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Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) also known as the "Grand Old Man of India" and "Unofficial Ambassador of India", was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar and writer who served as 2nd, 9th, and 22nd President of the Indian National Congress from 1886 to 1887, 1893 to 1894 and 1906 to 1907. He was a Liberal Party
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
in the
British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 65 ...
, representing Finsbury Central between 1892 and 1895. He was the second person of Asian descent to be a British MP, the first being Anglo-Indian MP David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who was disenfranchised for corruption after nine months in office. His book ''Poverty and Un-British Rule in India'' brought attention to his theory of the Indian "wealth drain" into Britain. He was also a member of the
Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second Internatio ...
along with Kautsky and Plekhanov. In 2014, Deputy Prime Minister
Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicep ...
inaugurated the Dadabhai Naoroji Awards for services to UK-India relations. India Post depicted Naoroji on stamps in 1963, 1997 and 2017.


Biography

Naoroji was born in Navsari into a
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
-speaking Parsi
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...
family, and educated at the Elphinstone Institute School. His patron was the Maharaja of Baroda,
Sayajirao Gaekwad III Sayajirao Gaekwad III (born Shrimant Gopalrao Gaekwad; 11 March 1863 – 6 February 1939) was the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939, and is remembered for reforming much of his state during his rule. He belonged to the royal Ga ...
, and he started his career life as Dewan (Minister) to the Maharaja in 1874. Being an ''Athornan'' (ordained priest), Naoroji founded the Rahnumai Mazdayasan Sabha (Guides on the Mazdayasne Path) on 1 August 1851 to restore the
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...
religion to its original purity and simplicity. In 1854, he also founded a Gujarati fortnightly publication, the '' Rast Goftar'' (or The Truth Teller), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts and promote Parsi social reforms. Around this time, he also published another newspaper called ''The Voice of India''. In December 1855, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in
Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the ed ...
in Bombay,Mistry, Sanjay (2007) "Naorojiin, Dadabhai" in Dabydeen, David et al. eds. ''The Oxford Companion of Black British History''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 336–337; becoming the first Indian to hold such an academic position. He travelled to London in 1855 to become a partner in Cama & Co, opening a
Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
location for the first Indian company to be established in Britain. Within three years, he had resigned on ethical grounds. In 1859, he established his own cotton trading company, Dadabhai Naoroji & Co. In 1861, Naoroji founded The Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe alongside Muncherjee Hormusji Cama. In 1865, Naoroji directed and launched the London Indian Society, the purpose of which was to discuss Indian political, social and literary subjects. In 1867, he also helped to establish the
East India Association The East India Association (EIA) was a London-based organisation for matters concerning India. Its members were Indians and retired British officials. About the Society The East India Association was founded by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1866. The first P ...
, one of the predecessor organisations of the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
with the aim of putting across the Indian point of view before the British public. The Association was instrumental in counter-acting the
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
by the Ethnological Society of London which, in its session in 1866, had tried to prove the inferiority of the Asians to the Europeans. This Association soon won the support of eminent Englishmen and was able to exercise considerable influence in the British parliament. The organization soon had branches in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. In 1874, he became Prime Minister of
Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...
and was a member of the Legislative Council of Bombay (1885–88). He was also a member of the
Indian National Association The Indian Association was the first avowed nationalist organization founded in British India by Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose in 1876. The objectives of this Association were "promoting by every legitimate means the political, i ...
founded by Sir
Surendranath Banerjea Sir Surendranath Banerjee often known as Rashtraguru ( bn, Rāṣṭraguru, Teacher of the Nation; 10 November 18486 August 1925) was Indian nationalist leader during the British Rule. He founded a nationalist organization called the Indian Nati ...
from
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...
a few years before the founding of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, with the same objectives and practices. The two groups later merged into the INC, and Naoroji was elected President of the Congress in 1886. Naoroji published ''Poverty and Un-British Rule in India'' in 1901. Naoroji moved to Britain once again and continued his political involvement. Elected for the Liberal Party in Finsbury Central at the 1892 general election, he was the first British Indian MP. He refused to take the oath on the Bible, as he was
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...
. He was allowed to take the oath of office in the name of God on his copy of the '' Khordeh Avesta''. During his time he put his efforts towards improving the situation in India. He had a very clear vision and was an effective communicator. He set forth his views about the situation in India over the course of the history of the governance of the country and the way in which the colonial rulers rule. In Parliament, he spoke on
Irish Home Rule The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the ...
and the condition of the Indian people. He was a notable
Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. In 1906, Naoroji was again elected president of the Indian National Congress. He was a staunch moderate within the Congress, during the phase when opinion in the party was split between the moderates and extremists. Such was the respect commanded by him that assertive nationalists could not oppose his candidature and the rift was avoided for the time being. Naoroji's ''Poverty and Un-British Rule in India'' influenced
Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
.


