How Taj Hotel Mumbai started

Success story behind the beginning of the magnificent Taj Hotel

Back in 1980's, Jamsetji Tata, an industrialist known for his nationalism, was invited by foreign friend to dine at a 5 star hotel in Mumbai. As he walked in with his host, he saw rudley greeted by the english hotel manager with the word - "We don't allow Indians here."

How would you reply to an insult like this - an insult to you, to your country, to your countryman ? Well if you are Jamsetji Tata, you build one of the finest hotels in the world. 

Jamsetji Tata spent £ 300,000 on the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai. He chose a site facing the magnificent ocean, selected one of the leading architecture and equipped the hotel with the best facilities.

Jamsetji's friends and business associates urged him not to go ahead with the project as it would lose money. However Jamsetji Tata said "Perhaps it will. But it will make no difference." 

When Taj's doors opened in 1903 it inspired delight and awe in every indian. It was the first building in Bombay to be lit by electricity and had a telephone in every room. It was also to have an American fans, German elevators, Turkish baths, and English butlers. 

Since the hotel was way ahead of its time. It was extremely difficult to run it profitably. But somehow Tata Group managed to keep it operational.

45 year after the opening of the hotel, in 1948 the farewell speech of Lord Mountbatten took place in this very hotel's grand ballroom. He boarded his ship and left from The Gateway of India nearby. And that is how Jamsetji Tata's dream was fulfilled. The dream of building a hotel into which any Indian could walk with his head held high, confident that he would be treated with courtesy and respect.