Guest post by Emma Jolly. Emma is a professional genealogist and author of the forthcoming book, Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors.

Britain's relationship with India was close but controversial for more than four hundred years. Increasing numbers of ships sailed annually to and from the Indian subcontinent, taking with them government officials, military personnel, engineers and labourers; and returning those on leave, or whose work in India was over. As well as Europeans, many Indians made the passage to Britain. Lascars worked aboard the ships, ayahs tended the children, and many high-status Indians were sent for a British education.

Amongst those arriving on English shores in 1855 was Dadabhai Naoroji, a professor of Gujarati who had been recently appointed to University College, London (UCL). Bombay-born Naoroji was the son of a long line of Zoroastrian Parsi priests. Through his intellect and hard work he became the first Indian professor of the prestigious Elphinstone College on Bombay.

Naoroji's energy ensured a life well-lived. Beside his academic work he founded a newspaper, Rast Goftar, in 1851, and involved himself in reforming politics and business. He became a partner in the cotton trading Cama & Co. with a fellow Parsi, establishing it as the first Indian firm in England. Through this he became a member of the Manchester Cotton Supply Association. Significantly, his commercial life was to have a deep influence on his politics. After leaving UCL in 1865, he formed the East India Association, through which he campaigned for the Indian Civil Service (ICS) to be opened to Indians and propounded his 'drain theory'.

The 'drain theory' has been deliberated and discussed by historians, political theorists and economists ever since. Full details of Naoroji's theory can be found in his text, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901). His argument centred on Britain draining India's wealth and resources to the detriment of the Indian people. He blamed, for example, the sixteen Indian famines between 1860 and 1878 which 'had resulted in the mortality of 12 millions of people' [1], on the demands of British rule. In 1876, he stated that the amount of resources being taken from India by Britain 'is much in excess of such necessity, and goes far to counteract the good with which British rule is capable of conferring to India.' [2] He further alleged that Indians were the most heavily taxed people in the world and that this was in contradiction of them being the 'free citizens and natural subjects as if living and born in England' that they had officially been since the grant to the EIC of Bombay in 1660. [3] Senior politicians and thinkers of the time did not deny the existence of the drain. In fact, Lord Salisbury, the Secretary of State for India in 1875, was quoted as saying that 'as India must be bled, the bleeding must be done judiciously.' [4]

Although Naoroji spent most of his time after 1856 in England, he regularly visited the land of his birth. He took the role of diwan in Baroda in 1873 but eagerly left after a year to work for the Bombay Municipal Corporation, where he used the knowledge gained to build on his 'drain theory'. In 1885, Naoroji, along with Allan Octavian Hume, Surendranath Banerjee and others associated with Theosophy, helped to create the Indian National Congress. Naoroji became president of the association in 1886, 1893 and 1906, and was a member of its British committee. He also founded the London Indian Society with W.C. Bonnerjee, and the East India Association.

Building on his success in India and of the 1885 Indian delegation to London, Naoroji stood for Parliament as Liberal candidate for Holborn in 1886. However, not everyone was ready for an Indian MP. Nevertheless, Naoroji benefitted from the reaction to his standing. He gained public sympathy after Lord Salisbury, by then Prime Minister, stated that no 'British constituency would elect a black man' and that 'no-one who had not been born in Great Britain ought to sit in the House of Commons'.

In 1888, after some disagreement within the constituency party, Naoroji was adopted for Central Finsbury. Also in 1888, he established the Indian Political Agency. He became an establishment figure, regularly attending formal dinners, and official functions in London. At a dinner in his honour at the National Liberal Club in January 1889 Naoroji said that, 'it was the first occasion on which the British people had come face to face with Indians, and had told them that the pledges given to them of British citizenship were true.' [5]

Finally in 1892 Dadabhai Naoroji was narrowly elected Liberal MP for Finsbury Central. A major milestone had been reached in Anglo-Indian relations, and India celebrated accordingly: 'The native Press is jubilant at the news of the election of Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji. In honour of the event it is proposed to have a holiday to all schools to-morrow, to have illuminations and othe rejoicings, and to hold public meetings for the purpose of congratulating Mr. Naoroji and of voting thanks to the electors of Central Finsbury.' [6]

From then on, Naoroji focused his time in Parliament on Indian economic affairs and on opening up the ICS. The 1895 General Election was won by a huge Conservative majority. It was not surprising, therefore, that the Liberal Naoroji lost his seat - but by only 800 votes.

