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Cognizant of the prestige now associated with the Tata name, the British government enquired after the progress of the construction of the IISc and offered its support to Jamsetji’s sons. Taking advantage of this turnaround, Dorabji and his younger brother Ratanji decided to meet Lord Curzon, who had earlier dismissed the idea of IISc as unviable. The meeting proved to be a damp squib as Lord Curzon’s views were unchanged. Dorabji told him curtly if the government was not keen on supporting the cause, the Tatas would drop the idea and look to put their money elsewhere. That chastised the viceroy a bit and he said he would look into it.

Dorabji’s confrontation with Lord Curzon had its effect. Until then, the government, which had agreed to give the IISc project a mere £2,000, now agreed to put in each year half of whatever the others contributed. But Curzon later changed his stance once again and sent word to Dorabji to gather funds for the venture on his own rather than begging the government. Dorabji decided to meet him once again to explain his father’s vision. It appears that Lord Curzon was under the impression that the Tatas were eager to put their name on the proposed institute. Dorabji made it quite clear that the Tata family had no such intentions.

In the meanwhile, the newspapers had picked up the story, much to the irritation of Lord Curzon. Dorabji further assured Curzon that he was willing to put the entire money promised by his father into a trust which would work exclusively for the creation of IISc. Finally, the government and Lord Curzon agreed to amend the law to allow such an institute to be established.

Excerpted from Pg 27 of Tatas: How a family built a business and a nation by Girish Kuber