a very especial bond between the two of them; apart from the fact that Jamsetji thought highly of the young Shapur's capabilities, he was also the eldest son of his favourite young sister, Jerbai.. Apparently, when Jamsetji was making various dispositions on his deathbed, he particularly commended to the care of his sons ,his sister and Shapurji's mother, Jerbai. Partly due to this very strong affection from Jamsetji and partly due to divergencies in character, Shapurji was disliked by Dorabji and also by R.D.Tata, another influential cousin. Apart from his natural grief, Shapur must also have felt personally vulnerable when the loving protection of his powerful uncle was taken away from him. His brother not only said that he was very depressed but also that he almost began to despair of his future. This blow must have been even harder to bear, coming as it probably did while Shapurji was experiencing such hardships, loneliness and toil in the distant tracts and jungles of Central and Eastern India. His fears for his future were certainly not unfounded, as will be explained in a later chapter.
After the death of his father, Dorabji returned to India and took charge of the firm, including, of course, the planned Iron and Steel project. During this time there were other prospectors in the field and the search for minerals became highly competitive. Hope of success was diminishing. But, soon after this, one Mr P.N.Bose had retired from his post in the Geological Survey and had taken employment with the Maharajah of Mourbanj. He wrote to Tata Sons & Company (according to my Father's letter quoted below, this was probably at Father's instigation.) inviting them to go and inspect the iron ore in that State.
After a difficult train journey, Dorabji Tata, Mr Perin, Mr Weld and Shapurji were received in the capital by Mr Bose and the Maharajah who extended to them a most cordial welcome. Dorabji then went on to Calcutta and the rest of the party went to investigate the Mourbhanj territory. They found that the State covered more than four thousand square miles, and at its centre there lay a vast tract of densely forested hills, at that time, still largely unexplored. It was to this inhospitable land that the Maharajah of the day had invited the experts from Tata's to venture. It must have been an awe inspiring and daunting undertaking. The country was wild and primitive; and in the jungles elephants and other big game had had the place to themselves almost since time began. It had remained virtually untouched by successive conquerors. But this time the efforts of the Tata explorers were crowned with complete success and all they had looked for was discovered in abundance. But after enduring the perils, stresses and adversities of the jungles, Shapurji succumbed to malaria, as did also the unhappy Mr Weld who, when suffering from the disease was forced to walk thirty miles or so to the nearest railway. To add to the distressing symptoms of the disease itself, Shapurji's servant administered too large a dose of the medicine they carried with them, which resulted in the permanent paralysis of his toes. All his life, he always wore soft boots made specially for him and during the early stages of his sickness he walked on crutches for several months. This illness was to have a more profound effect on his life than any of his experiences hitherto. For it was as a result of his long indisposition that he visited the hydropathic spa in Matlock in Derbyshire when he came to England in 1905 - and that is where he met my mother. But that story will find its romantic place in another chapter.
Meanwhile, Dorabji worked indefatigably organising the finance, the licenses, the setting up of the company and putting together all the knowledge and facts that so many experts in various fields had collected and the great Tata Iron and Steel Works were finally created in Jamshedpur, a city thus named to honour its great founder.
But with his uncle dead, his health failing and faced with antagonism from his cousins, Dorabji and R.D.Tata, Shapurji was gradually being pushed out of the business and was being largely ignored while the structure of the company was taking shape. It was probably to remove him from the centre of activity that Dorabji took Shapurji to England in 1905.
In the letter from Shapurji to an unknown recipient to which I have already referred, written probably some time in 1926, he wrote the following about his contribution to the Iron and Steel project:-
"Then comes the unjust financial treatment of myself in business matters. Regardless of our ability in other directions, J.N.T. with his patriarchal guardianship destined us to work in and live for the firm of the family, even in one letter describing his two sons and eight nephews as ten grand-children of his father under his equal responsibility. Our compensation for work and loyalty was fixity of tenure. Sir Dorabji's disregard of these unwritten moral contracts is really an abuse of his legal might.
"The iron scheme was impossible without the part I played, and for which I had even asked J.N.T. to cable and cancel the Paris programme fixed for me, as the new mining department was not worked by anybody with a faith in it. It was predicted to be an exploration ending as an exploration. The Central Provinces explorations in parts defined by Jamsetji did prove a failure, and when I persevered going further eastward Sir Dorabji wrote scolding me and said that the Tatas were nothing to the iron scheme, that the iron scheme was nothing to the Tatas beyond keeping faith with Lord George Hamilton for prospecting Lohara and adjoining areas: that J.N.T.'s health could not warrant new responsibilities and Dorab himself had no desire to assume them. I pacified Sir Dorabji and we reached the Dhondi ores. Then arose commercial difficulties of long distance between the three requisite minerals. Weld was instructed by Sir Dorabji to wind up and make a full report of technical data leaving commercial propositions to the judgement of commercial experts. Weld, too, was eager to return home after a long delay. We hurriedly revisited Padampur Lime Fields and went over to the coal area and stayed with a colliery manager, Mr Sheridan. There, unwary words fell from Mrs Sheridan's mouth about Mr Maclaren's quarrel with the Bengal Iron Company and how he was about to disclose to them a new find of iron ores etc. I pricked up my ears, but Weld got angry and impatient at my suggestions of this last effort and he felt on that basis he would never be able to leave India. We both wrote our respective views to Bombay. Before Burjorji Padshah's reply reprimanding me arrived, Weld and I had made peace and he gave Shrinivas Rao full technical instructions for a hasty survey, and he went away. The Mourbhanj ores were at last located. In Nagpur I got little support to follow this up. Through parties that Shrinivas Rao had found in Cuttack, I got Mr P.Bose to write to me inviting business terms in my capacity as holding a power of Attorney for J.N.Tata. My quality of perseverence was still receiving discouragement, but at last, with a promise to Bezonji to make this my last effort, I got necessary funds and travelled up to Paripada and Mourbhanj, stayed there four days and settled a good provisional agreement on new terms signing same on the strength of my power of attorney for J.N.Tata. This was the birth of the Tata Iron Company.instead of a bunch of exploration reports; and these ores were prevented from going to the Bengal Iron Company; I was working as a member of the family in the family's firm, in hopes of permanent remunerative interest for the future. My actual salary was Rs.50 a month for the period of hardest work and discoveries in regions which had never figured in any Tata mind or schemes. .........."
Jamsetji thought of Shapur as being persevering, while Dorabji saw this same quality in him as troublesome obstinacy. There seems little doubt that Shapurji's obstinacy had extended the search for iron, limestone and coal until they were eventually found. Had he been a more obedient and docile character, it is quite possible that the Tata Iron and Steel Company would never have been formed; it certainly would have been much delayed. There is also little doubt that after the minerals had been located and the company was being structured, Shapurji received no recognition of his contribution and was sent to England with Sir Dorabji and his wife in 1905 largely to get him away from the central organisation in Bombay and Jamshedpur. But it was out of this family rejection that his destiny was to be fulfilled; apart from his contribution to Indian freedom and politics in general, I am myself profoundly thankful that his European life was imposed on him - how else would I have been born? And I love life, am grateful for it, and would not have missed it for anything! So let us move on to the next chapter and see how Shapurji fared in England after his arrival there in November 1905.