On the eve of India’s Independence, J.R.D. Tata sent out a very special message via telegram. It was timelined 7 p.m., 14 August 1947, and personally addressed to Jawaharlal Nehru, who was soon scheduled to take over as the first prime minister of free India. The telegram read:
"DEAR JAWAHARLAL: ON THIS DAY MY THOUGHTS GO TO YOU WHOSE STEADFAST AND INSPIRED
LEADERSHIP HAVE BROUGHT INDIA TO HER GOAL THROUGH THESE LONG YEARS OF STRUGGLE AND SUFFERING (STOP) I REJOICE THAT YOU WHO HAVE ALWAYS HELD SO HIGH THE TORCH OF FREEDOM ARE THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER OF FREE INDIA AND I SEND YOU MY HEARTFELT WISHES FOR SUCCESS IN THE HEAVY TASK OF GUIDING HER TO HER GREAT DESTINY (STOP) FROM JEH"
Five hours later, at the stroke of midnight, India gained its freedom from British rule. Jawaharlal Nehru, addressing the nation, famously said:
Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.
There was great rejoicing across the country. Two days later, Lord Mountbatten, the last British governor general of India, arrived at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai and addressed the audience from the stage of the ballroom in this famous hotel as part of the Independence Day celebrations. It was apt that his address was delivered at this historic property, built over forty years earlier by Jamsetji Tata as a proud symbol of India and Mumbai. Huge crowds gathered outside the hotel, shouting ‘Jai Hind! Long live India! Love Live England!’
This was a most joyful time as India revelled in its freedom. But very soon, dark clouds appeared on this bright horizon. The partition of the country into India and Pakistan led to horrific riots and extensive loss of life and property. What began was perhaps the largest mass migration of people in human history as refugees streamed across the borders. It is estimated that as many as 20 million people were affected.
Responding to a call by the prime minister, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) sent a special team of students to Delhi in October 1947 to help with the systematic registration of refugees, which would be very important to their resettlement in India. The team was sponsored by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and worked tirelessly to document the literacy, occupation, income and nature of employment and allocation desired by refugee families.
Their work was recognized by Jawaharlal Nehru himself. He said: “We found the difference in their work and the work of many others who were earnest and had done their best, but who did not have the training to do it well. There is a difference between the trained workers and the merely enthusiastic workers.”
Notwithstanding such concerted efforts by multiple teams and by the government, it was becoming evident that the millions of refugees who had entered India from Pakistan would need significant support to alleviate their pain and loss. J.R.D. Tata was greatly concerned by this urgent national need and he was keen that the Tata Group should help as much as it could. He was also equally keen that the country should put in place a permanent, easily accessible platform for the raising of emergency funds to help in all such cases of distress. Perhaps the reports emanating from the TISS team further stoked his spirit of urgency in this regard.
Therefore, in October 1947, J.R.D. suggested to Pandit Nehru that a national fund for relief and distress should be created in the name of the prime minister himself to provide it with the required gravity and importance. He also stated that the Tatas would be happy to make a significant grant to such a fund.
J.R.D. Tata’s biographer R.M. Lala has recorded that J.R.D. went on to tell the prime minister: ‘If you have no such intention, could you advise me as to what we should do? In other words, I feel that such voluntary contributions should be used for meeting needs which cannot or would not be normally from government help.’
Clearly, J.R.D. felt strongly about the matter and pursued this national cause with vigour. It took a few weeks but the desired results were yielded. Two months later, on 11 December 1947, Prime Minister Nehru wrote back to J.R.D.:
My dear Jehangir,
There has been great delay in coming to some decision about the National Relief Fund. After consulting my colleagues here, we have arrived at some decisions which are incorporated in the attached note. I hope you approve of them.
Yours,
Jawaharlal Nehru
The note which Jawaharlal Nehru enclosed with his letter is an interesting piece of the nation’s history. Here are some excerpts.
"After consultation with various colleagues, it has been decided that a special fund should be opened, called the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. This should be in the nature of a permanent fund to be utilized for any kind of relief of distress, but for the present, naturally, it should be applied for relief work for the refugees from the Panjab, the North West Frontier Province and other areas of Pakistan. Donors may earmark their donations for particular purposes.
The Trustees of the Fund should be: Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister, President of the Indian National Congress, Chief Justice of India, A representative of the Tata trustees, a representative of Industry and Commerce, and possibly two other names of persons in their representative capacities. The treasurer of the fund should be the Auditor General of India."
Thus established, the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund rendered yeoman service to the nation over the next several decades. The Tatas had contributed to the fund immediately after it was set up in 1948, and it was established entirely with voluntary contributions from the public, including individuals, companies and trusts. In 1985, the management of the fund was entrusted entirely to the prime minister. The fund has rendered immediate relief to lakhs of families, including the relatives of those killed in natural calamities like floods, cyclones and earthquakes.
This, then, is the story of the genesis of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. An idea born in the mind of J.R.D. Tata and taken up by Prime Minister Nehru himself at J.R.D.’s urging. I often wonder how an industrialist like J.R.D., who must have been completely caught up in the pressures of managing his companies, particularly during the volatile period immediately post-Independence, always found the time and energy to relentlessly pursue these national causes wherever they struck him as being very important.
For instance, many years later, J.R.D. would bring the same energy and foresight when imploring the government to face the population problem of the country and the need for family planning. Perhaps the vision and purpose set out by the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji Tata, who felt the community and the nation should be centre stage in everything that the group does, was brightly and firmly in J.R.D.’s mind as he sat in the chair that was once occupied by Jamsetji himself.
There is no doubt that vision and purpose, once clearly defined, constitute the most important North Star in the life of any organization or individual. Whether it is J.R.D. Tata, you or me, our purpose motivates our actions even though finding our life’s purpose is often a long and arduous search. Blessed are those who have found their purpose because their beacon then shines brightly.
(This is an excerpt from Harish Bhat’s Tata Stories, published by Penguin Random House.)