Dadabhai
Naoroji
 |
| Dadabhai Naoroji |
Born - 4th September 1825, Bombay
Died - 30 June 1917, Bombay
Profession - Politician
Dadabhai
Naoroji, affectionately known as the Grand old Man of India, served India for
61 long years. Forty years before foundation of the Indian National Congress
and 21 years after that. He was permanently settled in England and was elected
a member of the House of Commons from an English constituency. For some time,
he was the Prime Minister of Baroda. He founded the British Indian Society in
England to carry on propaganda in favour of India.
He was
elected the President of the Congress thrice, viz. in 1886, 1893 and 1906. His
election as the President of the Congress for the second time in 1893 was an
appreciation of his election to the House of Commons. On that occasion, he took
the opportunity to exhort the British “not to drive this force (the educated
Indians) into opposition instead of drawing it to your own side.” He
contended that “this Congress represents the aristocracy of intellect.”
He hopes that “our faith in the instinctive love of justice and fairplay of
the United Kingdom is not misplaced.”
He was
elected the President of Congress in 1906 as the Moderates felt that he was the
only person who was not likely to be opposed by the Extremists. As that time,
there was a lot of excitement in the country. The anti-Partition agitation was
going on in Bengal. Swadeshi and Boycott were in the air. Even in 1906,
Dadabhai Naoroji had not given up his faith in the justice of the Englishmen.
In his presidential address in 1906, he observed thus, “Our faith and our
future are in our hands. If we are true to ourselves and to our country and
make all the necessary sacrifices for our elevation and amelioration, I for one
have not a shadow of doubt that in dealing with such justice-loving,
fair-minded people as the British, we may rest assured that we shall not work
in vain. It is this conviction which has supported me against all difficulties.”
However it can not be denied that the credit of demanding Swaraj from the Congress
platform for the first time belongs to Dadabhai Naoroji. Swaraj was the
key-note of his presidential address at the Calcutta session. To quote him, “We
do not ask for favours. We want only justice. Instead of going into any further divisions or details of our
rights as British citizens, the whole matter can be comprised in one word –self
government or Swaraj, like that of the United Kingdom or the Colonies.”
It was
under his presidentship in 1906 that four resolutions on self-government, boycott
movement, Swadeshi and national education were passed by the Congress.
Dadabhai
Naoroji was the first Indian politician to draw the attention of the people to
the drain of India’s wealth to Great Britain as a result of the British rule in
India. He gave his views in the famous book entitled Proverty and
Un-British Rule in India. Dadabhai Naoroji wrote thus to J.D. Sunderland
in 1905, “The lot of India is a very sad one. Her condition is that of a
master and slave, but it is worse, it is that of a plundered nation in the hands
of constant plunderers with the plunder carried away clean out if the land. In
the case of plundering raids occasionally made in India before the English came
the invaders went away and there were long intervals of security during which
the land could recoup and become again rich and prosperous. But nothing of the
king is true now. The British invasion is continuous and the plunder goes right
on with no intermission and actually increases and the impoverished Indian
nation have no opportunity whether to recuperate.”
According
to Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the name of Dadabhai Naoroji comes first in the list
of Indian patriarchs who “beginning his connection with the Congress from it
very outset, continues to serve it till the evening of his life, and took it
through the whole gamut of evaluation from the humble position of being a
people’s organ seeking redress of administrative grievances to that of a
National Assembly working for the definite object of attaining Swaraj.”
According
to C.Y. Chintamani, “For 61 long years in England and India, by day and by
night in Circumstances favourable and adverse, in the face of discouragement
which would have broken the hear of a smaller man, Dadabhai Naoroji served the
Motherland with undeviating purpose, with complete selfless and with vitality
of faith which put to shame most young men. Withal, he was the greatest of souls
and the most charitable in judgment and never made a personal enemy. In respect
equally of the highest personal character and the greatest public services,
Dadabhai Naoroji was the loftiest ideal his countrymen could set before
themselves respectively to follow at a distance.” Again “The public life of India has been
adorned by a galaxy of brilliant intellects and selfless patriots, but there
has been in our time none comparable with Dadabhai Naoroji.”
According
to Gokhale, “If ever there is the divine in man, it is in Dadabhai Naoroji.”
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