Who was known as the 'Grand Old Man of India'?

Dadabhai Naoroji, (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) also known as the "Grand Old Man of India" and "Unofficial Ambassador of India", was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar, and writer who was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 and 1895 and the first Asian to be a British MP. Naoroji is renowned for his work in the Indian National Congress, of which he was one of the founding members and thrice the elected president in - 1886, 1893, 1906.

Apart from being an academic, scholar, and activist, his work mostly concentrated on the drain of wealth from India to Britain during the colonial period. He also authored a book titled 'Poverty' which had estimated that India's revenue worth 200-300 million pounds was drained to Britain. In 1906, Naoroji was again elected president of the Indian National Congress. Naoroji was a staunch moderate within the Congress, during the phase when opinion in the party was split between the moderates and extremists.

He is regarded as one of the few who gave birth to the modern Independence movement in India. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, once wrote to him saying, "The Indians look up to you as children to the father".