Poverty and un-British rule in India
- New Delhi Ministry of information and broadcasting 1996
- 590 p.
Dadabai Naoroji was born in 1825 and died in 1917. Thus his life spanned 92 years, more than 50 of which he devoted to the cause of India's upliftment and independence, earning, very early, the title of. "The Grand Old Man of India. There was no part of the life of the Indian people that he left untouched. He was a leader, a social reformer, a journalist, a member of British Parliament, a founder of many nationalist political associations, including the Indian National Congress, over whose sessions he presided thrice, a political agitator, and above all a nationalist economist and a bitter critic of British impe rialism. His articles and speeches were extensively reproduced in Indian and foreign newspapers and journals. He thus educated millions in the intricacies of colonial economic policies and colonial economy. Thousands of political workers turned to him for political guidance and help in their political work. For example, at the very outset of his political work in South Africa, the young, 25-year old Gandhi turned to him for guidance. Asking Dadabhai to pay his attention to the cause of the Indians in South Africa, Gandhiji appealed to him in July 1894 to use his influence, "that always has been and is being used on behalf of the Indians, no matter where situated," and added: "The Indians look up to you as children to the father. Such is really the feeling here. I am yet inexperienced and young and, therefore, quite liable to make mistakes. (But) I am the only available person who can handle the question. You will, therefore, oblige me very greatly if you will kindly direct and guide me and make necessary suggestions which shall be received as from a father to his child (Collected Works, Vol. 1). " It was in 1867 that he published his first essay on the economic con dition of India, and from then on for nearly forty years he continued to analyze nearly every aspect of Indian economy in his numerous arti cles and speeches. His first major economic writing was the two long essays titled "The Poverty of India" read before the Bombay Branch of the East India Association of London in 1876, and the culmination of his economic agitation came with the publication in 1901 of Poverty and Un-British Rule in India which incorporated his earlier two essays on "The Poverty of India, " Poverty and Un-British rule in India was to become the Bible of nationalist agitators from then on. Referring to it, Gandhiji was to write later in 1924: "My first acquaintance with the extent of Indian poverty was through Dadabhai's book" (Collected Works, Vol. 25)."