Dadabhai Naoroji

Background

Naoroji was born in Mumbai, India, in a Gujarati-speaking Parsi family.

Education

He was educated at the Elphinstone Institution in that city and, while still a student, played a pioneering role in religious and social reform movements, helping to promote modern Western knowledge and to alter certain traditional customs and practices.

Career

Dadabhai Naoroji was born into a leading Parsi family in Bombay.

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.

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.

He read papers on various Indian subjects to learned societies in Liverpool and London and in 1867 helped to set up the East India Association in London.

But he resigned after about a year because of fundamental policy differences with its ruler. Naoroji became increasingly concerned about the widespread poverty in India.

In The Poverty of India (1876) he claimed that British rule was resulting in a "drain" of wealth from India to Britain.

In 1892 he became the first Indian ever to be elected to the British Parliament.

Naoroji was one of the first Indian leaders to declare that self-government or "swaraj" should be the goal of the Congress.

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.

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.

Achievements

Naoroji is credited with the founding of the Indian National Congress, along with A. O. Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha.

His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain. He was also a member of the Second International along with Kautsky and Plekhanov.

Works

Poverty and un-British rule in India Poverty and un-British rule in India

book
- Poverty and un-British rule in India
  (Poverty and un-British rule in India 704 pages)

Religion

He was patronised by the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, and started his public life as the Dewan (Minister) to the Maharaja in 1874. Being an Athornan (ordained priest), Naoroji founded the Rahnumae Mazdayasne Sabha (Guides on the Mazdayasne Path) on 1 August 1851 to restore the Zoroastrian religion to its original purity and simplicity.

Politics

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.

Views

His real aim in making the move was not so much to make money as to work for British policies more favorable to India.

Membership

He was a member of the Second International along with Kautsky and Plekhanov.

He was a Liberal Party member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 and 1895.

was a member of the Legislative Council of Mumbai (1885–88).

He was also a member of the Indian National Association founded by Sir Surendranath Banerjee from Calcutta a few years before the founding of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, with the same objectives and practices.

He was a member of the British House of Commons from 1892-1895.

He was also a member of the Royal commission on Indian Expenditure in 1896.

Naoroji was a staunch moderate within the Congress, during the phase when opinion in the party was split between the moderates and extremists.

Naoroji was a mentor to Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

Bal Gangadhar Tilak admired him, he said;

If we twenty eight crore of Indians were entitled to send only one member to the British parliament, there is no doubt that we would have elected Dadabhai Naoroji unanimously to grace that post.

Connections

associate:: Muhammed Ali Jinnah

Main Photo