Picryl
Shapurji Saklatvala was the nephew of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, founder of the Tata group.
The name Shapurji Saklatvala may not be one that jumps out of the history books for most people. But like any good story from the past, the son of a cotton merchant, a member of India's extremely wealthy Tata clan, has quite a story.
At every moment, it seems his life was one of constant struggle, challenge and perseverance. He shared neither his wealthy cousins' last name nor their fate.
Unlike them, he would not run the Tata Group, which is currently one of the world's largest business empires and owns iconic British brands like Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley Tea.
Instead, he became an outspoken and influential politician who pushed for India's freedom at the heart of its colonizer's empire – the British Parliament – and even clashed with Mahatma Gandhi.
But how could Saklatvala, born into a family of businessmen, follow a path so different from that of his parents? And how did he pave the way to becoming one of Britain's first Asian MPs? The answer is as complex as Saklatvala's relationship with her own family.
Getty Images
Communist Party of Great Britain MPs Saklatvala Shapurji (left) and Walton Newbold (right)
Saklatvala was the son of Dorabji, a cotton merchant, and Jerbai, the youngest daughter of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, founder of the Tata group. When Saklatvala was 14, his family moved into Esplanade House in Bombay to live with Jerbai's brother (whose name was also Jamsetji) and his family.
Saklatvala's parents separated when he was young and thus, young Jamsetji became the main father figure in his life.
“Jamsetji was always particularly attached to Shapurji and saw in him from an early age the possibilities of great potential; he paid him a lot of attention and had great confidence in his abilities, both as a as a boy and as a man,” Saklatvala said. daughter, Sehri, writes in The Fifth Commandment, a biography of her father.
But Jamsetji's affection for Saklatvala caused his eldest son, Dorab, to resent his younger cousin.
“As boys and men, they were always hostile to each other; the breach was never closed,” Sehri writes.
This would ultimately lead Dorab to reduce Saklatvala's role in the family businesses, motivating him to follow a different path.
But aside from family dynamics, Saklatvala was also deeply influenced by the devastation caused by the bubonic plague in Bombay in the late 1890s. He saw how the epidemic disproportionately affected the poor and working classes, while those belonging to the upper echelons of society, including his family, remained relatively unscathed.
During this time, Saklatvala, who was a student, worked closely with Waldemar Haffkine, a Russian scientist who had to flee his country due to its revolutionary and anti-Tsarist policies. Haffkine developed a vaccine to combat the plague and Saklatvala went door to door to convince people to get vaccinated.
“Their views had much in common; and there is no doubt that this close association between the older idealistic scientist and the compassionate young student must have helped to form and crystallize Shapurji's beliefs,” Sehri writes in the book .
Getty Images
A photo of Esplanade House, the Tatas' home in Bombay
Another important influence was his relationship with Sally Marsh, a waitress whom he married in 1907. Marsh was the fourth of 12 children, who lost their father before becoming adults. Life was hard in the Marsh household as everyone had to work hard to make ends meet.
But the well-heeled Saklatvala was attracted to Marsh, and during their courtship he was exposed to the lifelong hardships of the British working class. Sehri writes that his father was also influenced by the selfless lives of the Jesuit priests and nuns under whom he studied during his school and college years.
So, after his trip to the United Kingdom in 1905, Saklatvala immersed himself in politics with the aim of helping the poor and marginalized. He joined the Labor Party in 1909 and 12 years later the Communist Party. He cared deeply about the rights of the working class, in India and Britain, and believed that only socialism – not any imperialist regime – could eradicate poverty and give the people a say in governance .
Saklatvala's speeches were well received and he quickly became a popular face. In 1922, he was elected to Parliament and remained an MP for almost seven years. During this period, he fiercely advocated for the freedom of India. His views were so strong that an Anglo-Indian Conservative Party MP considered him a dangerous “radical communist”.
During his parliamentary term, he also visited India, where he gave speeches urging the working class and young nationalists to assert themselves and pledge their support for the freedom movement. He also helped organize and build the Communist Party of India in the areas he visited.
Getty Images
A photo of Saklatvala giving a speech in Hyde Park in 1933
His vehement views on communism often clashed with Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent approach to defeating their common adversary.
“Dear Comrade Gandhi, we are both erratic enough to allow ourselves to be impolite in order to express ourselves freely and correctly,” he wrote in one of his letters to Gandhi, before mincing no words about his discomfort faced with Gandhi's non-cooperation. -operation of movement and allowing people to call him “Mahatma” (a revered person or a sage).
Although the two never reached an agreement, they remained cordial and united in their common goal of overthrowing British rule.
Saklatvala's fiery speeches in India disturbed British officials and he was banned from visiting his homeland in 1927. In 1929 he lost his seat in Parliament, but he continued to fight for Indian independence.
Saklatvala remained an important figure in British politics and the Indian nationalist movement until his death in 1936. He was cremated and his ashes were buried alongside those of his parents and Jamsetji Tata in a London cemetery – uniting him again with the Tata clan. and their heritage.
Read more BBC stories about Forgotten Indians:
Source link
