Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Petit, Dinshaw Manockjee
PETIT, Sir DINSHAW MANOCKJEE, first baronet (1823–1901), Parsi merchant and philanthropist, born at Bombay on 30 June 1823, was elder of two sons of Manockjee Nasarwanji Petit (1803-59), merchant, by his wife Bai Humabai (1809-51), daughter of J. D. Mooghna. In 1805 his grandfather, Nasarwanji Cowasjee Bomanjee, migrated from Surat to Bombay, where he acted as agent to French vessels and those of the East India Company. On account of his small stature his French clients gave him the cognomen of Petit, and, in accordance with Parsi custom, this became the family surname, though with Anglicised pronunciation. Dinshaw went at the age of nine to a school kept by a pensioned sergeant named Sykes, and later to a more ambitious seminary kept by Messrs. Mainwaring and Corbet. At the age of seventeen he obtained a clerkship on a monthly salary of Rs. 15 (then the eqivalent of 1l. 10s.) in the mercantile office of Dirom, Richmond and Co., of which his father was native manager. Subsequently his father built up a large broker's business, in which Dinshaw and his younger brother, Nasarwanjee, became partners in 1852, carrying it on after their father's death in May 1859 till 1864, when they divided a fortune of about 25 lakhs of rupees and separated by mutual consent.
Meanwhile Dinshaw inaugurated the cotton manufacturing industry which has made Bombay the Manchester of India. A cotton mill was started for the first time in Bombay in 1854 by another Parsi, Cowasjee Xanabhai Davur, but it spun yarns only. In 1855 Dinshaw induced his father to erect a similar mill with additional machinery for weaving cloth. This mill commenced work as the Oriental Spinning and Weaving Mill, in 1857. In 1860 he and his brother started the Manockjee Petit mill, which they converted into a joint-stock company concern. During the 'share mania' of 1861 and 1865, when the ruin of the cotton industry of Lancashire by the American civil war excited wild speculation in Bombay Dinshaw Petit maintained his self-control and reaped colossal gains. Other mills were soon built by him, or came under his management, and he led the way in the manufacture of hosiery, damask, other fancy cloths, sewing thread, and also in machine dyeing on a large scale. Before Ms death he had the chief interest in six joint-stock mills aggregating nearly a quarter of a million spindles and 2340 looms, and employing some 10,000 persons. He is thus mainly responsible for the conversion of the town and island of Bombay into a great industrial centre.
Dinshaw Petit served on the board of the bank of Bombay; was a justice of the peace for the city, and for a short time a member of the municipal corporation; and was sheriff of the city (1886-7). He served on the legislative council of the governor-general (1886-8), and was the first Parsi to receive that honour. Having been knighted in February 1887, he was created a baronet of the United Kingdom on 1 Sept. 1890, with special limitation to his second son. Petit was the second Indian native to receive this hereditary title, the first being Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy [q. v.]. Like Sir Jamsetjee. Petit obtained special legislation requiring all successors to the title to assume his name in the event of not possessing it at their succession.
Throughout western India Dinshaw Petit showed public spirit in the disposal of his great wealth. He arranged for housing the technical institute at Bombay — a memorial of Queen Victoria's jubilee of 1887 — in the manufacturing district of the city. He founded the Petit hospital for women and children; gave a lakh of rupees (nearly 7000l.) towards building a home for lepers; erected a hospital for animals as a memorial to his wife; and presented property both in Bombay and Poona for research laboratories. A devout Parsi, he was always attentive to the claims of his own community, and in various places where small colonies of them are to lie found erected for their use fire temples and towers of silence (i.e. places for the disposal of the dead).
Petit died at his Bombay residence, Petit Hall, on 5 May 1901, and his remains were committed to the towers of silence, Malabar Hill, the same day. At the oothumna, or third day obsequies, charities were announced amounting to Rs. 638,551 (42,570l.).
Petit married on 27 Feb. 1837 Sakerbai, daughter of Framjee Bhikhajee Panday, of Bombay; she died on 6 March 1890, having issue three sons and eight daughters. Petit's second son, Framjee Dinshaw, on whom the baronetcy had been entailed, predeceased his father on 8 Aug. 1895, and his eldest son, Jeejeehhoy Framjee (b. 7 June 1873), became second baronet under the name of Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit. A posthumous painting of the first baronet by Sir James Linton belongs to the present Sir Dinshaw of Petit Hall, Bombay, and a statue, to form the public memorial in Bombay, is being executed by Sir Thomas Brock, R.A.
[History of the Parsis, 1884, 2 vols.; Representative Men of India, Bombay, 1891; Sir W. Hunter's Bombay, 1885 to 1890, 1892; Imperial Gazetteer of India; Burke's Peerage; Times of India, 6 May 1901.]