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Dadabhai Naoroji (September 6, 1825 – June 30, 1917) was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
n political leader. His book, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, brought into the limelight the drain of India's wealth into Britain.






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Dadabai Navroji Statue Bombay
Dadabhai Naoroji (September 6, 1825 – June 30, 1917) was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
n political leader. His book, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, brought into the limelight the drain of India's wealth into Britain. He was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators....
 (MP) in the British House of Commons
British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the British monarchy and the House of Lords ....
 between 1892 and 1895, and the first Asian to be a British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 MP. He is also credited with the founding of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress-I is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, Allan Octavian Hume, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million memb...
, along with A.O. Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha
Dinshaw Edulji Wacha

Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha was a Parsi people Indian politician from Bombay. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, and its President in 1901....
.

Formative years


The son of Maneckbai and Naoroji Palanji Dordi, born into a poor family of Parsi-Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster, after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e., the worship of Ahura Mazda, exalted by Zoroaster as the supreme divine authority....
 priests in Navsari
Navsari

Navsari is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of Gujarat. The Navsari District is named after it....
 in Southern Gujarat
Gujarat

Gujarat is a States and territories of India in western India. Gujarat borders Pakistan to the north west and the state of Rajasthan to the north and northeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, Maharashtra and the Union territory of Diu, Daman District, India, Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the south....
, Naoroji was educated at Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College

Elphinstone College is an institution of higher education affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Established in 1856 it is one of the oldest of colleges of the University of Mumbai....
. At the early age of 25, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Elphinstone Institution in 1850, becoming the first Indian to hold such an academic position. 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. In 1854, he also founded a fortnightly, the Rast Goftar (or The Truth Teller), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts. By 1855 he was Professor of Mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
 and Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy

Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the Objectivity study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science....
 in Mumbai
Mumbai

Mumbai— formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper has approximately 14 million people and, along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, Mumbai forms the World's largest urban agglomerations according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report with around 19...
. He travelled to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 in 1855 to become a partner in Cama & Co, opening a Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 location for the first Indian company to be established in Britain. Within 3 years, he had resigned on ethical grounds. In 1859 he established his own cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 trading company
Merchant

Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit....
, Naoroji & Co. Later he became professor of Gujarati
Gujarati language

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan languages, and part of the greater Indo-European languages language family. It is native to the Indian state of Gujarat, and is its chief language, as well as of the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli....
 at University College London
University College London

University College London is a university institution and constituent college of the University of London based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom....
.

In 1867 Naoroji helped establish the East India Association, one of the predecessor organizations of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress-I is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, Allan Octavian Hume, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million memb...
. In 1874 he became Prime Minister of Baroda
Vadodara

Vadodara , formerly Baroda , is the third most-populated city in the States and territories of India of Gujarat after Ahmedabad and Surat. It is one of four cities in the state with a population of over 1 million, the other being Rajkot and the two cities listed above....
 and was a member of the Legislative Council of Mumbai
Mumbai

Mumbai— formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper has approximately 14 million people and, along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, Mumbai forms the World's largest urban agglomerations according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report with around 19...
 (then Bombay) (1885-88). He also founded the Indian National Association
Indian National Association

The Indian National Association was the first avowed nationalist organization founded in British India by Surendra Nath Bannerjea and Anand Mohan Bose in 1876....
 from Calcutta a few years before the founding of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress-I is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, Allan Octavian Hume, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million memb...
 in Mumbai
Mumbai

Mumbai— formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper has approximately 14 million people and, along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, Mumbai forms the World's largest urban agglomerations according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report with around 19...
, 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 moved to Britain once again and continued his political involvement. Elected for the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats....
 in Finsbury Central
Finsbury Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Finsbury Central was a United Kingdom constituencies centred on the Finsbury district of North London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the British House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system....
 at the 1892 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1892

The 1892 UK general election was held from 4 July ? 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the United Kingdom general election, 1886....
, he was the first British Indian MP. He refused to take the oath on the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 as he was not a Christian
Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
, but was allowed to take the oath of office in the name of God on his copy of Khordeh Avesta
Avesta

The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language....
. In Parliament he spoke on Irish Home Rule and the condition of the Indian people. In his political campaign and duties as an MP, he was assisted by Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the future Muslim
Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
 nationalist and founder of Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
. In 1906, Naoroji was again elected president of the Indian National Congress. 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 known as the 'Grand Old Man of India', a mentor to both Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Order of the Indian Empire was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Raj....
 and Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha?resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence?which led India to Indian independence movement and inspired movements for civi...
. He was married to Gulbai from the age of eleven
Child marriage

Child marriage usually refers to two separate social phenomena which are practiced in some societies. The first and more widespread practice is that of marrying a young child to an adult....
. He died in Mumbai
Mumbai

Mumbai— formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper has approximately 14 million people and, along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, Mumbai forms the World's largest urban agglomerations according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report with around 19...
 June 30, 1917, at age 92.

Works

  • 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, 1870)
  • Condition of India (Bombay, 1881)
  • Poverty of India: A Paper Read Before the Bombay Branche 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 modernized text by J. S. Arkenberg, ed., on line at .
  • Lord Salisbury’s Blackman (Lucknow, 1889)
; Commonwealth Publishers, 1988. ISBN 8190006622

Literature

  • 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). ISBN 8170414261
  • Verinder Grover, ‘'Dadabhai Naoroji: A Biography of His Vision and Ideas’’ New Delhi, Deep & Deep Publishers (1998) ISBN 8176290114
  • 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). ISBN 8176293156
  • P. D. Hajela, ‘'Economic Thoughts of Dadabhai Naoroji,’’ New Delhi, Deep & Deep (2001). ISBN 8176293377
  • 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


External links