Dadabhai Naoroji, known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton dealer, and an early Indian political and social leader.
Dadabhai Naoroji was a man who laid the foundation of India’s freedom struggle. He was fondly known as ‘The Promise Of India’ in his youth and ‘the grand old man of India’ in the later years of his life. This great man was personified as the symbol of the purity, sincerity, generosity, bravery and patriotism.
Credited with establishing the Indian National Congress, Dadabhai Naoroji is remembered as one of the most prominent members to have participated in the independence movement. In one of the books published by him, he wrote about the colonial rule of the British which was precisely aimed at looting wealth from India.
Naoroji was the driving spirit of Indian National Congress and was elected three times as the President of the Congress in 1866, 1893 and 1906. He demanded for Swaraj, self government for India, publicly during his third term of presidentship and strongly opposed violence and revolutionary methods as means of attaining freedom.
Dadabhai Naoroji is one of those personalities of the nineteenth century, who were respected by the British and were also honoured by Indians. In fact, he was considered to be a father figure among the nationalist, being a founder-member of the Indian National Congress (INC). Dadabhai not only worked towards attaining Independence but also inspired many educated people to join hands with him.
Dadabhai was extremely popular and was elected as its President in 1896 and 1906.
