Dinshaw Wacha

Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha (1844–1936) was a Parsi Indian politician from Bombay. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, and its President in 1901.

Wacha was a member of the Bombay Municipality for 40 years and was quite active. He was the President of the Bombay Presidency for three years from 1915-1918, after being the Secretary for thirty years from 1885-1915. He was active in various different areas, especially education, social reforms and economics and finance. In 1897 he embarrassed the Indian government by making everyone aware of their financial errors and shortcomings. He pointed out that they were foolishly overspending on military and civil expenditures. Wacha was very bright and was knighted in 1917. He was effective in communicating with the public and educating them on the political and economic situation of India. It is said that no economic issue or financial mistake could get past him as he would always recognize the error and bring it to the attention of the people.

He was associated with the cotton industry and was the President of the Indian Merchants' Chamber in 1915. He was knighted in 1917.

Sir Dinshaw was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council, the Imperial Legislative Council and the Council of State. He headed the Western India Liberal Association from 1919 to 1927.

Wacha played a significant role in the early days of the Indian National Congress, helping to shape its structure and the way in which it conducted its activities. Wacha was instrumental in steering the Congress away from actively soliciting the support of India's princes. Though Dadabhai Naoroji believed that "the Princes seem the only quarter where we can expect to get it [funds] to any large extent," Wacha was more skeptical of any significant support from the princes. According to him, although the princes shared a personal sympathy with the Congress's goals, the Residents (British members of the courts) would have quickly worked to discipline them if they took too active of a role. Wacha doubted whether their support could be relied upon and sought to support the Congress by focusing more on private donations. Wacha further worked to strengthen the Congress structure by encouraging the creation of a representative committee at the Madras Congress to draft new rules intended to give Congress a definite institutional form. These guidelines included local standing committees composed of delegates who had previously attended Congress meetings that were to meet regularly, subcommittees that would meet once a week, and the implementation of elections to select the General-Secretary each year.

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