Manu Joseph: Why Indians who didn’t know Ratan Tata liked him

Their coolness comes from a lack of desperation, the near absence of predators and the fact that they probably never had to endure anything that could make them bitter about human beings. 

Very few people knew him well, and he could well be a man who had a Hindi calendar at home, but in the public myth of him, he was among the last of a generation of Indians who were at once refined and loveable. In him was the best defence of the old elite and the assertion that there is such a thing as class, which cannot be bought with money.

It helped that he looked affluent, and his first language, the language that makes a smart person sound smart, was also the language he was required to speak in—English. Also, he truly loved dogs.

Also read: Why Ratan Tata left his job in US and returned to India. ‘I came back for…’

I never met him, even though he took me to court once.

I have seen him, though. Once on the road, in Mumbai’s Cuff Parade area. He was at the wheel of an Indigo, a car that one of his many companies made. 

He looked particularly wealthy inside that ‘affordable’ car. It was a scene that would make Indians pass that nonsensical national compliment—“such a humble man."

I also used to see him on occasion at Thai Pavilion in The President. He did seem to go about life without much fuss.

He lived in an unassuming house that we imagine might have been tastefully done with some fantastically expensive thing or two. But from all accounts, his life was austere in a way only a refined rich man’s can be. 

Austerity is possible only when one is able to afford everything it rejects. And what it rejects is most of the useless products that capitalism creates for the super-rich.

The meaning of class is that it recognizes life is not about consuming, and money is not about showing itself. About this world-view, he has spoken a bit.

Class has lost its allure in India. It is probably tolerated only in old people anymore. Today, those who don’t have either money or class aspire to money, almost never to class. In fact, class is a passionate pursuit only of those don’t have a lot of money.

There was a point when the wealthiest people of India began to flaunt their wealth very openly. It was suddenly safe to do that. As a result, some giant billionaire silos sprang up in Mumbai. 

Also read: Charting the rapid rise of India’s affluent class

Intellectuals said that these houses were vulgar because they were like taunts to the poor. But the truth is that for a majority of people, these giant billionaire homes are beacons of hope.

People today feel that wealth is attainable, but class is something you are born into. But the fact is that in India it is easier to attain class, just by living well or through intellectual pursuits, than to amass wealth, which is a by-product of a system that is more rigged than class. 

But this is not the general perception of new Indians. In any case, they care very little for class, their own class. Their new heroes are billionaires. Yet, what they like about Ratan Tata is not just his money, but that abstract halo of refinement.

Ratan Tata lived through the modern evolution of class in India.

He assumed power when it was still very expensive to be rich, by which I mean that an affluent lifestyle was affordable only to the truly wealthy. It was the golden age of the rich. They never had to stand in line for anything; there were very few of them.

At that time, the middle class was closer to the poor than to the rich. We did a lot of things that the poor did and we shared many rooms in many places with the poor, and we almost never met the super-rich. It was a time when class and wealth were the same thing. People who had class automatically seemed to have wealth.

Ratan Tata, as a wealthy Parsi, had liberal views. He appeared ‘Western.’ It is a way of speaking, chiefly saying humane things, and living true to what you said. It is rare to see that world-view in India among those who are new to great wealth.

Even when Tata acquired the revered British brands Corus, Tetley Tea and Jaguar, he did it without any nationalistic swag, unlike the Indian media, which reported the acquisitions in a hysterical way.

His personality made Indians make allowances for him. Once he told The Times (of London), “In my experience, in both Corus and Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) nobody is willing to go the extra mile." 

He said it was “a work-ethic issue" of the British. He said Indians, in contrast, worked hard. “I feel if you have come from Bombay to have a meeting and the meeting goes till 6pm, I would expect that you won’t at 5 o’clock say, ‘Sorry, I have my train to catch. I have to go home.’ 

Also read: Riches Revealed: 3 game-changing habits of wealthy people

Friday from 3.30pm you can’t find anybody in their office…." Further, he observed, “The entire engineering group at JLR would be empty on Friday evening, and you have got delays in product introduction…"

There was an uproar in the UK over what Ratan Tata said, but Indians were not offended that to a titan of Indian industry work ethic meant workers putting in long hours. 

It was a concession that Indians on social media did not extend to N.R. Narayana Murthy after he said that young people should work at least 70 hours a week.

There were a bit more serious things Ratan Tata could say and do, yet emerge unscathed.