Personal life and death

He was married to Gulbai at the age of 11. He died in
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
on 30 June 1917, at the age of 91. The Dadabhai Naoroji Road, a heritage road of Mumbai, is named after him, as are the Dadabhai Naoroji Road in Karachi, Pakistan and Naoroji Street in the
Finsbury Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London. The Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn ...
area of
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. A prominent residential colony for central government servants in the south of
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
is also named Naoroji Nagar. His granddaughters, Perin and Khurshedben, were also involved in the independence movement. In 1930, Khurshedben was arrested along with other revolutionaries for attempting to hoist the
Indian flag The national flag of India, colloquially called the tricolour, is a horizontal rectangular tricolour flag of India saffron, white and India green; with the ', a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It was adopted in its present for ...
in a Government College in
Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per ...
.


Drain theory and poverty

Naoroji's work focused on the drain of wealth from India to Britain during the period rule of
British rule in India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...
. One of the reasons that the Drain theory is attributed to Naoroji is his decision to estimate the net national profit of India, and by extension, the effect that colonial rule had on the country. Through his work with economics, Naoroji sought to prove that Britain was draining money out of India. Naoroji described six factors that resulted in the external drain. First, India was governed by a foreign government. Secondly, India did not attract immigrants who brought labour and capital for economic growth. Thirdly, India paid for Britain's civil administrations in India and her
Indian army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Arm ...
. Fourthly, India bore the burden of empire building in and out of its borders. Fifthly, opening the country to
free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
allowed for foreigners to take highly paid jobs over those of equally qualified Indians. Lastly, the principal income-earners would spend their money outside of India or leave with the money as they were mostly foreign personnel. His book ''Poverty and Un-British Rule in India'' estimated a 200–300 million pounds drain of India's revenue to Britain that was not recirculated into India.Banerjee, Sukanya (2010) ''Becoming Imperial Citizens : Indians in the Late Victorian Empire Durham''. Duke University Press; When referring to the drain, Naoroji stated that he believed some tribute was necessary as payment for the services that Britain brought to India such as the newly-constructed railways. However the money from these services were being drained out of India; for instance the money being earned by the railways did not belong to India, which supported his assessment that India was sending too much to Britain. According to Naoroji, India was paying tribute for something that was not bringing profit to the country directly. Instead of paying off foreign investment, as other countries did, India was paying for services rendered despite the operation of the railway being already profitable for Britain. This type of drain was experienced in different ways as well, for instance, British workers earning wages that were not equal with the work that they have done in India, or trade that undervalued India's goods and overvalued outside goods. British workers in India were encouraged to take on high paying jobs in India, and the British government allowed them to take a portion of their income back to Britain. Furthermore, the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...
was purchasing Indian goods with money drained from India to export to Britain, which was a way that the opening up of free trade allowed India to be exploited.Doctor, Adi H. (1997) ''Political Thinkers of Modern India''. New Delhi Mittal Publications; When elected to Parliament by a narrow margin of five votes, his first speech was devoted to the issue of questioning Britain's role in India. Naoroji explained that Indians would either be British subjects or their slaves, depending on how willing Britain was to give India control over the institutions that Britain presently operated. By giving these institutions to India it would allow India to govern itself and as a result all revenue would stay in India. Naoroji identified himself as a fellow subject of the Empire and was able to address the economic hardships facing India to a British audience. By presenting himself as an imperial subject he was able to use rhetoric to show the benefit to Britain that an ease of financial burden on India would have. He argued that by allowing the money earned in India to stay in India, tributes would be willingly and easily paid without fear of poverty; he argued that this could be done by giving equal employment opportunities to Indian professionals who were consistently forced to take jobs that they were over-qualified for. Indian labour would be more likely to spend their income within India preventing one aspect of the drain. Naoroji also found it important to examine Anglo-Indian trade to prevent the premature dissolution of budding industries to unfair valuing of goods and services. By allowing industry to grow and develop in India, tribute could be paid to Britain in the form of taxation and the increase in Indian interest for British goods. Over time, Naoroji became more inflammatory in his comments as he began to lose patience with Britain over the seemingly lack of progress regarding reforms. He rhetorically questioned whether or not the British government would be willing to award French youths all the high ranking posts in the British economy. He also pointed to historical examples of Britain being opposed to the "wealth drain" concept, including the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
objection to the wealth drain to the
papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
during the 1500s. Naoroji's work on the drain theory was the main reason behind the creation of the Royal Commission on Indian Expenditure in 1896 in which he was also a member. This commission reviewed financial burdens on India and in some cases came to the conclusion that those burdens were misplaced.


