Dadabhai Naoroji(1825-1917), President of Indian National Congress and politician; MP for Finsbury
Sitter in 4 portraits
Naoroji was educated at Elphinstone College, Bombay where he later became the first Indian professor and an active participant in reform societies. In 1855 he came to London and opened a branch of the law firm of Cama & Co., of which he was a partner. He combined this with teaching, being employed as Professor of Gujarati at University College, London (1856-65). Commuting regularly between India and Britain, he campaigned to open the Indian Civil Service to Indians and highlighted what he saw as the drain of Indian financial resources caused by British rule. He was a founder of the Indian National Congress and the London Zoroastrian Association and the first Asian to be a British MP, in Finsbury from 1892 to 1895.