Bom Bahai Dairies 4- Richie Rich

Congratulation to Team India for winning the T-20 World Cup.

Yes, Sir. This is such a wonderful news but I was wondering last night that if these players are already so rich after playing the IPL, now they will become richer. What about two hundred years ago when there was no cricket, who were the richest people in India?

If you are talking about the nineteenth century, India had fabulously rich people. Among them were the Kings of Indian principalities and then there were the bankers and traders.

Sir, when I was in school, I had read a poem about the Tatas and their wealth. It seems that, even two hundred years ago, they were among the richest families in the country.

Vicky, I think you are mixing things up. The poem that you have on your mind was surely not about the Tatas. Even I cannot recollect it clearly now. It was a poem by Walter de la Mare. In the nineteenth century, the Parsis were definitely among the richest people in this country but the honour of being the richest family in the nineteenth century goes to the Sassoons.

Oh Sassoons…I know about the dock with that name. Sometimes I go there very early in the morning to pick up the best catch of prawns and fish at the most reasonable price.

Vicky, the Sassoons were much more than the docks.

I am sure, Sir, the life of the Sassoons and Tatas in the bed of luxury would be fun.

Since you want to live such a royal lifestyle, let me show you around the city some of the things associated with the family of Sassoons. Let me take you on a heritage walk and for enjoying this tour turn, you into the Baghdadi Jew, David Sassoon, the man who started this vast and magnificent empire.

Ah ha… I am David, David of Baghdad and David of Bombay. This will be fun.

David Sassoon and his sons Elias David, Albert Abdallah David, and Sassoon David
Picture courtesy: Internet  

The story begins with you, David, the dynasty’s founding father, escaping the oppressive Ottoman Baghdad in the late 1820s, you arrived at Bombay via Iran. Luck favoured you, David, since Bombay was the fast-growing commercial jewel in the crown of western India. You started your business by trading in textiles before diversifying into various interests. You aligned yourself closely with British imperial interests which gave you many concessions and advantages. Then came your big winner-  trade in opium.

You mean, I was a drug runner. That’s not good business, Sir.

No David, it was not seen like that. The British were importing tea, silk and many things from China and the balance of trade was highly in favour of the latter. This was when the British traders started shipping opium to China which led to the First Opium War of 1839-42. The Britain quashed China’s effort to stem the flow of the powerful narcotic into the country and over the following decades, you were amongst the dominant players in the export of opium from India to China. Opium profits were ploughed into other interests. One competitor put it: “Silver and gold, silks, gums and spices, opium and cotton, wool and wheat — whatever moves over sea or land feels the hand or bears the mark of Sassoon & Co.” Everything you touched turned to gold, David, and you became the Lord of Bombay.

Sir, now that I am the richest man, please show me some of my palaces and gardens.

Surely David. Let us first go to see your magnificent house or, should I say, palace Sans Souci. It is said that in 1859, this place hosted over 500 guests celebrating Britain’s decision to assert a more direct form of control over its prized imperial possession. Your house today has become the Masina Hospital, run by a charitable trust which has kept the place well, ready to welcome you home.

Do you know, David, the vast tracts of lands outside your house were given by your successors to the people of Bombay and on it stands the zoological park, now called Veermata Jijabai Udyaan.  I happened to walk into the zoo the other day and two things caught my attention. Firstly, on its lawns stands the famous Kala Ghoda or the Black Horse. We have all heard about the Kala Ghoda Festival but have always wondered about the horse.  This is the equestrian bronze statue of King Albert Edward VII and was donated by your son Abdullah who changed his name to Albert Sassoon in commemoration of the King’s visit to the city as Prince of Wales in 1875.

And the second was the Royal Bengal Tiger who gave me the chance to click the perfect picture that brightened up my day. 

After seeing the tiger in your garden, I remembered the poem you were talking about… it is called Tartary which read like this:

If I were the Lord of Tartary
Myself and me alone,
My bed would be of ivory,
Of beaten gold my throne;
And in my court should peacocks flaunt,
And in my forests tigers haunt,
And in my pools great fishes slant
Their fins athwart the sun….

Yes, you’re right Sir. The poem indeed was Tartary and not Tata Re... ha ha!

In the same area stands the Victoria and Albert Museum which was thrown open to public in 1857. This museum is now known by the name of Bhau Daji Lad Museum after the first Indian Sheriff of Mumbai. Near the entrance of the zoo is the Victoria Garden where the famous David Sassoon Clock Tower stands tall reminding the people of the city about you.

Now let me get back to your business and history David. You developed his textile operations into a profitable triangular trade: Indian yarn and opium were carried to China, where you bought goods which were sold in Britain, from where the Lancashire cotton products were imported into India. Later, when the import of American cotton to England stopped during the American Civil War, David started exporting cotton from India. Later, you started textile mills in Bombay. At its peak, you David owned seventeen textile mills and employed almost forty percent of labour force employed in the mills in the city.

You and your family were philanthropists and builders, David, and they contributed greatly to the cities of Bombay and Pune. Sassoon Dock was a truly remarkable creation. This was the first time in India where the railway lines entered the dock area and made it easier to move goods coming into the country and being exported. Now the dock is used mostly by fishing folks and the walls have beautiful murals including one of a Koli fisherwoman, resting after a hectic morning work and, of course, there is this vintage watchmaker's shop at the entrance of the dock.

Want to see more... the Bank of India on MG Road, Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue at Colaba and then there are many schools, hospitals and synagogues spread all over. It would be wrong on my part not to mention that the Sassoons were among the largest contributors to the construction of Gateway of India. You and your family were more British than the British themselves.

Vicky, it is time for you to come back to becoming who you are for now we will see the statue of David Sassoon himself at the David Sassoon Library and Reading Room.

If I were Lord of Tartary,

I’d wear a robe of beads,

White, and gold, and green they’d be

And small and thick as seeds;

And ere should wane the morning star,

I’d don my robe and scimitar.

And zebras seven should draw my car

Through Tartary’s dark glades.

SS & Vicky