
Prof S. Parasuraman, Director-Vice-Chancellor, TISS
INTERVIEWS The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was established in 1936 as Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work. What were the circumstances and vision, which led Sir Dorabji to make this noble move? When liberalism as an economic ideology failed and the world was pushed to “Great Depression”, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) began as Sir Dorabji Tata School of Social Work in 1936. Mumbai was an industrial city by 1930; and the Great Depression of 1930s had serious implications for industrial workers – lock outs of factories, layoffs of workers and the poor business affecting traders and shop owners. The result was a serious unemployment, poverty and dispossession of people in an already crowded


