TIMELESS OPULENCE

As the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel turns 120, it continues to earn its place in history

- NAMRATA ZAKARIA AND NACHIKET KELKAR

As imposing as the Gateway of India— the archway that was erected in 1924 to welcome George V, the first British monarch to arrive on Indian shores—is its neighbour, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. One could say it has served as a more memorable guidepost, too, since it was built in 1903, two decades before the Gateway was conceived.

Then called the Taj Mahal Hotel, after India’s most famous monument of love, and built in the Indo-Saracenic style, it was the first to introduce the country’s famous hospitality to the rest of the world. It was the finest hotel east of the Suez Canal then and it transformed not just the face of Bombay, but also the image of India. The New York Times called it “a resplendent debut”, as it was Tata Group founder Jamsetji Tata’s first hotel under the aegis of the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL). On December 16, 2023, this magnificent edifice celebrates its 120th birthday.

The hotel continues to earn its place in history. Maharajas considered it their second home. During the freedom movement, leaders like Muhammed Ali Jinnah and Sarojini Naidu held court in its suites. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were both visitors, as were writers Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley who supported India’s independence. In fact, independent India’s first speech to industry leaders took place at this hotel.

The Taj Mahal Hotel’s list of eminent guests is probably rivalled only by the Rashtrapati Bhavan— King Charles III, Margaret Thatcher, the Clintons, Jacqueline Onassis, David Rockefeller, the Obamas, George Bernard Shaw, Irving Stone, Barbara Cartland, Richard Attenborough, Mick Jagger, Yehudi Menuhin, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Madonna and the prince and princess of Wales William and Catherine, too, had stayed at the Taj.