UK’s House of Lords commemorates Dadabhai Naoroji’s 200th birth anniversary

London, Dec 13 (PTI) The House of Lords in London played host to a special reception in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Dadabhai Naoroji, the nationalist leader who became the first Indian to win a popular election to the British Parliament during the colonial era.

Known as the “grand old man of India”, Naoroji was born in September 1825 to a Parsi family in Mumbai and first travelled to England in 1855 for business reasons before going on to become an influential figure in its political landscape.

Lord Karan Bilimoria, a fellow Parsi parliamentarian, hosted Friday’s reception in honour of the life and legacy of the polymath who straddled multiple roles of a Zoroastrian priest, businessman, academic and politician.

“In many ways, I have followed in the footsteps of Dadabhai Naoroji, who came initially for business to the UK,” said Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer.

“He was also an academic as a professor at Elphinstone College and, of course, he was a politician – the first Indian, first ethnic minority ever to be elected to this Parliament,” he noted.

Bilimoria revealed that the bicentenary commemoration was initially planned for September, to coincide with the month of Dadabhai Naoroji's birth 200 years ago, but had to be postponed due to strike action.

“But we were adamant in making sure that this event would take place during the year of his 200th birth anniversary, and here we are,” he added.

The Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, reflected upon the legacy of Dadabhai Naoroji and the impact of the Parsi community in the political and social life of India and the UK.

“The Parsi community has the distinction of perhaps being one of the smallest communities in India, but having produced a disproportionate number of generals, air marshals and admirals, including chiefs of the three services,” shared Doraiswami.

“That comes from the spirit that Dadabhai Naoroji brought with him when he came here (to the UK)… he was not just a businessman, not just an ordained priest, not just an academic, but eventually he also became a politician.

"So, he covered everything, and that, in a sense, is the spirit that the Zoroastrian community have always had. They are polymaths, and they take on with them the notion of integration, of blending in, of being the best representatives possible in anything that they do,” he said.

Sir Vince Cable, former Liberal Democrat cabinet minister in the UK, pointed to Dadabhai’s “drain theory,” which was one of the first works to highlight the economic drain of British colonial rule in India.

“He was somebody who made a massive contribution to the economic literature and this controversial argument about how much damage did the British Empire do to India. I think there's a sort of consensus that it was quite a big net negative. But what Naoroji did was to create an economic model to describe this, and the theory behind it was called the ‘drain theory’,” said Cable.

It was in 1886 that Naoroji stood for Parliament in the general election as a Liberal candidate for Holborn in London – a Conservative Party stronghold. After then British prime minister Lord Salisbury referred to his defeat at the time as evidence that the time had not come when “a British constituency would elect a black man”, Naoroji soldiered on and was elected to the north London constituency of Finsbury Central in July 1892 by a narrow margin of just five votes.

The nationalist leader eventually returned to India in 1907 and died in Mumbai in June 1917. The bicentenary commemoration at the House of Lords in London this week was accompanied by an exhibition encapsulating these major milestones in his life and career. PTI AK GRS GRS