Now largely forgotten, Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree was a longtime member of the British parliament who, like many Indian nationalist leaders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, believed colonial rule could benefit India. But he was also a journalist, lawyer, publicist, and fierce advocate for Indian rights. Bhownaggree draws on archival research and Bhownaggree's writings and speeches to highlight his work inside and outside of Parliament, offering a revised understanding of the influential politician. Author John McLeod explores Bhownaggree's "Indian Toryism" by examining his support for the British Empire juxtaposed with his efforts to support the Indian people. Bhownaggree fought to educate Indian women and girls and to industrialize India, and he denounced racial discrimination and the misuse of Indian tax revenues. He also became a longtime leader of the British Parsi (Indian Zoroastrian) community. McLeod discusses Bhownaggree's role in the administration of a semiautonomous Indian kingdom, his backing of the Allied cause during World War I, and his interactions with political foes who also happened to be personal friends, including Dadabhai Naoroji and Mahatma Gandhi. This first full-length study of Bhownaggree challenges the assumption that Indian activism consisted of one mind. McLeod demonstrates that many educated Indians shared Bhownaggree's beliefs and mission to affect change through policy, peeling back previously unexamined layers of the movements and cultures of the Indian people during the British Raj. "More than a biography of an 'Indian Tory,' this well-reasoned book offers unique perspectives on colonialism, migration, adaptation, and lasting impact across the British Raj, Qajar Persia, and Pahlavi Iran. Lucid and wide-ranging, there is no comparative study that better balances accounts of those times, places, people, and events."―Jamsheed K. Choksy, author of Evil, Good, and Gender: Facets of the Feminine in Zoroastrian Religious History "Conscientious and engaging, this is the first major academic biography of Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree that examines his private and political life in detail. McLeod describes Bhownaggree as an Indian Tory and reveals him as representative of the plurality of Indian political thought on empire. This book offers a vital challenge to liberal-centered historical narratives on Indians in empire―arguably, one more in line with the reality of Indian perspectives and politics for much of the colonial period."―Jesse S. Palsetia, author of Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy of Bombay: Partnership and Public Culture in Empire John McLeod is professor of history at the University of Louisville. He is the author of Modern India , The History of India , and Sovereignty, Power, Control: Politics in the States of Western India, 1916–1947 and coeditor of African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat .