Who among the following nationalist thinkers propounded the 'Drain of Wealth' theory, meticulously calculating how British imperial rule systematically transferred Indian capital to Great Britain without economic return?

💡 Solution & Explanation

Dadabhai Naoroji, known as the Grand Old Man of India, formulated the economic drain theory in his seminal work 'Poverty and Un-British Rule in India', exposing how Home Charges, civil service salaries, and military remittances impoverished the subcontinent. Romesh Chunder Dutt supported this analysis through his exhaustive economic history of India, and Ranade analyzed industrial stagnation. Naoroji was also the first Indian to be elected to the British House of Commons.