Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy of Bombay: Partnership and Public Culture in Empire

This book details the life and public career of one of Indias legendary individualsJamsetjee Jejeebhoy, the first Indian knight and baronet. Born of humble origins, he went from collecting and selling empty bottles to building a business empire through the nineteenth-century China Trade. Hailed as one of Indias greatest philanthropists of the colonial era, Jejeebhoy utilized his wealth for copious charity for the people of Bombay and western India. But he was also an ambitious and canny actor within the colonial framework, whose ambitions went beyond altruistic desires to benefit society. Jejeebhoy belonged to the collaborationist class that emerged under early colonialism. This classwhich also included prominent figures like Dwarkanath Tagore, the merchant prince from Bengalserved as an important medium between the imperial and Indian cultures. However, the limits of collaboration for Indians were evidentJejeebhoy faced many bureaucratic and cultural obstacles in his encounters with the imperial order. His efforts to promote himself and indigenous capabilities bear testimony to Indian ingenuity under the colonial regime.