Dinshaw Maneckji Petit

Who was Dinshaw Maneckji Petit?

Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, 1st Baronet, Parsi entrepreneur and founder of the first textile mills in India. He was also the grandfather of Rattanbai Petit Jinnah, who later became the wife of the founder of Pakistan, Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

As broker to European firms he amassed a large fortune during the period of speculation in Bombay at the time of the American Civil War. He founded the Manackji Petit Spinning & Weaving Mills.

In 1854 Dinshaw Maneckji Petit founded the "Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund" with the aim of improving the conditions for the less fortunate Zoroastrian co-religionists in Iran. The fund succeeded in convincing a number of Iranian Zoroastrians to emigrate to India, and may have been instrumental in obtaining a remission of the jizya poll tax for their co-religionists in 1882.

In 1886 he became a member of the governor-general's legislative council where he was criticised for playing a pro-colonial role despite being a non-official nominee to the council.He was referred to as a "gilded sham" and a "magnificent non-entity " by the nationalists.