Dadabhai Naoroji

The Honourable Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji, 1892
Member of Parliament for Finsbury Central
In office 1892–1895
Preceded by	Frederick Thomas Penton
Succeeded by	William Frederick Barton Massey-Mainwaring
Majority	3
Personal details
Born	(1826-09-04)4 September 1826 Bb, British
Died	30 June 1917(1917-06-30) (aged 91) Versova, British
Political party	Liberal
Other political affiliations	National Congress
Spouse(s)	Gulbaai
Residence	London, United Kingdom
Profession	Academic, political leader, MP, cotton trader
Committees	Legislative Council
Religion	Zoroastrianism

Dadabhai Naoroji ([ (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917), known as the Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early political and social leader. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 and 1895, and the first Asian to be a British MP.

Naoroji is also credited with the founding of the National Congress, along with A.O. Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule brought attention to the draining of wealth into Britain. He was also member of Second International along with Kautsky and Plekhanov.

Career

At the early age of 25, he was appointed leading Professor at the Elphinstone Institution in 1850, becoming the first 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 publication, the Rast Goftar (or The Truth Teller), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts. By 1855 he was Professor of Mathematics and Natural philosophy in Mumbai. He travelled to London in 1855 to become a partner in Cama & Co, opening a Liverpool location for the first company to be established in Britain. Within three years, he had resigned on ethical grounds. In 1859, he established his own cotton trading company, Naoroji & Co. Later, he became professor of Gujarati at University College London.

Dadabhai Naoroji statue, near Flora Fountain, Mumbai

Plaque referring to Dadabhai Naoroji, located outside the Finsbury Town Hall on Rosebery Avenue, London

In 1867 Naoroji helped to establish the East Association, one of the predecessor organizations of the National Congress with the aim of putting across the point of view before the British public. The Association was instrumental in counter-acting the propaganda 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. In 1874, he became Prime Minister of Baroda and was a member of the Legislative Council of Mumbai (1885–88). He was also a member of the National Association founded by Sir Surendranath Banerjee from Calcutta a few years before the founding of the 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 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 MP. He refused to take the oath on the Bible as he was not a Christian, but was allowed to take the oath of office in the name of God on his copy of Khordeh Avesta. In Parliament, he spoke on Irish Home Rule and the condition of the people. In his political campaign and duties as an MP, he was assisted by Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the future Muslim nationalist and founder of Pakistan. In 1906, Naoroji was again elected president of the 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 a mentor to both Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was married to Gulbai at the age of eleven. He died in Bombay on 30 June 1917, at the age of 91. Today the Dadabhai Naoroji Road, a heritage road of Mumbai, is named after him. Also, the Dadabhoy Naoroji Road in Karachi, Pakistan is also named after him as well as Naoroji Street in the Finsbury area of London. A prominent residential colony for central government servants in the south of Delhi is also named Nauroji Nagar. He was president of National Congress, Calcutta section1906.

Drain Theory and Politics

Dadabhai Naoroji’s work focused on the drain of wealth from England through colonial rule. One of the reasons that the Drain theory is attributed to Naoroji is his decision to estimate the net national profit, and by extension, the effect that colonization has on the country. Through his work with economics, Naoroji sought to prove that Britain was draining money out of the country. Naoroji described 6 factors which resulted in the external drain. Firstly, Country is governed by a foreign government. Secondly, Country does not attract immigrants which bring labour and capital for economic growth. Thirdly, Country pays for Britain’s civil administrations and occupational army. Fourthly, Country bears the burden of empire building in and out of its borders. Fifthly, opening the country to free trade was actually a way to exploit country by offering highly paid jobs to foreign personnel. Lastly, the principal income-earners would buy outside of the country or leave with the money as they were mostly foreign personnel. In Naoroji’s book ‘Poverty’ he estimated a 200-300 million pounds loss of revenue to Britain that is not returned. Naoroji described this as vampirism, with money being a metaphor for blood, which humanized country and attempted to show Britain’s actions as monstrous in an attempt to garner sympathy for the nationalist movement.

