Dadabhai Naoroji ─ Selected Private Papers

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917), popularly known as the 'Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, and early Indian political thinker. The first Indian to publicly demand 'Swaraj' for India from the Congress platform in 1906, he was thrice president of the Indian National Congress and the first Indian to be elected to the British House of Commons. This volume brings together for the first time a substantial collection of private papers, including handwritten notes and personal letters, of Dadabhai Naoroji from the National Archives of India. Divided into twenty-two sections, the volume chronicles Naoroji's interactions with political leaders, scholars, friends, and acquaintances from A.O. Hume, one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, to the well-known historian R.C. Dutt to Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the famous Indian political leader whom Naoroji mentored. The volume includes a detailed Introduction which sets the context for Dadabhai Naoroji's life and work.

S.R. Mehrotra was Professor of History, Himachal Pradesh, Shimla; Jawaharlal Nehru Professor, M.D. University, Rohtak; and Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. He was also Visiting Fellow, St John's College, Cambridge and Visiting Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Dinyar Patel is Ph.D. Candidate, Modern South Asia, Department of History, Harvard University.

National Archives of India, an Attached Office of the Ministry of Culture, is the repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and is holding them in trust for the use of administrators and scholars.