Priya Maholay Jaradi

Art historian Priya Maholay-Jaradi chronicles the rubric of Tata patronage that has enriched the tapestry of Indian culture

The term is of recent vintage but corporate social responsibility as an idea has a lengthy history, nowhere more so than in the House of Tata. This is a concept that has been intrinsic to India’s most remarkable business house since the time of its founder, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata.

The Tata support to the cause of India’s art and culture has added a new dimension to the group’s traditional CSR pillars. The Tatas have understood the arts as the bedrock of indigenous communities and their socio-economic lifestyles. In trying to stabilise this bedrock, the group has renewed the alliance between India’s economic and cultural histories. This alliance was the determining component of the golden ages of Indian civilisation.

CSR was extended to the arts from the first generation of the Tatas. Exhibitions were Jamsetji Tata’s favourite visiting place. It was at an exhibition in Paris that he saw spun-iron pillars on display. By virtue of being the first specimens of this branch of metal craft, these pillars would in time become antiques. They have been deservingly and functionally ‘museumised’ in the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, where they continue to hold up the famous ballroom.

Jamsetji Tata built a classical mansion called Esplanade House at a site opposite the Bombay Gymkhana of today. Many famous visitors to Esplanade House have recorded seeing a connoisseur’s collection there. Jamsetji Tata collected rare pieces of Chinese and Japanese antiques. The title of an immortal romance between industry and art had just been penned.

In an age of auctions, where the value of a work increases if it has not been ‘seen’ before, the best collections have remained confined to the collector’s emporiums. But there have been aesthetes who have savoured works of art so completely that they cannot deny plebeians the same pleasure. The impeccable collection that Sir Ratan Tata, Jamsetji Tata’s second son, put together was always meant to be enjoyed by a heterogeneous audience.

The hobby of collecting, which evolved worldwide in the first quarter of the 19th century, would contribute significantly to disciplines such as archaeology and anthropology. It soon became mandatory to showcase antiques in museums. Sir Ratan had acquired a wide range of antiques and, along with his brother, Sir Dorab Tata, believed that museums were repositories of cultural heritage.

Sir Ratan purchased a 17th century royal mansion of the Duke of Orleans in Middlesex, Britain. In the French chateau frontage, York House, he allocated some ‘museum rooms’ to showcase his antiques. It is believed that the keen eye of an expert helped Sir Ratan curate the collection. Clearly, the Tata talent for recruiting the right people developed early.

Sir Ratan bequeathed his precious collection to the newly established Prince of Wales Museum — now called, in the peculiar Mumbai fashion, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya — in 1922. Sir Dorab’s collection was endowed to the museum in 1933. Among the outstanding pieces here are hand-painted porcelain from the Royal Worcester factory in England and Wedgewood pottery. Indian specimens contain Mughal jade works, silverware from Major Gill’s workshop in Mumbai, the pahari paintings of Balwant Singh and a Deccani set of Ragamala paintings.

The British officials of colonial India had a penchant for creating schisms between oil and indigenous paintings, sculptures and artefacts. These were categorised as high art, folk art, decorative art and industrial art. The last two categories were treated as lesser traditions, but Sir Ratan and Sir Dorab found place for them in their eclectic scheme of things.

Even today, the most enchanting of all displays in the museum remains its collection of commercially produced snuff bottles. These delicate pieces in delightful colours have enchanted visitors for 75 long years, ever since this largest of all Tata bequests (1,028 objects) was made to the museum.

The Tata backing for art during this period extended beyond paintings, sculptures and the like. By the early 1800s more and more academic disciplines were vying to become a ‘science’. In this climate of academic ferment, the world had awakened to the potential of botany, zoology, archaeology and anthropology. With the winds of independence blowing across the country, the need to reposition India, in a ‘scientific’ manner, as an ancient civilisation was felt.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was carrying out excavations and Sir Ratan was aware of the potential of the finds as museum pieces. In 1912 he communicated his desire to fund an excavation to Sir Harcourt Butler, the lieutenant governor of Bihar and Orissa. Between 1913 and 1917, with financial support of Rs 75,000 from Sir Ratan, the Mauryan site of Pataliputra yielded terracotta objects, plaques and coins (now on display at the Patna museum). The project came full circle when Ashoka’s pillared hall, apparently influenced by Darius’s assembly hall in Persepolis, was discovered.

