Dadabhai Naoroji

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 in the British House of Commons, representing Finsbury Central between 1892 and 1895. He was the second person of Asian descent to be a British MP, the first being 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 along with Kautsky and Plekhanov. In 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg 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-speaking Parsi Zoroastrian family, and educated at the Elphinstone Institute School. His patron was the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, 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 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 in Bombay, 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 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.