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Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was born in 1839, and in his lifetime India remained firmly under British rule. Yet the projects he envisioned laid the foundation for the nation’s development once it became independent. More extraordinary still, these institutions continue to set the pace for others in their respective areas. For, among his many achievements are the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, which has groomed some of the country’s best scientists, the Tata Steel plant in Jamshedpur, which marked the country’s transition from trading to manufacturing, his pioneering hydro-electric project and the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, one of the finest in the world.

In these as in other projects he undertook, Jamsetji revealed the unerring instinct of a man who knew what it would take to restore the pride of a subjugated nation and help it prepare for a place among the leading nations of the world once it came into its own.

The scale of the projects required abilities of a high order. In some cases it was sheer perseverance that paid off—as with finding a suitable site for the steel project. In others, such as the Indian Institute of Science, it was his exceptional persuasive skills and patience that finally got him the approval of a doubtful viceroy, Lord Curzon.

In For the Love of India, R.M. Lala has drawn upon fresh material from the India Office Library in London and other archives, as also Jamsetji’s letters, to portray the man and his age. It is an absorbing account that makes clear how remarkable Jamsetji’s achievement truly was, and why, even now, one hundred years after his death, he seems like a man well ahead of the times.

REVIEWS

He sought no honour and he claimed no privilege. But the advancement of India and her myriad peoples was with him an abiding passion.
-The Times of India, 20 May 1904

It would seem as if the hour of his birth, his life, his talents, his actions, the service he rendered to the country and to his people, were all predestined as a part of the greater destiny of India.
-JRD Tata

I will always remember Jamsetji, as a man who helped a nation believe in itself.
-Azim Premji

Jamsetji changed India's industrial and economic character. He was a visionary for ahead of his time.
-N R Narayana Murthy