JIJIBHOY,Sir Jamsetji (1783-1859), Parsi businessman and philanthropist. Jamsetji Jijibhoy was the first Indian to receive a British knighthood in 1842 and the first Indian to receive a hereditary baronetcy in 1857.

A debate among Jijibhoy’s biographers surrounds the exact place of his birth, with counter-claims between the proponents of Navsari and Bombay. Contemporary documents indicate Jamsetji Jijibhoy was born on 15 July 1783 in Bombay (Bombay Government Gazette Supplement, 11 and 21 April 1836, cf. Mody, 1959, pp. 159-63). Named Jamshed by his father and mother, Jijibhoy and Jivibai Jijibhoy Vatcha, from the age of five to sixteen Jijibhoy grew up in Navsari. Following the death of his parents in 1799, Jijibhoy permanently settled in Bombay and was looked after and apprenticed by his maternal uncle Framji Nusserwanji, later to be his father-in-law. Jijibhoy began on the road to self-made status by collecting and selling empty bottles. At Bombay, Jijibhoy’s contact with Indians transformed his name from Jamshed to Jamsetji, and his trade in bottles earned him the appellation, or surname, of Batliwala ‘dealer in bottles’.

Jijibhoy was a product of the age of partnership and commercial collaboration begun with the introduction of European imperialism in Asia of late 18th and early 19th centuries. Jijibhoy’s business goal was large-volume trade, and in 1814 he purchased his first ship, the Good Success, and soon added six more and chartered others (Bulley, 2000, pp. 162-65). Jijibhoy also formed diverse social contacts with Indians of various communities and Europeans. In 1818 the firm of Jamsetji Jijibhoy & Co. was formed with the Jain Motichund Amichund and the Konkani Mahomed Ali Rogay as Jijibhoy’s business associates; and later to be joined by the Catholic Goan Rogeria de Faria. In 1836 Jamsetji Jijibhoy & Co. was formed with Jijibhoy’s eldest son Cursetji Jamsetji and Fardoonji Sorabji (Mody, pp. 32-34; Natesan, 1930, pp. 7-8; Ramsay, 1855, p. 8; Siddiqi, 1982, pp. 301-24). Jijibhoy and associates established a network of trade that supplied resources, particularly cotton and at its height opium, for export outside India. Part of Jijibhoy’s initial wealth was made in the cotton trade between India and Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. The consignment of Indian opium to East Asia constituted Jijibhoy’s major business enterprise and was responsible for a substantial proportion of his wealth (Greenberg, 1951, pp. 150-51; Siddiqi, pp. 301-24). Jijibhoy emerged as the most prominent Indian China merchant in the first half of the 19th century, personally making five trips to China up to 1807, and Jijibhoy was in contact with the major British, American, and Chinese traders and commercial houses. Jijibhoy’s most famous business association was with Jardine Matheson & Co. of Canton; Jijibhoy and William Jardine also established an abiding friendship over the years (Karaka, 1884, I , pp. 79-88).

Jijibhoy utilized his wealth and contacts to become one of the most influential and well known Indians at Bombay. In 1823 he became a member of the Parsi Panchayat or internal government of the Parsi community of Bombay. He was also recognized as the chief representative of the Indian community of Bombay by the British imperial authorities. Most significantly, Jijibhoy was one of Bombay and Western India’s greatest philanthropists. Jijibhoy’s charity encompassed innumerable diverse causes whether directed towards Parsi welfare, the general Indian community, or in benefit of the British. Jijibhoy’s charities included religious benefactions, relief charity, and support for civic and imperial ritual. The Bombay Times of 16 April 1859 noted that: “To write a history of Sir Jamsetji’s benefactions would be to write a book, and not the obituary notice of a journal.” Jijibhoy’s charity is first recorded to have begun in 1822 with his remitting the debts of the poor in civil jail to the sum of Rs. 3,000 (Nazir, 1866, p. 31). At the time of his death the total value of his charities was noted to be Rs. 24,59,736 or in excess of ₤245,000. The will and codicil of Jijibhoy had in addition valued the property, personal and real, bequeathed to his family and friends just under Rs. 85,00,000, or eighty-five lakhs of rupees (Mody, pp. 172-75; Palsetia, 2003, pp. 55-75).

