Tata Sons Private Limited, founded in 1917, serves as the principal holding company and promoter of the Tata Group—India’s largest and one of the most respected global conglomerates. Headquartered in Mumbai, Tata Sons controls major shareholdings in over 100 companies across sectors such as steel, automobiles, power, communications, technology, and hospitality, with operations in more than 100 countries. Roughly 66% of its equity is owned by philanthropic trusts established by the Tata family, most notably the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.
The origins of Tata Sons are deeply intertwined with personal tragedies, remarkable coincidences, and acts of destiny that shaped the future of the Tata empire. In 1918, two lives—separated by class, geography, and circumstance—were on a collision course. In a Mumbai orphanage, a 14-year-old boy named Naval Hormusji Tata was coming to terms with life without parents. His father, a spinning master in Ahmedabad, had died of illness, leaving behind a struggling widow and five children. Unable to support them, his mother, Ratanbai, left young Naval at the Jamsetji Nusserwanji Petit Parsi Orphanage.
At the same time, in faraway England, tragedy struck one of India’s greatest industrial families. Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata empire, had passed away years earlier, leaving behind two sons—Sir Dorabji Tata and Sir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata. Both were wealthy, accomplished, and deeply philanthropic. Yet both were childless. When Sir Ratanji died suddenly in 1918 at the age of 47, his widow, Lady Navajbai Tata, was left alone, grief-stricken, and heirless. The family’s lineage seemed at risk, and the future of the Tata name was uncertain.
In an act of resolve and foresight, Lady Navajbai chose to adopt Naval Tata—the same orphaned boy in Mumbai—linking his destiny forever to one of India’s most powerful families. Naval would grow up to play a vital role in the Tata Group, and his son, Ratan Naval Tata, would later lead the conglomerate into the modern era, shaping its global reputation for ethics, innovation, and nation-building.
But the Tata legacy was also being shaped, at the same time, by another story unfolding in Europe. Years earlier, in 1902 Paris, Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata—a cousin of Jamsetji—had travelled to France to study the language and expand the group’s European trade. There, he met and fell in love with Suzanne Brire, the daughter of a cultured French family. Their union symbolised the meeting of East and West, tradition and modernity. Suzanne, who converted to Zoroastrianism and adopted the name Sooni, would become the mother of J.R.D. Tata—one of the greatest visionaries in Indian industrial history.
The story of Tata Sons is, therefore, not just one of business, but of destiny, courage, and the intersection of personal lives with national progress. From an orphanage in Mumbai to a romance in Paris, the roots of the Tata empire are entwined with tales of loss, adoption, and love that redefined India’s corporate and philanthropic landscape.
This narrative, drawn from The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation by Girish Kuber and The Creation of Wealth: The Tatas from the 19th to the 21st Century by R.M. Lala, reveals how the Tata name came to embody resilience, integrity, and purpose. It is a story where fate and foresight met to create not just a business empire, but a legacy that continues to shape India’s modern identity.
