Career
As broker to European firms he amassed a large fortune during the period of speculation in Bombay at the time of the American Civil War. He founded the Manackji Petit Spinning & Weaving Mills. He devoted his wealth to philanthropic objects, among the public and private charities which he endowed being the Towers of Silence and fire temples of the Parsi, a hospital for animals, a college for women, and the Petit hospital.
Foreign the advancement of technical education, Sir Doctorate. M. Petit also donated premises worth Rs.
3,00,000 at Byculla, Bombay to the famous Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI) (recognised by the Government of Bombay as the Central Technological Institute, Bombay Province). In winter 1923, that institute relocated to its present location in Matunga, Bombay.
He was knighted in 1887, created a baronet in 1890, and died in 1901. The Petit surname is not traditionally Parsi and had come about in Sir Dinshaw"s great grandfather"s time in the 18th century.
He had worked as a shipping clerk and interpreter for the British East India Company.
French merchants who dealt with the lively, short Parsi clerk called him "le petit Parsi". Sir Dinshaw was survived by Sir Dinshaw Petit (2nd Baronet). A posthumous portrait of the 1st Baronet was painted by Sir James Linton.
1823-1886: Dinshaw Maneckji Petit
1886-1887: Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, Companion of the Order of the Star of India
1887-1890: Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit
1890-1901: Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, Baronet
