Early years Pre Independence The
Taj Mahal Hotel was commissioned by
Jamsetji Tata and opened its doors to guests on 16 December 1903. An oft-repeated story concerning the reasoning behind the construction of the hotel was Tata being refused admission into
Watson's Hotel, as it was reserved for Europeans. The validity of this has been challenged by writer Charles Allen, who wrote that Tata was unlikely to care about such a slight to the extent that he would construct a new hotel. Instead, Allen writes, the Taj was built at the urging of the editor of
The Times of India, who felt a hotel "worthy of Bombay" was needed, and as a "gift to the city he loved" by Tata. Originally, the main entrance was on the land-facing side, where the pool now sits.
1950–1970 By 1966, the Taj Mahal Hotel had become neglected and run-down, perhaps as a result of losing the British customers after
Indian independence. The Taj Mahal Hotel was home to legendary jazz musician Micky Correa, "The Sultan of Swing", from 1936 to 1960.
Expansion Management of the Taj Mahal Hotel was franchised to
Pan Am's
Inter-Continental Hotels division in 1972 and it was renamed
The Taj Mahal Inter-Continental, with the new tower wing opening that same year. Known today as The Taj Mahal Tower, it was designed jointly by Daraius Batliwala and Rustom Patell, with the latter having a greater focus later on. The Tower was built on the site of the historic Green's Hotel, constructed as flats in 1890, and operated by Tata as a hotel from 1904 until its
demolition to build the Tower.
2008 Mumbai attacks |alt= , Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and
Mumbai skyline from
Elephanta Island ferry Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was specifically chosen by
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a
terror group who attacked multiple targets, for an attack intended to strike "a blow against a symbol of Indian wealth and progress". The hotel was attacked on 26 November 2008, during which material damage occurred, including the destruction of the hotel's roof in the hours following.
Hostages were taken during the attacks, and at least 167 people were killed, including many foreigners. The casualties were mostly Indian citizens, although westerners carrying foreign passports were singled out. Indian commandos killed the terrorists barricaded in the hotel, to end the three-day battle on 29 November. At least
31 died at the Taj. Approximately 450 people were staying in the Taj Mahal Palace and Hotel at the time of the siege. The attack was planned using information compiled by
David Headley, a Pakistani-American, who had stayed at the hotel multiple times. Soon after this on 30 November, Tata chairman
Ratan Tata said in an interview with
CNN's
Fareed Zakaria that they had received advance warning of the attacks and that some countermeasures had been taken. These may have been relaxed before the attack, but in any case were easily sidestepped by the operatives. The less-damaged sections of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel reopened on 21 December 2008. It took several months to rebuild the popular heritage section of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
Recent history In 2017, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel acquired an image
trademark, the first building in the country to secure
intellectual-property-right protection for its
architectural design. == In media ==