Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825–30 June 1917) was a politician in India and the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament in the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1892 and 1895. The son of Maneckbai and Naoroji Palanji Dordi, a poor Athornan Parsi family, Naoroji was educated at Elphinstone Institute School and later became a teacher. By 1855 he was Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He moved to England in 1855, first working in business, later becoming professor of Gujarati at University College London.
In 1867 helped establish the East India Association. In 1874 became Prime Minister of Baroda and was also a member of the Legislative Council of Bombay (1885-88). In 1886 Naoroji was elected as President of the Indian National Congress. Naoroji moved to Britain once again and continued his political involvement.
Elected for the Liberal Party in Central Finsbury in July 1892, he was the first British Indian 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 small book of Avesta. In Parliament he spoke on Irish Home Rule and the condition of the Indian people. In his duties as an MP, he was briefly assisted by Muhammed Ali Jinnah. In 1906, Naoroji was again elected president of the Indian National Congress; Jinnah served him there as a secretary. By the time of his death in 1917, Naoroji was known as the 'Grand Old Man of India', a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi. He was married to Gulbai from the age of eleven.
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