Where one door closes, another opens. And in the same election another Bombay Parsi, this time standing for the Conservatives, won the seat of North East Bethnal Green. Sir Mancherjee M. Bhownaggree was the son of a merchant but differed strongly from Naoroji in his poltics. His were milder than his countryman, and did not support Indian Home Rule. Bhownaggree had begun his career in journalism (at the Statesman), but soon became Agent for Bombay (succeeding his father), and in 1885, at the age of 30, arrived at Lincoln's Inn to study law before being called to the Bar.

Bhownaggree was mentioned in the British Medical Journal for 1902 [7]: 'Small-pox in Bethnal Green. - In reply to Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree, the President of the Local Government Board stated on Monday that 136 persons had been reported to the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green as suffering from small-pox during January and February. Thirteen were found not to be cases of the disease. The particulars as to the vaccination were as follows: 31 were unvaccinated, of these 12 died; 76 were persons above 13 who were stated to have been vaccinated in infancy, of these 7 died. The medical officer had no information as to the vaccinations of the remaining 12 cases.'

Whilst Bhownaggree was making his mark inside Parliament, Naoroji continued the polticial fight for Indian rights outside. During his time on the Welby Royal Commission on the Administration of the Expenditure of India 1895-1900, he argued that the Indian Military Establishment (beyond the Indian Army) was too large, and consequently too expensive, for Indians - particularly with the costly fighting on the North-West Frontier. He also used the opportunity to make the argument for an independent India within the Empire. Although critical of British policy, he was keen always to confirm his allegiance to Britain and the Queen. He admired traditional British values and honour, wanting a prosperous India that would be in the financial interests of both nations.

Just as the previous election had been a landslide for the Conservatives, so the election of 1906 was a landslide for the Liberals. And this time, Bhownaggree lost his seat. Naoroji tried to gain the seat of North Lambeth, but after splitting the Liberal vote, he came third. After this he served another term as President of the Indian National Congress, and was then advised by doctors to retire to India in 1907. He settled in Versova, near Bombay. In 1916, he was awarded an honorary LLD by Bombay University.

The following year on 30th June, aged 92, Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji died in Bombay. He left two daughters - his son having died in 1893 and his wife in 1910. Naoroji was remembered in The Times as 'the father of Indian Nationalism'. Besides this he left a legacy of liberal politcs and a desire for reform. As a proponent of female emancipation, one of Naoroji's slogans was 'educate your women'; in 1930, following in the footsteps of her grandfather, Mrs. Perin Captain was elected president of the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee.

The third Indian to enter the House of Commons was Shapurji Saklatavala, also a Parsi from Bombay, who took up the seat for North Battersea as a Labour MP, although he was an advowed Communist. The first Indian to take his seat in the House of Lords was Baron Sinha of Raipur in 1919. Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree died in Cromwell Road, Earl's Court, in 1933, aged 82.

'To Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji will ever belong the honour of having been the first Indian gentleman to win his way into the House of Commons.' [8]

Notes:

[1] The Times, Friday 10 Aug 1888, p7, Issue 32461, col B
[2] The Times, Wednesday 6 Dec 1876, p6, Issue 28805, col E
[3] The Times, Thursday 27 Dec 1906, p3, Issue 38213, col C
[4] William Digby, "Prosperous" British India: A Revelation from Official Records, London, 1901
[5] The Times, Tuesday 22 Jan 1889, p7, Issue 32602, col F
[6] The Times, Monday 11 Jul 1892, p5, Issue 33687, col F
[7] British Medical Journal, 15 March 1902, Vol 1, No. 2150, p674
[8] The Times, Tuesday 11 Sep 1894, p6, Issue 34366, col A