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Islington councillor Marisha Ray and the plaque commemorating Naoroji |
Plaque commemorates Britain’s first Asian MP
Businessman and academic highlighted Indian poverty
A NEW plaque to Britain’s first-ever Asian MP is to be unveiled in Clerkenwell next month to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of poor immigrants from the Indian sub-continent.
Dadabhai Naoroji, who represented Finsbury Central for three years from 1892, is to be commemorated with a plaque in Naoroji Street outside Clerkenwell Parochial School.
The plaque, provided by the Amwell Society, will be unveiled in a ceremony on May 8.
Academic and later businessman Mr Naoroji was particularly concerned with the economic consequences of British rule in India, and wrote and lectured extensively on the drain of wealth from India to Britain, which he regarded as the principal cause of Indian poverty.
As a Liberal MP in Britain, he was instrumental in securing the appointment of a royal commission on Indian expenditure, the Welby Commission, and served on it as its sole Indian member.
Islington Lib Dem councillor Marisha Ray, one of four Asian councillors on the council, will officiate at the unveiling of the plaque, along with MP for Islington South and Finsbury, Emily Thornberry.
Cllr Ray had an uncle who worked with Naoroji before he came to Britain, when they were both members of the Indian National Congress.
And Cllr Ray’s grandfather, Dr Bhattacharya, came to Britain to work as a GP and was friends with Britain’s first-ever Asian Mayor, appointed to Finsbury in 1938, Dr Chunilal Katial. Dr Katial helped establish the world famous Lubetkin-designed Finsbury Health
Centre which is currently under threat of redevelopment.
Cllr Ray, who represents Clerkenwell, is a mother of a five-year-old, and a former business analyst working with Marks & Spencer.
She said: “It is important to celebrate the achievements of Naoroji, who vehemently believed in education for women, a subject very close to my heart.
“He was a man who came from a poor family in Bombay in 1825 and bettered himself through education.”
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