New Delhi, Oct. 3 -- Sumati Morarjee need never have worked. Indeed, in the era when she was growing up, women did not work. Born into an affluent Bombay merchant family of Mathuradas Gokuldas in 1909, she was married to Shanti Kumar Morarjee, the only son of shipping tycoon Narottam Morarjee, who co-founded Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd in 1919 along with three other industrialists-Walchand Hirachand, Lallubhai Samaldas and Kilachand Devchand.

Narottam Morarjee, though, wasn't just another industrialist steeped in orthodoxy and patriarchy. His keen eye spotted his daughter-in-law's sharp intellect and hunger for learning. Vitally, she was interested in the family business. So, in a move unheard of at the time and rare even today,...