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Naoroji

Naoroji

Pioneer of Indian Nationalism

Dinyar Patel

ISBN 9780674238206

Publication date: 05/12/2020

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Winner of the 2021 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay–NIF Book Prize

The definitive biography of Dadabhai Naoroji, the nineteenth-century activist who founded the Indian National Congress, was the first British MP of Indian origin, and inspired Gandhi and Nehru.

Mahatma Gandhi called Dadabhai Naoroji the “father of the nation,” a title that today is reserved for Gandhi himself. Dinyar Patel examines the extraordinary life of this foundational figure in India’s modern political history, a devastating critic of British colonialism who served in Parliament as the first-ever Indian MP, forged ties with anti-imperialists around the world, and established self-rule or swaraj as India’s objective.

Naoroji’s political career evolved in three distinct phases. He began as the activist who formulated the “drain of wealth” theory, which held the British Raj responsible for India’s crippling poverty and devastating famines. His ideas upended conventional wisdom holding that colonialism was beneficial for Indian subjects and put a generation of imperial officials on the defensive. Next, he attempted to influence the British Parliament to institute political reforms. He immersed himself in British politics, forging links with socialists, Irish home rulers, suffragists, and critics of empire. With these allies, Naoroji clinched his landmark election to the House of Commons in 1892, an event noticed by colonial subjects around the world. Finally, in his twilight years he grew disillusioned with parliamentary politics and became more radical. He strengthened his ties with British and European socialists, reached out to American anti-imperialists and Progressives, and fully enunciated his demand for swaraj. Only self-rule, he declared, could remedy the economic ills brought about by British control in India.

Naoroji is the first comprehensive study of the most significant Indian nationalist leader before Gandhi.

Praise

  • Dadabhai Naoroji was a greatly influential figure in his time: a major political actor in India and Great Britain; a pioneer of struggles against racism and imperialism; and a prolific author on religious, economic, and social subjects. Yet Naoroji has been shockingly neglected by generations of historians—now, he has at last been rehabilitated in this magnificent new biography. Dinyar Patel draws on many new, rare, and obscure sources; he writes brilliantly, and he superbly sets Naoroji’s incident-filled life against the backdrop of the tumultuous times he lived through. This is an exemplary work of scholarship that emphatically restores Naoroji to his rightful place in the history of India, Great Britain, and the world.

    —Ramachandra Guha, author of Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World

Awards

  • 2021, Winner of the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya NIF Book Prize

Author

  • Dinyar Patel is Assistant Professor of History at the S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai. He is also an Associate at the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University.

Book Details

  • 368 pages
  • 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
  • Harvard University Press

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