ZAC virtual event
Dinyar Patel, Ph.D.
Please join us via Zoom for a presentation on Dadabhai Naoroji and the Global Zoroastrian Community, by Prof. Dinyar Patel, on Saturday, November 14, 2020, at 9:30am CT.
Dinyar is the author of “Naoroji, Pioneer of Indian Nationalism”, a brilliant biography of the “Grand Old Man” of Indian nationalism and the first Indian elected to the British House of Commons.
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Dadabhai Naoroji and the Global Zoroastrian Community
Dadabhai Naoroji was arguably the most significant Indian nationalist leader before Gandhi. Naoroji was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, became the first Indian elected to the British Parliament in 1892, and, 1906, declared swaraj or self-government to be the policy of the Indian National Congress.
Naoroji was also an extremely significant leader within the global Zoroastrian community. His community-related activities spanned three different countries. In India, Naoroji played a pioneering role in Parsi social and religious reform, especially regarding women’s equality. He also helped orchestrate a much more long-term process of scholarly exchange between Zoroastrian scholars in Europe and Parsi scholars and priests in Bombay and western India. In the United Kingdom, Naoroji helped lay the foundations of the British Zoroastrian community, giving it an institutional basis (the modern-day Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe), mentoring new arrivals from India, and educating the British public about Zoroastrianism. Finally, Dadabhai Naoroji maintained a lifelong interest in the affairs of the Iranian Zoroastrian community. He contributed to that community’s rising fortunes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by lobbying the shah of Iran and other Iranian officials to crack down on discriminatory policies.
Please join us as Dinyar discusses the life of Naoroji, his significance to the global Zoroastrian community, and lessons from his life.
About Prof. Dinyar Patel
Dinyar Patel is an Assistant Professor of History at the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) in Mumbai. Previously, he taught in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina. He teaches courses on modern South Asia, the Indian nationalist movement, and the British Empire. Most of his research has focused on the life and career of Dadabhai Naoroji. In 2015, Dinyar received his Ph.D. in History from Harvard University. His biography of Dadabhai Naoroji, “Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism”, was published by Harvard University Press in May 2020.
Dinyar’s academic research focuses on the Indian nationalist movement, the city of Bombay/Mumbai, and the Parsi Zoroastrian community. He has received two Fulbright fellowships and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his research. In addition to his academic writing, he has contributed pieces to BBC News, the New York Times online, the Hindu, the Indian Express, and Scroll.in.