Sir Ratan probably inherited his love of discovering the past through archaeology. Jamshedji Saklatvala, Jamsetji Tata’s estate agent, said the Tata patriarch believed strongly that “some buried treasure or some remarkable relics of our Zoroastrian religion will one day come to be unearthed” in Sanjan in Gujarat, where the Parsees first settled in India about 1,400 years back. Indeed, in 2002-03 the ASI found some remains in the Sanjan province that resembled relics from the Sassanian era. This discovery established the Indo-Iranian links of ancient times, and is believed to have been responsible for the Parsees’ ‘planned’ landing in Sanjan.

The tradition of supporting art and artists was taken forward by those who followed Sir Ratan and Sir Dorab. J. R. D. Tata and the Tata Trusts backed renowned anthropologist Verrier Elwin’s classic ethnographies on the tribes of central India (Elwin’s famous study on the Baiga tribe was published with a subsidy from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust). The chief occupation of the Baigas was metal craft. Elwin understood the geological wealth of the province and how it had shaped the economy and art of the tribe.

Appropriately, the Tatas later commissioned Elwin to write The Story of Tata Steel to commemorate the golden jubilee celebrations of the company. Tata Steel benefited from Elwin’s endeavours in more ways than one. The anthropologist’s socio-cultural chronicling of various tribes and their behaviour came in handy for the company’s management when it was shaping employee policies.

Corporate participation can be most productive if it is timely and receptive to the needs of the wider community and the nation. That’s what happened after 1947, when a representative national body was needed to advise the government on art policy. Among those in attendance at the Third All-India Art Conference, held in June 1948 at the Town Hall in Bombay, were Dharamsey Mulraj Khatau, Ambalal Kilachand and Henri Locke Larsen. The Tatas were represented by JRD’s brother Darab, Farokh Mulla and PA Narielwala. This was when the Sahitya Akademi, the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Lalit Kala Akademi were formed. Corporate participation had lent a new column on which the edifice of modern Indian art would be built.

The Tata romance with modern Indian art is best reflected by the group’s flagship company, Tata Steel. Its belief that “art provides the most truthful reflection of ethos and history” led to Walter Langhammer’s documentation of the company’s steel plant in Jamshedpur, the first of its kind in Indian industry. Executed immediately after independence, Langhammer’s marvellous work showcased the economic achievement of an infant democracy.

Tata Steel first sponsored prizes and scholarships for art in 1943, at the annual exhibition held at the JJ School of Art in Bombay. The company’s ‘Art In Industry’ series featured artists such as M. F. Husain, Sunil Gawde, Gogi Saroj Pal and Peter Lewis, and Jamshedpur has been a stopover for globally famous talents, among them Alfred Bast of Germany, Ann Pia Jannson of Sweden and Jinsook Shinde of Korea. Also, the Jamshedpur School of Arts has groomed local talent, such as Jaideo Chatterji, who have found international patrons.

Alongside the promotion of contemporary Indian art, the Tatas had the vision of preserving the country’s performing arts. Indian folk and classical dance forms, music and theatre, traditionally handed down in the mould of oral tradition and the gurukul system, were given a fillip when JJ Bhabha, a Tata stalwart, and others pushed and persevered for long years to establish the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in 1966.

The path to setting up NCPA was an arduous one for Bhabha. He had to work overtime to convince people and to find funds, a plot of land, the right architects, acousticians and specialists. The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust made an initial grant of Rs 40 lakh that was supplemented by donations from other Tata trusts and companies. In keeping with the tradition of reusing heritage pieces, an opulent, 150-year old marble staircase and four chandeliers from Sir Dinshaw Petit’s home, Petit Hall, were used in the NCPA structure.

