Jyotirindranath Tagore Among the Pioneers of Bengali Businessmen
JYOTIRINDRANATH TAGORE: TWENTY-FIVE COLLOTYPES FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
Jyotirindranath Tagore, aside from being a brilliant polymath, armed with the knowledge of multiple languages, and multifaceted finer skills — that would, in turn, build on the creative inspirations of his legendary younger brother Rabindranath Tagore — was among the pioneers of Bengali businessmen.
Jyotirindranath Tagore served his beloved country that was still in the grabs of the colonial forces by building on the Bengali entrepreneurial legacy. Being inspired by his father, Debendranath Tagore, Jyotirindranath contributed towards the economic development of the country, he ventured onto conducting multiple businesses including that of Indigo, jute, and running steamer companies.
Although Jyotirindranath’s ventures could not make the expected profit margins, his contributions were tributary of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Bengali businessmen.
The entrepreneurial spirits that ran in the legendary Tagore family had their roots in the foundation of Prince Dwarakanath Tagore (1794–1846), the scion of the celebrated Tagore family of Calcutta. He was among the most prominent of all Bengali businessmen who were fixated on bringing in the exploits of the industrial revolution home.
The patriarch of the Tagore family, Dwarakanath Tagore, had two-fold ambitions that he tried to pursue, primarily to bring all of the commercial partnerships and organizational forms of the mercantile age into the new age of Industrialisation, further on to import the Industrial Revolution home with the commercial usage of the steam engine.
The entrepreneurial spirit of Dwarakanath was carried forward into the next generations by none other than Jyotirindranath Tagore, none of the other descendants of Dwarakanath was involved in any business ventures.
Jyotirindranath began his entrepreneurial journey with the indigo plantation. Although Jyotirindranath’s venture of Indigo plantation didn’t see much success — owing to the advent in synthetic indigo — he still was could procure a sizeable amount of profit from his firm. All of that capital went into building his shipping business.
He started with a river transport service and opened a steamer service with the ship Sarojini, that would connect Khulna and Barisal, in East Bengal, in 1884. He gradually built on his infrastructural support for the steamer business and bought four more ships.
But the colonial powers subdued the true Bengali entrepreneurial ambitions of Jyotirindranath Tagore. A British enterprise going by the name the Flotilla Company entered the steamer business and intensified competition.
Jyotirindranath tried his best to combat the competition by reducing the fare. This resulted in his steamer business suffering a huge loss. Ultimately, defeated by the colonial capitals, he had to wrap his business up. His strength to fight the colonial powers inspired generations of Bengali entrepreneurs after him.
JYOTIRINDRANATH TAGORE: TWENTY-FIVE COLLOTYPES FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
