The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai

I'm glued to CNN watching the terror attacks unfolding in Mumbai. I stayed at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower this past March -- in a room with a harbor view -- and so it's incredibly strange to watch the cameras focusing on that line of rooms.

The loss of human life is unbelievable, and this hotel is a landmark, as the people on TV are saying. But what they're not saying (to be sure, they have more important things to report) is that it was a place that opened in 1903, because the best hotel in town, Watson's, at that time wouldn't allow Indians to enter -- it was whites only.

The property that became the Taj was founded by an Indian, Jamsetji Tata, as a place that would not discriminate, a place of tolerance. [See comments below: perhaps this should say, a place that discriminated less than other accommodations of its kind, in its day, a place of more tolerance?] And today, a place of hate and horror.

 

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Comments

[Alison Stein Wellner]

10:13 AM on 11/27/2008

Thanks to all commenters --I have no doubt that the Taj was NOT open to all Indians of every caste in 1903--nor would it be particularly welcoming to people who can't pay it's steep tariffs today -- and I certainly appreciate the additional information. Still, the fact that it was not founded with a "whites only" policy, at that time, was at the least a move towards tolerance, no?

[pixy242a]

01:32 PM on 11/27/2008

In the same way as the Magna Carta was the foundation for democracy. The King and his nobles who sought to rein in his powers, didn't really think of the effects it would one day have on the serfs under their control. They gave as much thought to the unwashed masses as the Bilderburg group give to the worlds poor today. I don't think they spend any time thinking about how to keep others down, but how to do what's best for themselves.

[Bitsko]

01:12 AM on 11/27/2008

Interesting history, terrible timing.

[FogBelter]

11:14 PM on 11/26/2008

Ms. Wellner, it is a disconcerting thing to have a hotel you once stayed become a media focus due to a tragedy. In 1988 I stayed at the 5 Star Hyatt Terraces Plaza in Baguio in The Philippines. It was a fine hotel but not comparable to the Taj for history or grace, however. In 1990 there was a massive earthquake in the Philippines that caused the hotel to collapse in on itself.

http://www.cityofpines.com/baguioquake/quake29.jpg

I studied the photos of the collapsed hotel trying to identify the room I stayed in and wondering if it was occupied at the time. To have a connection to something like this is very sad.

[StellaRay]

10:51 PM on 11/26/2008

On this Thanksgiving eve, as Mumbai suffers, I relect on the fact that it's always been about hate vs. hope. We of these times have no monopoly on the battle. Tomorrow I will give thanks for every time hope has won, for instance November 4th, 2008 in the United states of America. Evolution is constanstly imperfect, but constant nevertheless. Tomorrow I will pray that the victory of hope washes over all our shores. I will not live to see it, but I will never stop praying for it.

[JamaicaMan]

10:26 PM on 11/26/2008

The property that became the Taj was founded by an Indian, Jamsetji Tata, as a place that would not discriminate, a place of tolerance. And today, a place of hate and horror.


I am sure that in India of 1903 all Indians would not have been welcomed to the Taj.

[JamaicaMan]

10:22 PM on 11/26/2008

"The property that became the Taj was founded by an Indian, Jamsetji Tata, as a place that would not discriminate, a place of tolerance. And today, a place of hate and horror."

I do find the above statement strange in the Indian (1903) context. I do not know the history but...I can see Watsons only having "white" guests, but to suggest that the taj allowed all Indians to stay would go against all the cast systems in place at that time.

[pixy242a]

11:45 PM on 11/26/2008

I am from India. It is a very complicated place. Jamsetji Tata was a Parsi or Zoroastrian, not Hindu. He was a wealthy industrialist, but was still not accepted in British institutions. The Taj was built for people of his class -- the rich. That was as effective a barrier as 'caste' to the majority of Indians then and now. I doubt there was an official policy to bar lower castes into the Taj by Tata.

[MagisterLudi]

12:35 AM on 11/27/2008

hmm, I am sure the Dalits were allowed into Taj... then again.....

[mumbaikar]

09:56 PM on 11/26/2008

Taj is the true old world heritage of Mumbai.

Here's more about it.

http://onlybombay.blogspot.com/2008/06/taj-hotel-in-mumbai.html

Taj hotels are owned and operated by Tata group. Here's the person who built the Taj and kept its back facing the Gateway of India as a means of protest to the British occupation.

read here...

http://onlybombay.blogspot.com/2007/01/jamsetji-tata-first-indian-to-own-car.html

[Seamus]

11:16 PM on 11/26/2008

Excellent links and a great start for learning about the issues.

[Dr. Irene S. Levine]

08:28 PM on 11/26/2008

Thanks for posting this, Allison.
Irene