Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji, the first South Asian Member of Parliament, was born in 1825, the son of a Parsi *Zoroastrian priest. From the very beginning he was a pioneer in many fields: he became one of the first Indian graduates of Elphinstone College in Bombay and later became the first Indian professor of that college.

In 1855 he travelled to London to become a partner in Cama & Co, the first Indian company to be established in Britain. Within 3 years, he resigned on ethical grounds and in 1859 set up his own cotton company Naoroji & Co. His London home became a centre for Indian life, attracting students and nationalists, leading to the establishment of some of the earliest South Asian associations, including the London Indian society, the East Indian Association and the London Zoroastrian Association.

He is remembered in India for his leadership of the Indian National Congress a record three times (1886, 1893 and 1906), and his economic critique of British rule in India, 'the drain of wealth theory'. Naoroji's involvement in British politics reached its highest point when, after one failed attempt, he was elected Liberal MP for Finsbury Central in 1892.