Among the Parsis, charity was a vital support for community life. Charity to the larger community also functioned to accommodate the Parsis to their social milieu. Jijibhoy was notable for his conspicuous charity and desire to promote public charity in cooperation with the British. Jijibhoy applied the lessons of his successful business activities to the establishment of his charities. The profitable business atmosphere had translated into socio-political collaboration between Indians and British at Bombay, which Jijibhoy effectively utilized in benefit of his charitable projects and his personal elevation in colonial society. Jijibhoy aimed to involve the British in large charitable schemes or to act as trustee by co-financing large-scale charity alongside the British. Jijibhoy’s largest charitable projects: the Parsi Benevolent Institution (1849) at a cost of Rs. 4,40,000, the J.J. Hospital (1850) at a cost of Rs. 2,00,000, and the J.J. School of Art (1857) at a cost of Rs. 1,00,000 to Jijibhoy promoted British-Indian cooperation over large-scale charitable projects. The Benevolent Institution was the first indigenous educational institution in Western India educating thousands of students and the foundations of a revised Panchayat. The J.J. Hospital for the first time brought public and private interests together in the cause of public health care in Bombay. The School of Art made Asia a center of design (Palsetia, 2005, pp. 197–217; Wadia, 1950, pp. 80–85, 165–208).

Jijibhoy’s charitable projects and his loyalty to the British garnered him honors and public acclaim. In 1842 Jijibhoy was conferred the first Indian knighthood by Queen Victoria. In 1857 the Jijibhoy family’s secret efforts undertaken over many years to obtain a hereditary honor was also recognized with Jamsetji Jijibhoy granted a hereditary baronetcy. An additional ₤250,000 was reserved for the maintenance of the baronetcy (Palsetia, 2003, pp. 55-75). Jijibhoy’s wife Lady Avabai, and three sons Cursetji, Rustomji and Sorabji were all dedicated to philanthropy. His daughter Pirojbai was one of the first Parsi females to be formally educated (Wadia, pp. 105-135).

Jijibhoy’s charity, honors, and public accolades made him the most famous Parsi of his time and perhaps the first famous non-European colonial subject. In 1859 the citizens of Bombay honored Jijibhoy with the erection of a marble statue designed by Baron Marochetti in the Royal Asiatic Society’s Library. Funds were collected from around the empire to the sum of Rs. 46,340, and the statue was the first major public tribute of its kind to an Indian at Bombay. Reporting on the statue, the British editor of the Bombay Times of 6 September 1856 appreciated the historical significance of Jamsetji Jijibhoy: “There is something more remarkable in such liberality than its munificence. It is of the most enlightened character, and places this Parsee knight not merely among the foremost men in India, but among the best of the British Empire. His abounding charity proves how truly he appreciates every element of civilization, and how keenly alive he is to the usefulness of schemes which have scarcely as yet been developed among ourselves.”

Bibliography: Bombay Government Gazette Supplement 11 and 21 April 1836. Bombay Times, 6 September 1856. Ibid, 16 April 1859. Anne Bulley, The Bombay Country Ships, 1790–1833, Richmond, Surrey, 2000. Michael Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-42, Cambridge, 1951. D. F. Karaka, History of the Parsis, 2 vols., London, 1884. Jehangir R. P. Mody, Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy: The First Indian Knight and Baronet (1783-1859), Bombay, 1959. G. A. Natesan & Co., ed., Famous Parsis: Biographical and Critical Sketches, Madras, 1930. C. S. Nazir, The First Parsee Baronet, Bombay, 1866. Jesse S. Palsetia, “‘Honourable Machinations’: The Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Baronetcy and the Indian Response to the Honours System in India,” South Asia Research 23, no. 1 (May 2003), pp. 55-75. Idem, “Merchant Charity and Public Identity Formation in Colonial India: The Case of Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 40, no. 3 (June 2005), pp. 197-217. Asiya Siddiqi, “The Business World of Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy,” The Indian Economic and Social History Review 19, nos. 3-4, 1982, pp. 301-24. Jal H. Wadia, Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Parsee Benevolent Institution Centenary Volume, Bombay, 1950. Williamson Ramsay, Memorandum of the Life and Public Charities of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, London, 1855.

(Jesse S. Palsetia)

September 20, 2005