Why is Tatyasaheb’s legacy important to early Bombay’s textile history?
Tatya made his fortune as the sole selling agent of Kohinoor Mills. His story in Tatyasaheb (Westland) illuminates the larger story of how the textile industry was central to generating the wealth of the city. We see how the wider political context impacted him and other players in the textile industry, such as the boom years of the First World War, or the Swadeshi Movement. By the early 20th century, Bombay’s mills accounted for 50 per cent of the spinning and weaving capacity of India. So, it was a dynamic industry that profoundly shaped the city; in many ways, researching Tatya’s story was like diving into the origin story of the city.

What lessons from Tatyasaheb’s early struggles helped his rise to being a leader and entrepreneur? 
He learned resilience at an early age — as a child his education was continually disrupted, prompting him to leave school and work as an assistant to a cloth merchant in Mulji Jetha (MJ) Market. These were hard years. Sharing a room in a chawl, he would walk to work to save money for beedis. His early attempt at setting up his own business crumbled during the outbreak of bubonic plague in the city in 1896 when half the city’s population ran away. But he decided to try yet again, and set up his own shop as a selling agent in MJ Market. After that there was no looking back, but these struggles would have taught him the value of persisting against the odds.