Question

Who was the first Indian to become a British Member of Parliament during the British rule in India?
1. Gopal Krishna Gokhale
2. C Rajagopalachari
3. Dadabhai Naoroji
4. Acharya J B Kriplani

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Dadabhai Naoroji

The answer is Dadabhai Naoroji.

• On 6th July 1892, Dadabhai Naoroji (candidate for the Liberal Party) won a hard-fought election to become the first non-white to be elected to the British Parliament.
  • He also became the first Asian member of the House of Commons.
• One of the most prominent of Naoroji’s supporters was the famous Florence Nightingale.

•  Dadabhai Naoroji:
  • Title: ‘Grand Old Man of India’
  • 1867, he propounded Economic Drain Theory where he pointed out that a quarter of India’s economic revenues were being seized by Britain.
  • In London, he established the London Indian Society and then the East Indian Association (1866) which spoke out for the rights of Indians in the British Empire.
  • In 1885, he was one of the founder members of the Indian National Congress.
    • Became the president of the Indian National Congress Sessions three times:
      • 1886, Calcutta
      • 1893, Lahore
      • 1906, Calcutta: declared that the goal of the Congress was to attain swaraj.
  • Newspaper/Journal/Book under Dadabhai Naoroji:
    • Voice of India newspaper
    • The message of reform among the Parsi community was spread by the newspaper Rast Goftar (Truth-Teller).
    • Poverty and un-British Rule in India

• Gopal Krishna Gokhale:
  • In 1899, Gokhale joined the Indian National Congress, emerging as one of the main leaders of its ‘moderate’ wing.
  • Between 1899 and 1902, he was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council followed by a stint at the Imperial Legislative Council from 1902 till his death.
    • Gokhale played a key role in framing the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909 and advocated for the expansion of legislative councils at both the Centre and the provinces.
  • Gokhale became Congress president at its Banaras session in 1905.
  • Gandhi regarded Gokhale as his political mentor and wrote a book in Gujarati dedicated to the leader titled ‘Dharmatma Gokhale’.
• C Rajagopalachari:
  • Rajaji’s personal interaction with Gandhi in 1919 led him to give up his legal profession to be fully involved in the nation’s independence struggle.
    • The relationship between them only grew stronger and Mahatma called Rajaji the ‘keeper of my conscience’.
  • C. Rajagopalachari led a salt march from Trichinopoly to Vedaranniyam on the Tanjore coast in Tamil Nadu, in support of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
  • C. Rajagopalachari prepared a formula for Congress-League cooperation in 1944. Gandhi supported the formula.
  • He was the 1st Indian Governor-General of India.
  • In 1954 he was conferred with the Bharat Ratna for his contribution to Indian politics and literature.
  • Conflicts grew between Rajaji and Nehru, this led to Rajaji forming the Swatantra Party.
• Acharya J B Kriplani:
  • Kripalani was well-known as a Gandhian and a socialist.
  • He became the Congress president in 1946.
  • In 1972-73, he and other socialist leaders led movements across the country urging people to lead nonviolent protests against Indira’s government.
  • In his autobiography My Times, he criticized the entire Congress leadership, except Mahatma Gandhi, for Partition.