Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism by Mircea Raianu

Abstract

Reviewed by: Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism by Mircea Raianu Sangaralingam Ramesh (bio) Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism By Mircea Raianu. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021. Pp. 304. This book is based on documentation found at the Tata Central Archives (TCA) in Pune and the Tata Steel Archives (TSA) in Jamshedpur, India. It runs from the founding of the Empress Mills in 1877 by Jamsetji Tata, forerunner of the Tata Corporations, to India's 1975 Emergency Laws. Several monographs have appeared on the Tata company's history: Kuber and Pande, The Tatas (2020); Witzel, Tata (2010); The Tata Saga (2018); and Maira, The Learning Factory (2020). But so far, none has delved into its archives. Raianu's main argument is that the development of Tata has mirrored the transformation of the Indian economy from trade to industry and then to the services sector. From its foundation in 1877, the company has branched out to textiles, iron, and steel, as well as hydroelectric power. Jamsetji Tata was guided by the concept of constructive philanthropy, which brought him into conflict with the British rulers of India. While the British did not anticipate India's independence, Jamsetji felt that it was the Indian private sector's responsibility to build the industrial infrastructure for a future independent India. Moreover, in bequeathing an endowment for establishing the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Jamsetji felt that besides the material infrastructure associated with factories and manufacturing, the Indian economy should also have a complementary infrastructure for the production and exchange of knowledge. This in turn would facilitate the development of an innovative economy. However, the establishment of the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) at the turn of the twentieth century reflected how underdeveloped the Indian economy had become under British rule, especially regarding the lack of skilled labor and limited urban development. TISCO was established by Sir Dorabji Tata in 1907 in Jamshedpur. As skilled labor was hardly available, TISCO trained unskilled workers to use sophisticated technology and thus laid the foundations for the urbanization of Jamshedpur. Tata set the future pattern for the industrialization of India, acting like a sovereign power, both in acquiring land from local villagers in the Jamshedpur region and in labor relations. TISCO's R&D department did not produce new technologies but implemented imported ones. The firm became a significant player in the national economy. In the period after independence, Tata expanded into chemicals, aviation, and automobiles, which required advanced technology and labor skills. However, Raianu's account of how Tata developed only goes as far as the mid-1970s. Important developments in more recent times are therefore not discussed, [End Page 920] for example the turn to neoliberalism under pressure from the IMF and the shift to the IT sector, which is now its main source of income while profits from manufacturing are declining. From its very beginnings, Tata's main contributions to India's economic development have consisted of importing technology, training unskilled labor to perform skilled, technical work, and the establishment of institutes such as the IISC. Furthermore, as India came to govern itself and the government was able to establish policies for India's development, more and more educated workers were graduating from Indian universities. As Raianu's description of Tata ends in the 1970s, he neither evaluates nor analyzes the company's endogenous technological innovations. On this topic, there is scope for another book. Sangaralingam Ramesh Sangaralingam Ramesh is currently lecturer (teaching) at University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and tutor at the University of Oxford's Department for Continuing Education. He is also the author of several books, including The Rise of Empires: The Political Economy of Innovation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Citation: Ramesh, Sangaralingam. "Review of Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism by Mircea Raianu." Technology and Culture 63, no. 3 (2022): 920–21. Google Scholar Copyright © 2022 Society for the History of Technology