HistoryJamshed Mehta, a colleague of Mahatma Gandhi, is remembered as the builder of modern Karachi ….. patriot, theosophist, philanthropist and mayor of that city for 13 years. He inspired Pherozesha Sidhwa, a young lawyer to abandon his articleship and start a tile manufacturing unit with his nephew Rustom Sidhwa ……and there began the Bharat Tile Company. The trade mark of the company stamped on the back of every tile was, of course, a map of India (including what are now Pakistan and Bangladesh). To the founders of Bharat Tiles, Pherozesha Sidhwa and Rustom Sidhwa, the quality of tiles produced was critical. The reasons for this went beyond aesthetics, into hard business sense- it the tiles were not as good as imported ones, nobody would buy them. In 1923, Pherozesha was dissatisfied with a batch of black and white tiles made for New Readymoney Building (Flora Fountain). So he stopped delivery and took the dramatic step of having the entire batch thrown into sea. Soon after, he left for Italy to find out what he was doing wrong. As it turned out, all that the black and white tiles needed was better polishing. From these humble beginnings, Bharat Tiles grew to tile palaces of Maharaja’s, Governor’s mansions, landmark buildings, airports and many other buildings which are landmarks today. To quote just a few examples…Bombay Central, the High Court, Metro Cinema, Government House, Mumbai Airport, Churchgate Station, Juhu Aerodrome, Max Mueller Bhavan, the Mint, Tata Electric Companies, Mantralaya, Air India Building, Taj Mahal Intercontinental …… And to think that sixty years ago, anything made in India was viewed with great suspicion! |
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