The Jubilee Diamond:
Originally known as the Reitz diamond, this 245 carat diamond was unearthed in a South African mines and remained as the largest diamond of world. ( Until 1905 when a bigger diamond was exhibited). It is twice as large as the Kohinoor and was priced at around 1,00,000 pounds in the 1900s. It was renamed as the Jubilee Diamond to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1897.
Incidentally Sir Dorabji Tata, elder son of Jamsetji Tata married Lady Meherbai in the same year and purchased the diamond as a gift for his bride. It created a sensation in the world jewellery circle. Lady Meherbai Tata put the Jubilee diamond on a platinum claw and put it on a platinum chain. It was always kept in the bank vault and was heavily insured. She used it only on special occasions and the Bank would charge 200 pounds damarage charge, each time it was taken out of the bank’s vaults.
Lady Meherbai, the Feminist Icon:
Lady Meherbai is the first indian woman to play Olympic tennis in the Paris Olympics in 1924. She played all her matches wearing a parsi saree to make a point to the British Colonialists. She was a fiercest feminist and was instrumental in bringing in the Sarda Act in 1929. The act made child marriage illegal.
Bombay women got the right to vote in municipality election as early as 1921, of course to the untiring effort of Lady Tata.
“We ladies did not come here to be graceful, we came here to be useful.“
“When she heard that women living in a poor area of Byculla in Mumbai were unable to get access to food because of riots, she offered to become a food and vegetable vendor herself, along with some of her lady colleagues. The mayor refused her request, saying that he did not consider it graceful for distinguished ladies to sell food. To which Lady Tata responded with quiet dignity:
‘We ladies did not come here to be graceful, we came here to be useful.’
The Tata Memorial Hospital:
Lady Meherbai Tata died of Leukaemia in 1931. The Jubilee Diamond was sold and Sir Dorabji Tata founded a Trust in her memory which was dedicated to cancer research. This mission against cancer led to the establishment of the Tata Memorial Hospital in 1941.
The Jubilee diamond got a permanent place in the Cancer care of India, a befitting tribute to a equally dignified lady of the nation.
The world’s largest diamond that young Dorabji has purchased for his newly wed bride still shines in our country’s cancer care long after her departure from this earth.
Dr Ramakanta's Ideas 