When referring to the Drain, Naoroji stated that he believed some tribute was necessary as payment for the services that England brought to country such as the railways. However the money from these services were being drained out of country; for instance the money being earned by the railways did not belong to country, which supported his assessment that country was giving too much to Britain. Country was paying tribute for something that was not bringing profit to the country directly. Instead of paying off foreign investment which other countries did, Contry was paying for services rendered despite the operation of the railway were 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 country, or trade that undervalued countries goods and overvalued outside goods. Englishmen were encouraged to take on high paying jobs in the country, and the British government allowed them to take a portion of their income back to the country. Furthermore, the East Company was purchasing goods with money drained from in order to export to Britain. Which was a way that the opening up of free trade allowed the country to be exploited.

When elected to Parliament by a narrow margin of 3 votes his first speech was about questioning place in country. Naoroji explained that they were either British subjects of British slaves which would be identified based on how willing Britain was to give the country the institutions that Britain already operated. By giving these institutions to country it would allow to govern itself and as a result the revenue would stay. It is because Naoroji identified himself as an imperial citizen that he was able to address the economic hardships facing country to an English audience. By presenting himself as an Imperialist citizen he was able to use rhetoric to show the benefit to Britain that an ease of financial burden on country would have. He argued that by allowing the money earned in country to stay in country, tributes would be willingly and easily paid without fear of poverty; He argued that this could be done by giving equal employment opportunities to professionals who consistently took jobs they were over qualified for. Country labour would be more likely to spend their income within preventing one aspect of the drain. Naoroji believed that to solve the problem of the drain it was important to allow country to develop industries; this would not be possible without the revenue draining from country into England.

It was also important to examine British and country trade in order to prevent the end of budding industries due to unfair valuing of goods and services. By allowing industry to grow in India, tribute could be paid to Britain in the form of taxation and the increase in interest for British goods in India. Over time, Naoroji became more extreme in his comments as he began to lose patience with Britain. This was shown in his comments which became increasingly aggressive. Naoroji showed how the ideologies of Britain conflicted when asking them if they would allow French youth to occupy all the lucrative posts in England. He also brought up the way that Britain objected to the drain of wealth to the papacy during the 16th century. 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.

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 (Madras, 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 Paul Halsall, ed., Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
• Lord Salisbury’s Blackman (Lucknow, 1889)
• Naoroji, Dadabhai (1861). The Parsee Religion. University of London. 

• Dadabhai Naoroji (1901). Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. ; Commonwealth Publishers, 1988. ISBN 81-900066-2-2

See also

• Electoral firsts in the United Kingdom

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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). ISBN 81-7041-426-1
• Verinder Grover, ‘'Dadabhai Naoroji: A Biography of His Vision and Ideas’’ New Delhi, Deep & Deep Publishers (1998) ISBN 81-7629-011-4
• 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 81-7629-315-6
• P. D. Hajela, ‘'Economic Thoughts of Dadabhai Naoroji,’’ New Delhi, Deep & Deep (2001). ISBN 81-7629-337-7
• 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.

External links

• "Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji, 'The Grand Old Man of India'", Vohuman.org - Presents a complete chronology of Naoroji's life.
• B. Shantanu, "Drain of Wealth during British Raj", iVarta.com, February 06, 2006 (on line).
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Dadabhai Naoroji

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Frederick Thomas Penton	Member of Parliament for Finsbury Central 1892–1895	Succeeded by William Frederick Barton Massey-Mainwaring

Preceded by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	President of the Indian National Congress 1886	Succeeded by Badaruddin Taiyabji
Preceded by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	President of the Indian National Congress 1893	Succeeded by Alfred Webb
Preceded by Gopal Krishna Gokhale	President of the Indian National Congress 1906	Succeeded by Rashbihari Ghosh