Pherozeshah Mehta

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Sir Pherozeshah Mehta

Sir Pherozeshah Mehta was an early Indian political leader and social activist, and a renowned and wealthy barrister.

Early life

Pherozeshah Mehta was a Parsi, and a Zoroastrian by religious belief. He was one of the first generation of Indians to receive Western-style college education, attending the University of Bombay and colleges in England. He was an outstanding student who excelled in all his subjects and chose to study law. Culturally he was highly westernized, and mixed freely with Englishmen and Britishers in India.

Mehta became a barrister, and enjoyed great success working at the Bombay High Court in the western port city of Bombay, capital of the Bombay Presidency (now Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra). He soon became wealthy, and an icon to young Indians seeking a good future.

Mehta drove many young Indians to the study of law, who later empowered the nationalist movement. One of them was a young Gujarati lawyer Mohandas Gandhi, who sought advice on practising law in Bombay.

Political and social activities

A celebrity in the city of Bombay, Mehta lived in a posh house near Churchgate. He encouraged Indians to obtain western education and embrace its culture to uplift India. He contributed to many social causes for education, sanitation and health care in the city and around India. He also did a lot of social work, with whatever time he had free on hand.

Mehta joined the Indian National Congress and served as its president. He was politically a liberal, seeking self-government through discussions, petitions and debate with the British authorities, but an overall supporter of the British Empire. Mehta's fellow Congressmen at the time were Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Annie Besant. In the 1910s, he served in the Bombay Legislative Council and the Imperial Legislative Council/.

Mehta died in 1915. He had been knighted for his services to law and political support of the Empire.

Legacy

Even today Sir Pherozeshah Mehta is respected in Mumbai. There are roads, halls and law colleges named after him. Even though he was a liberal and pro-British, Mehta is respected as an important inspiration for young Indians of the era, his leadership of India's bar and legal profession, and for laying the foundations of Indian involvement in political activities and inspiring Indians to fight for more self-government. In Mehta's lifetime, few Indians had discussed or embraced the idea of full political independence from the Empire.

See also

• Indian Independence Movement, Indian National Congress