A unique, authoritative insight into the first Indians to break the race barrier and gain a foothold in British politics. Written by Lord Mohamed Sheikh.
For more than three centuries, from the East India Company’s first trade missions to Asia until the long-awaited granting of independence in 1947, India was controlled and exploited by the British Empire. Indians were not considered fit to have a say in the running of their own country, let alone to be given any measure of political power.
Over the final decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, four men helped to change that forever: Dadabhai Naoroji, Mancherjee Bhownaggree, Shapurji Saklatvala and Satyendra Sinha. These men were the first four Indians to achieve Parliamentary office in the United Kingdom, the first three as MPs, all for different parties, the last as a Cabinet Minister.
While you could scarcely find four more contrasting personalities, they had several vital points in common: all four men loved and fought for their country, all four shared a passion for justice and equity, and all four were highly motivated and fiercely intelligent. Between them they earned India, and Indians, a long-overdue respect in the West, and opened the door for many of their countrymen to be welcomed into the ranks of government in their wake. This book tells their stories.