On This Day in Politics by Iain Dale

Author:Iain Dale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Wednesday, 6 July 1892

FIRST INDIAN MP ELECTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Although Dadabhair Naoroji is considered the first Asian or man of Indian extraction to be elected to the House of Commons, fifty years earlier, in July 1841, the constituency of Sudbury had elected an Anglo-Indian, David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre. He wasn’t to last long, and only nine months later was disqualified from the Commons after having been found guilty of bribing electors.

Even today Naoroji, one of the founders of the Indian National Congress in India, is still considered a hero of Indian nationalism. So how did he come to be elected as Liberal MP for Finsbury Central in the 1892 general election, which returned Gladstone to power for the final time?

Naoroji was a true polymath and seemed to be able to turn his hand to anything. He was an ordained priest, a publisher, a missionary for the Zoroastrian religion and a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. In 1855, he travelled to England and became a partner in Cama & Co, the first Indian company to open in Britain. He resigned three years later having had some ethical concerns about the company’s activities and established his own eponymous cotton trading company. At the same time he became Professor of Gujarati at University College London. In 1865, he launched the London Indian Society.

When he took his seat in 1892, he refused to swear the oath on the Bible because he was a Zoroastrian and took it on the Khordeh Avesta instead. He spoke often in the Commons about India, but also took on subjects such as Irish Home Rule. He also employed a young researcher in the Commons called Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the future founder of Pakistan.

In 1895, he lost his seat, having only attained a majority of five votes in 1892. His seat fell to the Conservative William Massey-Mainwaring, who beat him by 805 votes. He returned to India and in 1906 was elected President of the Indian National Congress.

Naoroji is today regarded as the ‘Grand Old Man of Indian Nationalism’, and deservedly so.

In June 2022, there were fifteen MPs of Indian extraction in the House of Commons.

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