25 Facts About Ardeshir Godrej

Ardeshir Godrej was born in 1868 as the first of six children to Burjorji and Dosibai Gootherajee.

In 1890, Ardeshir Godrej married Bachu, who had just turned eighteen.

Ardeshir Godrej rarely spoke of his loss, nor did he ever remarry.

The fine details of the case are not known, but according to his biography, it went well until, towards the end when Ardeshir Godrej refused to acknowledge that his client had visited a particular place because there was no hard evidence that he had done so.

Not allowing himself to be convinced, the client had to find a replacement, and Ardeshir Godrej returned to Bombay and gave up the law altogether.

In 1895, Ardeshir Godrej visited Merwanji Muncherji Cama, a friend of his father's, and who was highly respected for his business acumen.

Ardeshir Godrej described his plan to manufacture surgical equipment and asked for a loan.

One morning Ardeshir Godrej read an article in a daily newspaper on the rise of burglary incidents in the city and in which the commissioner of police called for better security of homes and places of business.

Ardeshir Godrej grasped that a better lock was needed, and began to research the subject.

Ardeshir Godrej soon discovered that the locks made in India were all fashioned by hand, a labour-intensive and inefficient means of manufacture, and Ardeshir resolved to manufacture a lock that would be guaranteed "unpickable".

Shortly thereafter, Ardeshir Godrej developed a lock based on Jeremiah Chubb's 1818 "Detector Lock" design, which, as the name suggests, made the owner aware of attempts to use an incorrect key.

Ardeshir Godrej resolved to build a safe that was not only burglarproof, but fireproof as well, which as he determined, most safes were not.

Ardeshir Godrej made dozens of designs on paper and held innumerable discussions with his engineers and craftsmen, until it was finally determined that the only way to ensure security and stability was to make the safe out of a single sheet of steel.

Around 1910, Ardeshir Godrej planned a trip to England, France and Germany to study the lock-making efforts of his competitors.

Shortly before he left, Ardeshir Godrej visited Merwanji Cama again, this time to repay him for his 3,000 Rupee loan of so many years before.

In England, Ardeshir Godrej visited the Chubb factory in Wolverhampton, since Chubb, together with Milner, had the exclusive rights to export security equipment to India.

Ardeshir Godrej was made to feel welcome, and given a guided tour of the manufacturing facilities, giving Ardeshir Godrej the chance not only to observe how his competitor did things, but to determine weaknesses in their products.

Ardeshir Godrej made copious notes, and upon returning to Bombay, implemented many of the methods he observed on his European tour.

The fires that resulted from an ammunition explosion at Bombay's Victoria docks raged for days, and the loss of life and property was enormous, but the contents in many of the Ardeshir Godrej safes survived, including one belonging to a bank.

On 1 May 1928, Ardeshir Godrej transferred sole ownership and control of the company to his brother Pirojsha.

Around 1909 Ardeshir Godrej read an article by Dadabhai Naoroji on the impoverishment of India through unfair trade practices and excessive taxation levied by the colonial authorities.

Ardeshir Godrej's interest roused, Ardeshir applied to the J B Petit library for more material and obtained a transcript of a speech that Naoroji had made in 1876 while municipal councillor in Bombay.

Ardeshir Godrej was incensed and resolved that if India was ever to be independent, it would have to develop a local industry that was economically self-reliant.

Ardeshir Godrej was however not willing to accept that consumers should favour indigenous products just because they were indigenous.

Ardeshir Godrej found the passivity of Gandhi's non-violence movement exasperating and insisted that India could become independent only if it actively made itself independent, and that self-reliance could only be achieved when accompanied by mental self-reliance, that is, self-respect.