Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917), known as the Grand Old Man of India(also as the Father of ‘Indian Freedom Struggle’) was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political and social leader. He was a Liberal Party member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 and 1895, and the first Indian to be a British MP, notwithstanding the Anglo-Indian MP David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who was disenfranchised for corruption.

Naoroji is also credited with the founding of the Indian National Congress, along with A.O. Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. brought attention to the draining of India’s wealth into Britain. He was also a member of the Second International along with Kautsky and Plekhanov.

Being an Athornan (ordained priest), Naoroji founded the Rahnumae Mazdayasne Sabha (Guides on the Mazdayasne Path) on 1 August 1851 to restore the Zoroastrian religion to its original purity and simplicity. In 1854, he also founded a Gujarati fortnightly publication, the Rast Goftar (or The Truth Teller), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts and promote Parsi social reforms.

In 1855, he sailed for England to join the first Indian business firm of the mercantile Cama family and 3 years later in 1859 established his own business firm under his own name.

He was also a member of the Indian National Association founded by Sir Surendranath Banerjee from Calcutta a few years before the founding of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, with the same objectives and practices. The two groups later merged into the INC, and Naoroji was elected President of the Congress in 1886. Naoroji published Poverty and un-British Rule in India in 1901.

He was elected to the British Parliament and became the first Asian to win a seat in the House of Commons.

In 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg inaugurated the Dadabhai Naoroji Awards for services to UK-India relations.

India Post dedicated a stamp to Naoroji on 29 December 2017, on the occasion of his 100th death anniversary.