Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (29 July 1904 – 29 November 1993) was a French-born Indian industrialist, and aviator, who was the chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group from 1938 to 1991. Born into the Tata family, he was the son of noted businessman Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and his French wife Suzanne RD Tata. He is best known for being the founder of several industries under the Tata Group, including Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Titan Industries, Tata Salt, Voltas and Tata Airlines. In 1982, he was awarded the French Legion of Honour and in 1955 and 1992, he received two of India's highest civilian awards: the Padma Vibhushan and the Bharat Ratna. These honours were bestowed on him for his contributions to Indian industry.
Early life
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was born on 29 July 1904 in Paris, France. He was the second child of notable Parsi Indian businessman, Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, and his French wife, Sooni Tata (née Brière). His father was the first cousin of Jamsetji Tata, a pioneer industrialist in India. He had one elder sister Sylla, a younger sister Rodabeh and two younger brothers Darab and Jamshed (called Jimmy) Tata. His sister, Sylla, was married to Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, the third baronet of Petits. He spent much of his childhood in the erstwhile French Third Republic and the French language was his native language. He attended Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris, where one of the teachers there mistook him for an Egyptian and used to call him L'Égyptien. Tata's family also purchased a house on the beach in Neufchâtel-Hardelot where the family would sometimes live until 1917. Tata was also neighbors with Louis Blériot. Tata attended the Cathedral and John Connon School, Bombay. In 1917 he and his family moved to Yokohama, Japan and lived there for two years while he attended an American school. When his father joined the Tata company he moved the whole family to London. During this time, JRD's mother died at the age of 43 while his father was in India and his family was in England. After JRD's mother's death, Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata decided to move his family to India and sent JRD back to England for higher studies in October 1923. He attended a grammar school, and later enrolled at Cambridge University and was interested in studying engineering. However, as a citizen of France, JRD had to enlist in the French Army for at least a year. In between grammar school and his time in the army, he spent a brief spell at home in Bombay. After joining the French Army he was posted into a regiment of spahis. Upon discovering Tata could not only read and write French and English, but could type as well, a colonel had him assigned as a secretary in his office. After his time in the French Army, Tata planned to return to Cambridge and complete his studies, but his father decided to bring him back to India and he joined the Tata Company. In 1929, Tata renounced his French citizenship and became an Indian citizen. In 1930 Tata married Thelma Vicaji, the niece of Jack Vicaji, a colourful lawyer whom he hired to defend him on a charge of driving his Bugatti too fast along Bombay's main promenade, Marine Drive. The couple had no children. Previously he had been engaged to Dinbai Mehta, the future mother of The Economist editor Shapur Kharegat. While he was born to a Parsi father, and his French mother converted to Zoroastrianism, JRD was agnostic. He found some Parsi religious customs like their funeral rites and their exclusiveness irksome. He adhered to the three basic tenets of Zoroastrianism, which were good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, but he did not profess belief or disbelief in God.
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