Now largely forgotten, Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree was a longtime member of the British parliament who, like many Indian nationalist leaders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, believed colonial rule could benefit India. But he was also a journalist, lawyer, publicist, and fierce advocate for Indian rights.
Bhownaggree draws on archival research and Bhownaggree's writings and speeches to highlight his work inside and outside of Parliament, offering a revised understanding of the influential politician. Author John McLeod explores Bhownaggree's "Indian Toryism" by examining his support for the British Empire juxtaposed with his efforts to support the Indian people. Bhownaggree fought to educate Indian women and girls and to industrialize India, and he denounced racial discrimination and the misuse of Indian tax revenues. He also became a longtime leader of the British Parsi (Indian Zoroastrian) community. McLeod discusses Bhownaggree's role in the administration of a semiautonomous Indian kingdom, his backing of the Allied cause during World War I, and his interactions with political foes who also happened to be personal friends, including Dadabhai Naoroji and Mahatma Gandhi.
This first full-length study of Bhownaggree challenges the assumption that Indian activism consisted of one mind. McLeod demonstrates that many educated Indians shared Bhownaggree's beliefs and mission to effect change through policy, peeling back previously unexamined layers of the movements and cultures of the Indian people during the British Raj.