Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) was an Indian political leader and one of the founders of the Indian National Congress. A leading nationalist author and spokesman, he was the first Indian to be elected to membership in the British Parliament.

Dadabhai Naoroji was born into a leading Parsi family in Bombay. After an outstanding career at Elphinstone College, Naoroji served briefly as professor of mathematics at Elphinstone. In 1855 Naoroji became a partner in an important Parsi commercial firm in London, and in 1862 he set up his own commercial house there. In the same year he founded the influential East Indian Association to educate the English public on Indian affairs.

In 1873 Naoroji accepted the difficult post of Divan, or chief minister, of the prominent Indian princely state of Baroda but left it fairly soon for an elected seat in the Bombay Municipal Corporation. It was here that his public service career truly began. After several busy years in the public life of the province, Naoroji published his famous indictment of British exploitation of India, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. This book guaranteed his position in the very front rank of the Indian nationalist movement.

In 1885 Lord Reay, the governor of Bombay, appointed him to the Legislative Council, and in the same year Naoroji played a leading role in the creation of the Indian National Congress, the major organization promoting Indian nationalism. A year later he was elected president of the Indian National Congress at its second session. During the same year he was one of a very few prominent Indians chosen to testify before the Royal Commission on the Public Services in India.

In 1892 Naoroji was elected to the British Parliament on the Liberal ticket from Central Finsbury. He was the first Indian to win a seat in the House of Commons. A year later he was, for the second time, elected to the presidency of the Indian National Congress. In 1895 Naoroji lost his seat in Parliament, but in 1896 he was appointed to the influential Royal Commission on Indian Expenditures, to whose labors he made a significant contribution. The report of the commission was important in shaping Indian fiscal practices. In 1906 Naoroji's public service was given special mark when he was elected to a third term as president of the National Congress. Naoroji's probity, care in the use of evidence, painstaking research in Indian economic conditions, and persistent advocacy of the Indian cause were the hallmarks of his active and impressive career.

Further Reading

A convenient one-volume edition of Naoroji's writings and speeches is Essays, Speeches, Addresses and Writings, edited by C. L. Parekh (1887). The best study in English of Naoroji is Rustom P. Masani, Dadabhai Naoroji (1939). See also Vidya Dhor Mahajan, The Nationalist Movement in India and Its Leaders (1962).

Additional Sources

Rawal, Munni, Dadabhai Naoroji, a prophet of Indian nationalism, 1855-1900, New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1989. □

Dadabhai Naoroji , 1825-1917, Indian nationalist leader. The son of a Parsi priest, at 27 he became professor of mathematics at Elphinstone Institution, Bombay (now Mumbai). At 30 he left for England to start a career in business. He worked for an improvement in British policies toward India. He was particularly concerned about the economic consequences of British rule for India, and he wrote and lectured extensively on the "drain" of wealth, or unilateral transfer of resources from India to Britain, which he regarded as the principal cause of Indian poverty. His writings on this subject, especially his classic study, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901), played a major role in arousing and stimulating economic nationalism in India. Active for more than 60 years in Indian social and political causes, he served three times as president of the Indian National Congress (1886, 1893, 1906). He was the first Indian to be elected a member of the British Parliament—in 1892, as a Liberal. As a member of Parliament he was instrumental in securing the appointment of a royal commission on Indian expenditure, the Welby Commission, and served on it as its sole Indian member. The younger generation of nationalist leaders, including such men as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mohandas K. Gandhi , regarded him as their mentor, and he was affectionately hailed as the Grand Old Man of India.

Bibliography: See biography by R. P. Masani (1939).

Naoroji, Dadabhai (b. 4 Sept. 1825, d. 30 June 1917). Indian politician Born in Bombay, he became professor of mathematics in 1854. He was an ardent social reformer, promoting women's education and criticizing the caste system. He went to London in 1855, and subsequently shuttled back and forth between the two countries. He was the first Indian to be appointed professor at the Elphinstone College (Bombay), and in 1856–66 was professor of Gujarati at University College, London. He worked tirelessly for better British understanding of India, founding the British India Society in 1865, over which he presided until 1907. He was a founding member of the Indian National Congress, whose president he was in 1886, 1893, and 1906. He was also the first (Liberal) Member of Parliament in Britain (1892–5), sitting for Finsbury, to represent the case of India at Westminster. To this end, he gave evidence to a variety of Royal Commissions, and was himself Member of the Welby Commission (Royal Commission on Indian Expenditure) from 1897. Known as the Grand Old Man of India, he was one of the outstanding Indian public figures from 1845 to his death. The most important outline of his views was published as Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901).

Naoroji, Dadabhai (1825–1917) Indian nationalist leader. He was the first Indian to be elected to the British House of Commons, serving as Liberal Member of Parliament for Central Finsbury (1892–95). His campaign against the drain of wealth from India to Britain, defined in his classic study Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901), stimulated economic nationalism in the subcontinent. Active in promoting Indian social and political causes, he was a founder of the Indian National CONGRESS, serving as its President (1886, 1893, and 1906).