1. Sir Dorabji Tata was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist of the British Raj, and a key figure in the history and development of the Tata Group.
23 Facts About Dorabji Tata
1. 2.
Dorabji Tata was knighted in 1910 for his contributions to industry in British India.
3.
Dorabji Tata was the elder son of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group.
4.
Dorabji Tata played a pioneering role by guiding India to the Olympics even before the establishment of an independent National Olympic Association.
5.
Dorabji Tata received his primary education at the Proprietary High School in Bombay before travelling to England in 1875, where he was privately tutored.
6.
Dorabji Tata entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1877, where he remained for two years before returning to Bombay in 1879.
7.
Dorabji Tata continued his studies at St Xavier's College, Bombay, where he obtained a degree in 1882.
8.
Dorabji Tata was first sent to Pondicherry, then a French colony, to determine whether a cotton mill might be profitable there.
9.
Dorabji Tata was the father of scientist Homi J Bhabha.
10.
The Dorabji Tata Group funded Bhabha's research and his research institutions, including the Dorabji Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
11.
Dorabji Tata was intimately involved in the fulfilment of his father's ideas of a modern iron and steel industry, and agreed to the necessity for hydroelectric electricity to power the industry.
12.
Dorabji Tata was extremely fond of sports, and was a pioneer in the Indian Olympic movement.
13.
Dorabji Tata played an instrumental role in facilitating necessary arrangements to send Indian contingent to mark their first ever Olympic appearance during the 1920 Summer Olympics, especially coincidentally coming in at a critical juncture when a formal National Olympic Association was not yet established in India.
14.
Dorabji Tata pledged his support to finance the Indian athletes targeting the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, after witnessing impressive performance of the athletes during the 1919 sports meet held at the Deccan Gymkhana, Pune.
15.
Dorabji Tata approached Governor of Bombay, Lloyd George to help secure India's participation at the 1920 Olympics and more importantly, Lloyd George was present at the 1919 Deccan Gymkhana event where he offered prizes for the athletes who had performed exceptionally well during the course of the competition.
16.
Dorabji Tata was a member of the International Olympic Committee during most of the years between World War I and World War II.
17.
Dorabji Tata devoted his passion to education aspects and played an instrumental role by assisting his father Jamshedji Tata to lay foundation to the Indian Institute of Science in 1909.
18.
Meherbai Dorabji Tata died of leukaemia in 1931 at the age of 72.
19.
Shortly after her death, Dorabji established the Lady Tata Memorial Trust to advance study of diseases of the blood.
20.
Dorabji Tata additionally provided the seed money to fund the setting up of India's premier scientific and engineering research institution, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
21.
Dorabji Tata had earlier funded a major new building for the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
22.
Dorabji Tata died in Bad Kissingen, Germany, on 3 June 1932, at the age of 73.
23.
Dorabji Tata is buried alongside his wife Meherbai in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, England.