SHORT BIOGRAPHY- Sir Pherozeshah Merwanjee Mehta

Sir Pherozeshah Merwanjee Mehta KCIE (4 August 1845 – 5 November 1915) was an Indian Parsi politician and lawyer from Bombay. He was knighted by the British Government in India for his service to the law.

 

Born: 4 August 1845, Mumbai

Died: 5 November 1915, Bombay

President: Indian National Congress/1890

Nationality: India

Sir Mehta was born on 4 August 1845 in Bombay to a Parsi business family. His father, a Bombay-based businessman. In 1864, Pherozeshah obtained his Master of Arts degree, with honors, six months later, becoming the first such Parsi, from the Bombay University. Scholar and then principal of the university,Sir Alexander Grant nominated him a Fellow of the University and tried to procure him a scholarship founded byJamsetjee Jejeebhoy to study in Europe. However, Sir, Mehta did not avail the scholarship.
Sir, Mehta went to England to study law in London. He was the first Parsi barrister in 1868. Here, he met and began association with Indian barristers.  In 1868 he returned to India and was admitted to the bar, and soon established a practice for himself in a profession which was till then dominated by British lawyers.
It was during a legal defence of Arthur Crawford that he pointed out the need for reforms in the Bombay municipal government. Later, he drafted the Bombay Municipal Act of 1872, and is thus considered the 'father of Bombay Municipality. Eventually, Sir Mehta left his law practice to join politics.

Political and social activities

When the Bombay Presidency Association was established in 1885, Sir Mehta became its president, and remained so for the rest of his years. 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.
Sir Mehta was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress. He was the chairman of the Reception Committee in its fifth session in Bombay in 1889. He presided over the next session in Calcutta.
Sir, Mehta was nominated to the Bombay Legislative Council in 1887 and in 1893 a member of the Imperial Legislative Council. In 1894, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire and was appointed a Knight Commander (KCIE) in 1904 
In 1910, he started The Bombay Chronicle, an English-language weekly newspaper, which became an important nationalist voice of its time, and an important chronicler of the political upheavals of a volatile pre-independent India. He served as a member of Bombay's Municipal Corporation for six years.
He saw through the British tactics of binding Parsi loyalty to the crown, by repeatedly making Parsis feel superior by showering them with decorations and praise, as by 1946 as many as 63 Parsis had been knighted. In his presidential address to Indian National Congress, he once said: "In speaking of myself as a native of this country, I am not unaware that, incredible as it may seem, Parsis have been both called and invited and allured to call themselves, foreigners. Sir, Mehta died on 5 November 1915, in Bombay.