Person · Bombay barrister & INC president · India
Pherozeshah Mehta
Also known as Pherozeshah Mehta, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Firozeshah Mehta
Parsi barrister (1845-1915), Elphinstone College graduate (1864) and Lincoln's Inn barrister (1868), who became the uncrowned king of Bombay public life as its municipal corporation's dominant figure for three decades. Mehta chaired the Indian National Congress session of 1890 at Calcutta, and his close partnership with Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Wacha made the Bombay Parsi liberal establishment the Congress's central institutional spine through the moderate decades. His 1888 drafting of the Bombay Municipal Act gave the city its first elected corporation, which he dominated until his death.
- Date
- 1845–1915
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; INC proceedings and contemporary memoirs.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
He was knighted in 1904, which Gokhale and the Bombay Presidency Association's younger members criticised publicly; Mehta accepted and continued leading the moderates. His house Mazda at Nepean Sea Road in Bombay was the Congress's effective Bombay headquarters for the moderate decades, and his 1915 funeral drew the largest Bombay public gathering of its period. The Pherozeshah Mehta Road at Fort Bombay still carries his name.
About the place
Placed at Bombay.
Connections (3)
- President ofIndian National Congress (founding era)
Pherozeshah Mehta chaired the Indian National Congress session of 1890 at Calcutta as president, and his close partnership with Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Wacha made the Bombay Parsi liberal establishment the Congress's central institutional spine through the moderate decades. His Mazda house at Nepean Sea Road in Bombay was the Congress's effective Bombay headquarters for the moderate decades, and his 1915 funeral drew the largest Bombay public gathering of its period.
- Educated atElphinstone College, Bombay
Pherozeshah Mehta graduated from Elphinstone College Bombay in 1864 and read for the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, returning to Bombay in 1868 as a barrister. His Elphinstone generation — alongside Ranade, Wacha, Tyabji — formed the Bombay reform circle around Dadabhai Naoroji, and his legal practice at the Bombay High Court supported his political work through the municipal corporation and the Congress for the next four decades.
- Based atMumbai
Pherozeshah Mehta's political work was entirely Bombay-based — his 1888 drafting of the Bombay Municipal Act gave the city its first elected corporation, which he dominated as councillor and chairman for twenty-five years. The Pherozeshah Mehta Road at Fort Bombay still carries his name, and the house Mazda at Nepean Sea Road remained the Congress's Bombay headquarters through the moderate decades.