SWADESHI STEEL
GIP Railway Chief Commissioner Sir Fredrick Upcott had famously said that if Indians ever made steel to British standards, he would eat every pound of it. Presenting the story of India’s first steel mill
For a boy born into a family of Parsi priests, Jamsetji N u s s e r w a n j i Tata’s material ac complishments were rather impressive. Cotton, textile, ho tels and steel. But for the founder of India’s largest in dustrial house, the material acquisition was only the half of it—wealth, he said, had to be created for others, not one self, and built not on the back of slave labour but by a labour force whose dignity and de velopment was just as important as their financial welfare. He wanted “well-ventilated spaces’’ for the workers and parks for their children. In his instructions to his son Dorab on the setting up of the steel township later called Jamshedpur, he put down his wishes in four simple lines on an ordinary postcard: “Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick-growing variety. Be sure that there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens. Reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks. Earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques and Christian churches.’’ The Tatas are today reaping the harvest of that man’s vision, for what is a company’s core but its employees? In 2002 Jamshedpur was the first In dian town to get an ISO 14001 certificate for municipal and town services. Jamsetji died in 1904, years before the first steel ingot was manufactured at the Tata Iron and Steel Company in 1912. It was a momentous event, for Tisco epitomised Swadeshi The hyper-nationalist mood in the air today and the orgy of coverage of the King-Kong sized deal may make Corus sound like the crowning glory but it was those early years that were really pioneering The British had only scorn for Jamsetji’s steel dreams—the chief commissioner of the Great Indian Peninsular Rail way, Sir Fredrick Upcott, even swore he would eat every pound of steel if Indians ever managed to make steel to British standards. Every step therefore was a giant leap. The plant was built against near impossible odds in a poorly connected but mineral-rich tribal settlement called Sakchi, later rechris tened Jamshedpur. It was an all-Indian enterprise: financed by Indian capital, built by In dian hands. If India’s Thum ba space centre was built by rocket parts ferried to the site on the backs of bicycles, as captured in the famous Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph India’s first steel mill was built with material brought to the site on a fleet of bullock carts. http://epaper.timesofindia.com 4:52 PM
GIP Railway Chief Commissioner Sir Fredrick Upcott had famously said that if Indians ever made steel to British standards, he would eat every pound of it. Presenting the story of India’s first steel mill
For a boy born into a family of Parsi priests, Jamsetji N u s s e r w a n j i Tata’s material ac complishments were rather impressive. Cotton, textile, ho tels and steel. But for the founder of India’s largest in dustrial house, the material acquisition was only the half of it—wealth, he said, had to be created for others, not one self, and built not on the back of slave labour but by a labour force whose dignity and de velopment was just as important as their financial welfare. He wanted “well-ventilated spaces’’ for the workers and parks for their children. In his instructions to his son Dorab on the setting up of the steel township later called Jamshedpur, he put down his wishes in four simple lines on an ordinary postcard: “Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick-growing variety. Be sure that there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens. Reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks. Earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques and Christian churches.’’ The Tatas are today reaping the harvest of that man’s vision, for what is a company’s core but its employees? In 2002 Jamshedpur was the first In dian town to get an ISO 14001 certificate for municipal and town services. Jamsetji died in 1904, years before the first steel ingot was manufactured at the Tata Iron and Steel Company in 1912. It was a momentous event, for Tisco epitomised Swadeshi The hyper-nationalist mood in the air today and the orgy of coverage of the King-Kong sized deal may make Corus sound like the crowning glory but it was those early years that were really pioneering The British had only scorn for Jamsetji’s steel dreams—the chief commissioner of the Great Indian Peninsular Rail way, Sir Fredrick Upcott, even swore he would eat every pound of steel if Indians ever managed to make steel to British standards. Every step therefore was a giant leap. The plant was built against near impossible odds in a poorly connected but mineral-rich tribal settlement called Sakchi, later rechris tened Jamshedpur. It was an all-Indian enterprise: financed by Indian capital, built by In dian hands. If India’s Thum ba space centre was built by rocket parts ferried to the site on the backs of bicycles, as captured in the famous Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph India’s first steel mill was built with material brought to the site on a fleet of bullock carts. http://epaper.timesofindia.com 4:52 PM
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