A wasted chance to tell a life's story

Unnecessary reverence and poor editing squander the unparalleled access Thomas Mathew got to Ratan Tata

- Sundeep Khanna

That Ratan Tata's long-awaited biography, austerely titled Ratan Tata: A Life and penned by retired bureaucrat Thomas Mathew, appeared within days of his death, could have been fortuitous. The death sent people across the world scurrying to find out more about, arguably, one of the most recognised Indians. But there's a cloud hanging over the book: Tata had not approved the manuscript of what was to be an "authorised biography" and it was consequently published as an "independent work" by Harper Collins India though Mathew had wide and unparalleled access to Tata's papers and correspondence.

From what we know of him, it would most likely have been the reverential, hagiographical tone that offended him. That's not so much the fault of the author as of the environment in this country where powerful businessmen can never be criticised or questioned. Rare is the tycoon who will allow a critical assessment of his legacy. Hagiographies, rather than honest biographies, then are the order of the day.

Ratan Tata wasn't one of those tycoons. He needs no defence unlike, say, an Elon Musk, whose biography by Walter Isaacson provoked reviewer Gary Shteyngart in The Guardian to ask "Who or what is to blame for Elon Musk". Instances abound of Tata's refusal to take credit, his innate generosity and his deep sense of empathy for others, none more so than his behaviour during and after the 26/11 attacks on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai. Indeed, if there is one line in the book hardly anyone will contest, though many would phrase it better, it is this: "Within the country, perhaps, no business leader has been as popular and adulated as him."