New Delhi: The Rajasthan political crisis has thrust the Congress in the limelight for how the party’s leadership has been handling the Sachin Pilot situation, even drawing some criticism from within the party. Contrast this state of affairs with the historical founders of the Congress, not only Mahatma Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru but the man who inspired them — Dadabhai Naoroji.
The ‘Grand Old Man’ was a foundational figure in India’s modern political history, says historian Dinyar Patel in his biography ‘Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism’ and goes beyond the just the formation of the Indian National Congress.
The book published by Harvard University Press and re-presented by Harper Collins will be launched online on 25 July on SoftCover, ThePrint’s new e-venue to launch select non-fiction books.
The book is claimed to be the first comprehensive study of the most significant Indian nationalist leader before Gandhi.
In it, Patel examines Naoroji’s infamous “drain of wealth” theory, how the leader established self-rule as India’s objective and was able to counter the British from within their own parliamentary system. After all, Naoroji was the first Asian to sit in the British Parliament.
Patel chronicles Naoroji’s political rise in three phases. The first is Naroji’s role as an activist whose “drain of wealth” theory held the British responsible for India’s poverty and famines. The second is when he made allies with critics of British Empire like socialists and Irish home rulers, and got elected to the House of Commons with the goal of instituting political reforms. The last is when he became more radical and fully enunciated his demand for swaraj.
The biography, written in seven chapters, also details Naoroji’s electoral campaigns that won him a seat from Central Finsbury in 1892.
Patel is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina whose academic research has focused on the freedom movement, the city of Mumbai, and the Parsi Zoroastrian community. He has also written for BBC News and the New York Times, among other publications.
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram
News media is in a crisis & only you can fix it
You are reading this because you value good, intelligent and objective journalism. We thank you for your time and your trust.
You also know that the news media is facing an unprecedented crisis. It is likely that you are also hearing of the brutal layoffs and pay-cuts hitting the industry. There are many reasons why the media’s economics is broken. But a big one is that good people are not yet paying enough for good journalism.
We have a newsroom filled with talented young reporters. We also have the country’s most robust editing and fact-checking team, finest news photographers and video professionals. We are building India’s most ambitious and energetic news platform. And we aren’t even three yet.
At ThePrint, we invest in quality journalists. We pay them fairly and on time even in this difficult period. As you may have noticed, we do not flinch from spending whatever it takes to make sure our reporters reach where the story is. Our stellar coronavirus coverage is a good example. You can check some of it here.
This comes with a sizable cost. For us to continue bringing quality journalism, we need readers like you to pay for it. Because the advertising market is broken too.
If you think we deserve your support, do join us in this endeavour to strengthen fair, free, courageous, and questioning journalism, please click on the link below. Your support will define our journalism, and ThePrint’s future. It will take just a few seconds of your time.