"Did you faint from nervousness or from such thing that you can make no mention of it?” Tata Group chairman Sir Dorabji Tata enquired of Empress Mills manager Bezonji Mehta about his receiving his knighthood in 1911 at the hands of King George V in Nagpur. Mehta was being recognized for his dedication and hard work in making the Mills a successful venture providing employment to many. The investiture had taken place, uniquely, in a railway saloon at Nagpur. Surprised that there was no mention of the ceremony anywhere, nor had the manager "talked about it,” Tata wanted "a complete account.” The industrialist’s letter to Bezonji and the newly knighted Mehta’s response to him dated January 12, 1912 have been reported in Tata Central Archives’ newsletter Sands of Time, Volume XIV, Issue 1
Sir Bezonji Mehta at Nagpur’s Empress Mills (Photo: Tata Central Archives)
"There were no reporters on the platform when the King knighted me for all the time the train was there and it was no business of those were present there to report such a trifling thing,” replied Mehta. Calling the affair a "simple” one, Mehta reported that there was "no occasion… to faint.” The King’s private secretary told Mehta to "go into the compartment where His Majesty was standing before a foot stool.” The Secretary told Mehta to kneel with his "right knee please.” Mehta reported to Tata that "His Majesty tapped me with the flat of his sword on the right shoulder, and then on the left and said ‘Rise, Sir Bezonji.’” Appreciating that the King pronounced his name "quite correctly,” Mehta wrote to Tata that he could not say if he "kissed or shook” the King’s hand. The monarch enquired after Mehta’s health, to which he answered in the affirmative. He then "bowed and smiled and the Queen (Mary) to whom I bowed, also gave a sweet smile and I left the carriage.”
After the train started, the King and the Queen came "out into the end corridor to wave to all present who cheered them.”