In the sprawling city of Mumbai, the name “Sassoon” resonates with an unexpected weight. To those who walk past the grand David Sassoon Library and Reading Room in the heart of the city or sail past the bustling Sassoon Dock, the name likely conjures an image of colonial grandeur. Yet, the legacy of David Sassoon, whose life bridged the worlds of finance, industry, and international trade, speaks to a far more complex history, rooted in religious persecution, strategic entrepreneurship, and the shifting sands of imperial power.
David Sassoon, born in Baghdad in 1792, was a man whose journey exemplifies the ingenuity that built much of the modern world. He was part of a Jewish diaspora in the Middle East, one of the many Jewish communities scattered across the globe, yet little known in mainstream history.
The Sassoons’ story begins with religious persecution, forcing David and his family to flee Baghdad in the 1830s for the relative safety of Bombay, where the city’s thriving commercial atmosphere offered new opportunities. It was here, amid the shifting tides of commerce, that Sassoon would lay the foundation for a legacy that would stretch from China to Europe and beyond.
Sassoon’s arrival in Bombay came at a time when the city, then under British control, was emerging as a major hub for trade between Europe, the Middle East, and the East. Initially, Sassoon worked as a treasurer and financier in various enterprises, but his true genius lay in recognising untapped markets.
Among his key insights was the realisation that India’s textiles, renowned for their quality, could compete with the finest fabrics imported from Europe. The knowledge of India’s superior cloth, coupled with the booming industrial growth of the time, led him to establish 17 mills in Bombay. It was a move that not only provided much-needed employment to the city’s growing population but also helped turn Bombay into the commercial capital of India.
Sassoon’s wealth and influence grew as his family became involved in trade with China, a market long dominated by European powers. But unlike the Parsis, another influential group of traders in Bombay who had halted trade with China after the Opium Wars of the 1840s, Sassoon saw opportunity.
His son, Elias Sassoon, moved to Shanghai in the 1850s, cementing the family’s relationship with China and expanding their empire. The Sassoon family’s trading operations were focused on opium, a product that had been crucial to the British economy. Through the sale of opium, Sassoon became an integral player in the broader network of British imperial trade, exchanging the addictive substance for tea, silk, and silver—goods that were sold in Britain and later re-exported to India.
This history, however, is fraught with ethical complexity. In 1839, when the Chinese Emperor decreed the cessation of the opium trade, David Sassoon’s business interests were threatened. In retaliation, Sassoon, ever the shrewd strategist, lobbied the British government to deploy military forces to protect trade routes, a move that directly led to the First Opium War between Britain and China.
The war was devastating for China, and it secured British control over the opium trade, which would continue to be a lucrative, though morally questionable, enterprise for decades. Sassoon’s role in the opium trade earned him the moniker of a “drug baron” in some quarters, a reputation that has clouded his legacy ever since. But to focus solely on this aspect would be to overlook the larger contributions Sassoon made to the economic landscape of India and beyond.
While his involvement in the opium trade is indelible, it was Sassoon’s broader vision of India’s economic potential that truly left its mark on the country. In addition to his mills, Sassoon was instrumental in founding several financial institutions, most notably the Bank of India, established in 1906. The Bank of India was conceived in response to the Swadeshi Movement, a nationalist movement advocating the use of Indian-made goods in a direct challenge to British colonialism.
Alongside prominent figures such as Cowasjee Jehangir and R.D. Tata, Sassoon sought to create an institution that would promote Indian economic autonomy. However, despite its nationalist intentions, the bank’s legacy was not without controversy. It was accused of being elitist, with much of its management and oversight still dominated by the British.
In response to these inequities, one of the bank’s Indian accountants, Sorabhji Pochkhanawala, left in 1911 to found the Central Bank of India, a new institution aimed at promoting Indian control over the nation’s financial system. The rivalry between the Bank of India and the Central Bank reflected a broader struggle for economic independence that would define much of India’s fight against British rule.
The reach of the Sassoon family extended well beyond India’s borders. Sassoon’s influence was particularly felt in Shanghai, where his descendants would continue to expand the family’s business empire throughout the twentieth century. Victor Sassoon, the fourth generation of the family, was a pivotal figure in the empire’s expansion.
He founded over thirty companies in Shanghai, making his mark as one of the city’s most successful businessmen. Notably, Victor also offered refuge to Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, providing them with homes and work in Shanghai during and after World War II. The Sassoon family, by then firmly entrenched in international trade and banking, played a crucial role in shaping the economic landscape of East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Despite their prominence, the Sassoons have remained largely out of the public eye in recent decades, overshadowed by other, more visible dynasties such as the Tatas and the Godrej family. Yet, when one delves into the history of the Sassoon family, their influence on the development of modern India becomes clear.
While their legacy may not be as widely celebrated, it is impossible to ignore the role they played in shaping Bombay’s economic growth, particularly in trade, industry, and banking. Their mills helped lay the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution in India, while their banks provided the financial infrastructure for India’s economic future.
It is perhaps the irony of David Sassoon’s life that, despite his significant contributions to both India and China, his name is not as widely known as those of other colonial-era magnates. His legacy, however, is deeply embedded in the fabric of both cities—through the buildings that bear his name and the industries he helped shape.
The story of David Sassoon and his family is one of ambition and a relentless drive to adapt to an ever-changing world. It is a story that mirrors the complexities of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—a time when trade, finance, and geopolitics converged to create new opportunities, new wealth, and new conflicts.
Today, the Sassoon family’s businesses — spanning banking, real estate, and commodities — remain influential across Asia and Europe. But perhaps the most enduring legacy of David Sassoon is his vision for India’s future—a vision that helped to transform Bombay into one of the world’s great cities.
Even as his descendants have largely retreated from the spotlight, the mark they left on India’s economy is undeniable. In the end, the Sassoon family story is not simply a tale of one man’s rise to power, but of a family that helped shape the modern world—often from behind the scenes.
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