Home
People
Organizations
Events
Themes
Oral Histories
Learning Resources
Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree
‐
First South Asian Conservative MP, elected in London in 1895
Other names
Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownagree
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Location(s)
London
E2 9NP
United Kingdom
Place of death
London
Date of time spent in Britain
1882–1933
About
M. M. Bhownaggree, a Parsee from Bombay, was elected as Conservative MP for Bethnal Green in 1895 (defeating George Howell). He was the second Indian to be elected to Parliament, and the first Tory. Bhownaggree retained his seat in the next general election of 1900 but lost his seat in 1906. Seen by many as a Conservative tool to counteract the influence of Dadabhai Naoroji and the Indian Parliamentary Party, Bhownaggree did endeavour to bring Indian issues to the fore in the House of Commons, in particular the treatment of Indians in South Africa. Despite these concerns, Bhownaggree supported the Boer War and was seen as a supporter of British imperialism.
Bhownaggree arrived in Britain in 1882, with an allowance from the Maharaja of Bhavnagar to study law. He was called to the Bar in 1885 and was one of the Commissioners of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition at South Kensington in 1886. Bhownaggree donated money towards the Imperial Institute in South Kensington and a window to St Luke's, Redcliffe Square in memory of his sister. He founded a training home for nurses, a public gymnasium in London and donated money to many other local associations. In 1897 Bhownaggree was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE).
He died in London in 1933, aged 82.
Syed Ameer Ali, George Birdwood, Viscount Cross, M. K. Gandhi, Dadabhai Naoroji, Shapurji Saklatvala.
Hinnells, John R., Zoroastrians in Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996)
Hinnells, John R. and Ralph, Omar, Bhownaggree Member of Parliament 1895–1906 (London: Hansib, 1995)
McLeod, John, 'Mourning, Philanthropy, and M. M. Bhownaggree's Road to Parliament', in John R. Hinnells and Alan Williams (eds) Parsis in India and the Diaspora (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 136–55
Monk, C. J., ‘“Member for India?” The Parliamentary Lives of Dadabhai Naoroji (MP: 1892–1895) and Mancherjee Bhownaggree (MP: 1895–1906)’, unpublished MPhil thesis (Manchester University, 1985)
Mukherjee, Sumita, ‘"Narrow-majority" and "Bow-and-agree": Public Attitudes towards the Elections of the First Asian MPs in Britain, Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree, 1885–1906’, Journal of the Oxford University History Society 2 (Michaelmas 2004), pp. 1–20
Ridley, Jane, ‘Bhownaggree, Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee (1851–1933)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31875]
Schneer, Jonathan, London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis (London: Yale University Press, 1999)
Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)
Correspondence with Sir Birdwood, Mss Eur F216, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree by Sir Leslie Ward, watercolour, published in Vanity Fair, 18 November 1897, NPG 4241
© National Portrait Gallery, London, Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Image credit
Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree by Benjamin Stone, platinum print, 1897, NPG x8812
© National Portrait Gallery, London, Creative Commons, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
