The conventional narrative of the Indian national movement often accords centrality to the non-violent agitation spearheaded by the Indian National Congress. Many moderate leaders from late 19th century have not been given adequate importance given that they believed in 'petition politics' which didn't successfully elicit much popular support. Marxist historians have also shown little interest in studying the lives of these thinkers, who have been shunned as members of a 'bourgeois elite' allegedly collaborating with the British. Such notions have especially gained credence in the light of the perceived success of the non-violent movement. However, such an approach assumes a teleological unfolding of historical events, and ignores the fluid interplay of ideas that contributed to the distinctness of the Indian national movement. The gravitas of this movement can only truly be understood if all these ideological sources are duly acknowledged and thoroughly scrutinised.
(Source:BBC)One such figure whose ideas remain exceedingly relevant is Dadabai Naoroji, famously regarded as the 'Grand old man of Indian nationalism'. Naoroji is renowned for his singularly unrivalled achievement of getting elected as a member of the House of Commons. The idea of an Asian- a 'Black' man-entering the British Parliament was by no means a novelty; it had been nourished over the course of the nineteenth century by stalwarts like Rammohan Roy. But, Naoroji turned it into reality by a wafer-thin margin, and secured for himself a very distinguished position among the galaxy of Indians who travelled abroad for professional purposes.
Dinyar Patel in his book 'Naoroji- A Pioneer of Indian nationalism'- plots the life of this great man- and in the process has underscored the layers that went into the making of India's first Parliamentarian in Great Britain. The book copiously documents Naoroji's correspondence with contemporary thinkers, and the influence he wielded on future activists and leaders. It is a book that must be read to surmise the ideas that defined India's thrust for self-government in the late 19th century. Patel challenges the entrenched portrayal of members from Naoroji's ilk as 'collaborators' or 'interpreters', laying emphasis on the complex nature of their endeavours that made them a unique force to reckon with for the empire.
Naoroji was a product of the colonial endeavour of imparting western education to Indians, so that a class of educated and westernised locals could help create amenable conditions for the consolidation of British rule. Patel though clearly shows how local educational networks continued to work their influence in western India well into the 19th century. Gujarati and Parsi educational networks, dominated by mehtas, played an important role in Naoroji's early years as a student. In 1840, he made the critical transition from school to Elphinstone College, that had emerged as an academic hub, and here Naoroji bloomed as a prodigious scholar. Through the 1840s and 1850s, he played a leading role in social reform activities across Bombay, setting up schools for girls and also establishing the Young Bombay. This institution was quite similar to Young Bengal that had been initiated by Henry William Derozio in Bengal in the 1820s. In Elphinstone College, he came into contact with thinkers like B.G. Jambhekar and Navrozji Fardunji, who were to play an important role in his endeavours abroad as well. Naoroji became a professor at the Elphinstone college, and his consistency and professionalism underwrote a meteoric rise in his fortunes. Coming from a humble background (his father had been a part of the Zoroastrian clergy), catapulting to the position of Professor in Elphinstone College at the age of 26 would have been a massive shot in his family's arm. Naoroji edited journals like the Rast Goftar and was very vocal in his advocacy of free education. However, his experience at Elphinstone was important for another significant reason- it made him conscious of the yawning gap between imperial rhetoric and reality. By the 1830s, 'liberals' and 'utilitarians' like James Mill and Macaulay had trumped the Orientalists, and begun steering ideological discourse regarding British rule. The 'benevolence' of British officials in bestowing justice was used for justifying all annexations, and ideas such as rule of law and private property rights were harnessed to forcefully point out the differences between an 'enlightened' Europe and a 'decadent' Orient.
It was in such a context that Naoroji made some of his most powerful arguments in opposition to imperial rhetoric. The concept of 'Drain of wealth' is still employed pervasively to analyse colonial exploitation across the globe, and its original proponent was none other than Naoroji. The concept of 'drain' suggests that the financial resources of a colonised country- rather than being reinvested in the nation- were sent across to the mother country. This was a break from the past because notwithstanding the invasive onslaughts experienced by the Indian subcontinent, never had Indian money been shipped elsewhere for funding colonial endeavours. This drain left the common Indian in miserable poverty, and Naoroji scanned voluminous official documents to point out the massive differences between Indians and Europeans. Basically, a common Indian could barely survive beyond fulfilling daily necessities, and a single calamity could potentially prove fatal for his existence.
Dinyar Patel categorically suggests that Naoroji's arguments did not have a purely economic basis, they had a 'moral' element and a decisive political objective. He pointed out that the British had also overseen a 'moral drain' as Indian values and morals too were being subdued by the insidious activities of colonial officials. This rigorous calculation of the extent of impoverishment as seen in 'Poverty of India' represents a very distinct phenomenon as it was the first time that an Indian had dared to publicly condemn rulers in such a vociferous manner. Moreover, there was no distinction between political and economic nationalism in Naoroji's paradigm, rather his works were part of a demand for fundamental political reform. The reform that he envisioned was to take place in the civil services, as he believed that the root cause of all drain could be traced to the Anglo-Indian identity of civil servants, who shipped large sums of money back home in the form of remittances. The solution for this problem was to conduct simultaneous civil service examinations (in India and Britain) and ultimately to carry them out only in India. This gradual 'Indianisation' of civil service was to help impart a degree of political autonomy to Indian states, and halt the drain of wealth that pulverised the subcontinent.