Views and legacy

Dadabhai Naoroji is regarded as one of the most important Indians during the birth of the nascent independence movement. In his writings, he came to the conclusion that the exertion of foreign rule over India was not favourable for the nation, and that
independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...
(or at the very least, responsible government) would be the better path for India. Naoroji is often remembered as the "Grand Old Man of Indian Nationalism."
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
wrote to Naoroji in 1894, saying that "The Indians look up to you as children to the father. Such is really the feeling here." Bal Gangadhar Tilak admired him; he said: Here are the significant extracts taken from his speech delivered before the East India Association on 2 May 1867 regarding what educated Indians expect from their British rulers. "In this Memorandum I desire to submit for the kind and generous consideration of His Lordship the Secretary of State for India, that from the same cause of the deplorable drain f economic wealth from India to Britain besides the material exhaustion of India, the moral loss to her is no less sad and lamentable . . . All
he Europeans He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
effectually do is to eat the substance of India, material and moral, while living there, and when they go, they carry away all they have acquired . . . The thousands f Indiansthat are being sent out by the universities every year find themselves in a most anomalous position. There is no place for them in their motherland . . . What must be the inevitable consequence? . . . despotism and destruction . . . or destroying hand and power. " A plaque referring to Dadabhai Naoroji is located outside the
Finsbury Town Hall Finsbury Town Hall is a municipal building in Finsbury, London. The structure is a Grade II* listed building. History The building was commissioned by the Parish of St James's Church, Clerkenwell to replace an early 19th century vestry hall at ...
on Rosebery Avenue, London. On 10 August 2022
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...
unveiled a blue plaque in his honour at the site of his former home, 72, Anerley Park, Bromley, London where he lived between 1897 - 1904 or 1905.


Works

* Started the Rast Goftar Anglo-Gujarati Newspaper in 1854. * ''The manners and customs of the Parsees'' (Bombay, 1864) * ''The European and Asiatic races'' (London, 1866) * ''Admission of educated natives into the Indian Civil Service'' (London, 1868) * ''The wants and means of India'' (London, 1876) * ''Condition of India'' (Madras, 1882) * ''Poverty of India'' : A Paper Read Before the Bombay Branch of the East India Association,'' Bombay, Ranima Union Press, (1876) * C. L. Parekh, ed., ''Essays, Speeches, Addresses and Writings of the Honourable Dadabhai Naoroji,'' Bombay, Caxton Printing Works (1887). An excerpt, "The Benefits of British Rule", in a modernised text by J. S. Arkenberg, ed., on line a
Paul Halsall, ed., ''Internet Modern History Sourcebook''
* ''Lord Salisbury's Blackman'' (Lucknow, 1889) * * ; Commonwealth Publishers, 1988.


Commemorative postage stamps

Naoroji has been portrayed on commemorative stamps released by India Post (by year) -


See also

* Electoral firsts in the United Kingdom


References


Further reading

* Rustom P. Masani, ''Dadabhai Naoroji'' (1939). * Munni Rawal, ''Dadabhai Naoroji, Prophet of Indian Nationalism, 1855–1900'', New Delhi: Anmol Publications (1989). * S. R. Bakshi, ''Dadabhai Naoroji: The Grand Old Man'', Anmol Publications (1991). * Verinder Grover, ''Dadabhai Naoroji: A Biography of His Vision and Ideas'', New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publishers (1998). * Debendra Kumar Das, ed., ''Great Indian Economists : Their Creative Vision for Socio-Economic Development''. Vol. I: ''Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917): Life Sketch and Contribution to Indian Economy''. New Delhi: Deep and Deep (2004). * P. D. Hajela, ''Economic Thoughts of Dadabhai Naoroji'', New Delhi: Deep & Deep (2001). * Pash Nandhra, entry ''Dadabhai Naoroji'' in Brack et al. (eds).''Dictionary of Liberal History''; Politico's, 1998 * Zerbanoo Gifford, ''Dadabhai Naoroji: Britain's First Asian MP''; Mantra Books, 1992 * Codell, J. "Decentering & Doubling Imperial Discourse in the British Press: D. Naoroji & M. M. Bhownaggree", ''Media History'' 15 (Fall 2009), 371–84. * Metcalf and Metcalf, ''Concise History of India'' * Vikram Visana, "Vernacular Liberalism, Capitalism, and Anti-Imperialism in the Political Thought of Dadabhai Naoroji", ''The Historical Journal'' 59, 3 (2016), 775–797.


External links

*
"Dr Dadabhai Naoroji, 'The Grand Old Man of India
Vohuman.org – Presents a complete chronology of Naoroji's life. * * * * B. Shantanu

''iVarta.com,'' 6 February 2006. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naoroji, Dadabhai India House 1825 births 1917 deaths 19th-century Indian politicians Academics of University College London British people of Parsi descent British politicians of Indian descent British Zoroastrians Businesspeople from Mumbai Elphinstone College alumni English people of Parsi descent Indian emigrants to England Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Parsi people Parsi people from Mumbai Politicians from Mumbai Presidents of the Indian National Congress UK MPs 1892–1895 Zoroastrian studies scholars