The wonderful NCPA complex, housed on 8 acres of reclaimed land at Nariman Point in Mumbai, consists of a multi-purpose auditorium, centres for photography, visual arts, creative interaction and crafts revival, and a dance academy. The feather in Bhabha’s cap came when a state-of-the-art, 1,300-seat opera hall, fittingly named after Bhabha himself, was built. NCPA enjoys an ongoing tradition of archiving material and conducting research. In its many decades of outstanding service, the Centre has encouraged newer art forms. Provincial Marathi and Gujarathi theatre has found patronage here, while experimental theatre has grown to great heights.

Alongside its efforts to encourage visual and performing arts, the Tata Group has also supported the cause of folk, tribal and rural crafts. The Tribal Culture Centre (TCC), founded by Tata Steel in 1990 at a cost of Rs 35 lakh, is a showcase for the artistic talents of the tribal communities of Jharkhand. TCC has also, since 2000, been working on a project aimed at devising grammar and syntax for the Santhali language. This initiative will enrich Santhali culture and preserve a legacy that till now has been dependant on oral traditions.

Indian Hotels, which owns the Taj Group of Hotels, is another Tata concern that champions the cause of rural art and artisans. The company has tied up with Paramparik Karigar, a pioneering rural arts and crafts organisation, in an initiative called Building Livelihoods. Indian Hotels sources material for its properties through this programme and thereby ensures the economic sustainability of artisan communities operating under the Paramparik Karigar canopy. Paramparik Karigar, which began in 1982 as Vishwa Karigar before being renamed in 1996, has craftsmen as its office bearers. It was formed to preserve and promote the traditional arts and crafts of India, create an environment conducive for craftsmen, encourage technical and stylistic developments, and organise exhibitions and seminars.

There is another aspect to Indian Hotels’ relationship with rural artisans. As part of their management internship, trainees of the Taj Group live with artisan communities. Reports prepared by these trainees help the company adopt villages for community initiatives. The way Indian Hotels sees it, the programme is a two-way process: it helps the local community and it offers transformational benefits to the Taj people.

Indian Hotels has also started displaying the work of artists, through its Showcasing India initiative. This curatorial effort involves Taj properties dedicating space for exhibitions that bring together artists and patrons. Every provincial school of art has a Taj representative: the Taj Residency, Lucknow, has adopted the cause of Chikankari embroidery; the Taj Residency, Aurangabad, represents Bidri work; the Taj Banjara, Hyderabad, has linked up with the woodwork artisans of Srikalahasti; the Taj Jaipur has adopted lacquer-work artisans.

Tata Tea is yet another Tata company doing sterling work to support arts and crafts in the country. The company’s Dare, Aranya and Athulya projects in Munnar, Kerala, have enabled physically and mentally disabled children and youth to create a better life for themselves through the medium of arts and crafts. These projects have churned enough profits to dispense with the charitable backbone provided by Tata Tea.

The Tata Group has also responded strongly to the needs of architectural conservation. Responding to an approach from the Maharashtra government in 1993, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) prepared a plan for the conservation and restoration of Ajanta Caves, a world heritage site, in Aurangabad. The Japanese agency OECF gave a soft loan of Rs 64 crore for the initiative and Unesco was roped in for advice on preserving the caves’ light-sensitive frescoes. The Geological Survey of India is also part of the project involving a multi-disciplinary team of geologists, archaeologists, art historians, and chemical and structural engineers.

TCS advised the government to create replicas of the four endangered caves. Visitors could see a mock-up of the original site, with heritage trails, audio guides and laser shows that deliver an on-site museum education. The stupendous model created by TCS, and its successful application to Ajanta, has led other state governments to approach the company for advice on preserving their own heritage sites in similar fashion.

Using its tremendous spread and influence to great effect, the Tata Group and its companies have been able to play a vital role in preserving and promoting every component of India’s national heritage. What began as a collector’s penchant and simple philanthropy has merged with the corporate culture of the entire group. A sturdy and colourful tapestry of art and industry has been woven through a corporate mindset that sees much more than mere profits on the horizon.

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Uploaded on January 27, 2005