Naoroji travelled to England in 1855 and wrote bulk of his works from there. However, he remained cognizant of political opportunities back home, and took particular interest in the dynamics of princely states. He considered these states to be an excellent ground for proving the capabilities of Indians, and the phenomenal reserves of wealth they possessed in his view ensured a degree of immunity to outflow of financial resources that affected other parts of the country. His stint as diwan of Baroda was extremely eventful, as he participated in the courtly machinations and oversaw a protracted conflict between the Durbar and the British Resident. This stint exposed him to the rut of princely states and confirmed many apprehensions he had about the potential of carrying out reforms in India. His efforts to reform the court failed, and this is when he started looking for political opportunities in Westminster. However, his relations with these states- including Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Gondal- proved to be fortuitous in later years, as they eventually helped fund his campaigns in England.
His first election campaign in 1885 from Holborn proved to be a failure but it created a foundation for his next campaign from Central Finsbury in 1892, where he won, by the thinnest of margins- 3 votes. Dinyar Patel chronicles his campaign with great finesse, as it proved to be a roller-coaster ride for Naoroji. After all he was aspiring to do something unprecedented, and his popularity in sections of British society had invited some snide remarks from the British Conservative PM Lord Salisbury, who derisively called him a Black Man. This ironically gave momentum to Naoroji's campaign, as he received more than 3800 letters and telegrams offering sympathy and support. Nonetheless, his campaign was derailed by forces within the Liberal Party, as other contenders invoked his Indian origin to stymie Naoroji's candidature. By this time, Naoroji had managed to forge a broad coalition of forces on his side. He had expressed support for Irish home rule, allied with female suffragettes like Josephine Buttler and several Liberal groups had also pledged support for his cause. His right hand man through all these initiatives was Behramji Malabari, who revived his campaign in late 1892, and secured funds from diverse sources.
Naoroji was a part of a westernised elite who by the late 19th century had become a part of the 'moderate' faction of Indian nationalism. However, Patel problematises the idea of seeing them as 'mediators' or 'interpreters'; rather leaders like Naoroji were like emissaries who advocated for India's political interests on the world stage. Naoroji showed how Indians could reach the position of British elites, and pitch for demands of autonomy and self-government. He also wrote profusely on Indian culture, delivering a lot of lectures on the Parsi religion in London. In fact, Naoroji emerged as the first point of contact for any student travelling to Britain for studies or work. Shoals of letters and documents addressed to him illustrate how he juggled several hats in his life; mediating family disputes, writing letters of recommendation and even mentoring a lot of youngsters. His ambition was to ensure that these students could hone their administrative abilities so as to emasculate British presence in the Indian civil service. Naoroji literally walked the talk, as he played a pioneering role in the passage of a Bill in 1893, that pitched for simultaneous civil service exams. Although this bill was never really implemented, Naoroji did everything possible to articulate his ideas in the British parliament.
Nothing exemplified Naoroji's 'moderate' approach better than his speech as the President of Indian National Congress in 1906. By this time, he was an obscure political figure in Britain, and was soon to settle down in India. His speech was attended by a massive crowd, and he spoke convincingly about the need for an entirely Indian civil service, an Indian military, and representative institutions that included women in its membership registers. This speech was important as it came in the backdrop of the Partition of Bengal and the calls for Swadeshi. Lokmanya Tilak was very pleased with Naoroji's calls for Indianising the civil service, though he alongside other 'extremist' members were disillusioned with his rejection of violent methods.
A lot of his students became renowned names in various economic and academic fields- R.C. Dutt, Sayyid Ahmed Khan, RG Bhandarkar- all were part of the East India Association that he had founded in 1866. They influenced the course of the nationalist movement in their own unique ways and that adds richly to the texture of the national movement. Mahatma Gandhi corresponded with him on a regular basis and though his methods eventually were quite different from those of Naoroji, he always cherished his association with Naoroji. Interestingly, while Naoroji's ideas diverged from those of revolutionaries, his granddaughter Perin Naoroji stayed at India House while studying in London, and sympathised with the cause of Veer Savarkar, who operated out of this hub of revolutionary activity in the early 20th century.
The book is an extraordinary attempt at chronicling Naoroji's life. The dearth of scholarship on such a colossus is very confounding, and Dinyar Patel's effort is laudable as it resurrects this figure in discussions revolving around our national movement. Contemporaries like Shyamji Krishnaverma were bitter in their opposition to Naoroji, calling his career a 'failure', but that is far from true. Winning a seat in British parliament and advocating reforms in Indian civil service from Westminster was a very unique accomplishment for those times, but his legacy is far-reaching largely due to the scholarship that he produced over the course of his career. His ideas on poverty (best encapsulated in the famous 'Poverty and un-British rule in India') survive in academic discourse and have inspired many political actors and social theorists. American thinker George Freeman drew heavily on his ideas to frame his anti-imperialist agenda; scholars like Eric Williams sketched out a similar economic drain that affected British West Indies and contributed to a pernicious slave economy; Sukarno- the first Prime Minister of Indonesia- explicitly acknowledged the role of Naoroji in inspiring Indonesian nationalists against Dutch imperialism.
The extractive nature of colonialism had been acknowledged well before Naoroji's interventions, but what he offered was a creative solution, and he followed his diagnosis of the 'drain' with proactive steps to reform the civil service and stem the outflow of financial resources. While some of the speeches he delivered while campaigning in England might appear disingenuous for the encomiums heaped on the British, he displayed unwavering loyalty towards the cause of Indian people. Even when he praised the British, he promptly pointed out the duplicitous nature of their rhetoric. Naoroji became a very popular figure among liberals and British Indians, and largely leveraged upon this popularity to win an election that very few felt he was capable of clinching. This book must stimulate more research on the life of India's 'Grand old Man' so that the story of Indian nationalism can be complicated further and extended beyond the narrow frameworks we are familiar with.
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