A number of towering leaders contributed towards India’s struggle for freedom. The nineteenth century produced numerous statesmen who managed to articulate their experience as colonised subjects. Some of them travelled to Britain in search of opportunities, but in the process, got acquainted with the insidious objectives of the coloniser. While innumerable Indians did travel overseas, none perhaps had a greater impact on the Indian national movement than DADABHAI NAOROJI.
Popularly known as the ‘Grand Old Man’ of India, Naoroji had an illustrious career, spanning almost seven decades. The high point in his life, for which he is usually remembered, was getting elected to the British House of Commons in 1892, becoming the first Asian to enter the British Parliament. Behind this monumental feat lay years of persistent hardwork- both as a theoretician and a political activist.
Born into a middle-class Parsi household, Naoroji completed his education from the prestigious Elphinstone College, Bombay. He became a prolific educationist and scholar, founding the Gujarati journal Rast Goftar in 1854. He was extremely concerned about issues of poverty and income inequality, and expressed this through his writings. He travelled to England in 1855 to launch a business, but in the course developed one of the most powerful economic theories, famously known as ‘Drain of wealth’. This theory stated that the British systematically sought to impoverish Indians by draining their wealth out of the subcontinent. He substantiated his theory with rigorous documentary evidence, and argued that the drain was caused because of the dominating presence of Europeans in the Indian Civil service. Thus developed his political goal of ‘Indianising’ the civil service, which he felt would stem the ‘drain’ as mentioned earlier.
Over the 1870s and 1880s, he became a political thinker of international standing, and soon developed connections with international suffragette movements as well as leaders of the Irish Home Rule. Though he shuttled between India and England during this phase, his clout enhanced rapidly, particularly among the members of the Labour Party. Through his relentless efforts, he managed to win the Parliamentary election for Central Finsbury in 1892, by a slender margin of three votes. He pushed unsuccessfully for simultaneous civil service examinations in Britain and India. He lost his seat in 1895, but continued agitating against British policies in India. As one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress, he was instrumental in making it a platform that could bring together the best minds in order to voice the concerns of the masses.
By the early 20th century, he had become a celebrated politician in England and India. It is interesting that in 1905, Gandhiji himself called Naoroji the ‘Father of the Nation’. In 1906, in his speech as the President of the Indian Congress, Naoroji articulated the vision of svadeshi, for perhaps the first time.
Naoroji’s biographer Dinyar Patel succinctly captures the essence of his lfie- ‘His life and career spanned the high noon of British imperialism and the first stirrings of modern political life in India.’ By nature, Naoroji was extremely courteous; when in London, he mentored many students and encouraged reform minded Indians to contribute when they returned to their motherland. His correspondence with leading European thinkers also propelled him to Westminster, where he made a very sincere attempt to place on record the marginalised voice of a colonised society.[ref]
