Naoroji Furdunji (1817–1885) was a Parsi reformer from Bombay.
He was born at Bharuch and educated at Bombay, becoming a teacher.[1]
During the 1840s, he defended the Zoroastrianism of the Parsis, at that time under pressure from Christian missionary activity, in Fam-i-Farshid which he edited.[2] He was a founder of the Student's Literary and Scientific Society in 1845, with Dadabhai Naoroji, Bhau Daji Laad, Jagannath Shankar Shet, Vishwanath Mandlik and Sorabji Shapurji Bengali.[3] In 1851, with backing from K. N. Kama and in company with other like-minded Parsis, he founded the Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha, becoming its president for the rest of his life.[4] As secretary of the Parsi Law Association from 1855 to 1864 he worked for legal codification.[5]
When the Bombay Association was set up in 1852, Naoroji Furdunji took the major part in drafting its petition, made in 1853, to the British Parliament.[6] He was one of the Association's secretaries, with Bhau Daji, whose investigative activities directed at British governance caused alarm, and a withdrawal of support by the Association's leadership at the time of the petition.[7]
Naoroji Furdunji visited Europe three times, being sent in 1873 by the Sabha and the Bombay Association to London, to give evidence to a parliamentary committee on Indian finance.[1] [8] He worked with the British authorities as an interpreter, for a period from 1836 with Alexander Burnes, and for the Bombay court from 1845 to 1864.[1]