Bhownaggree was born the son of a merchant in Bombay (now
Mumbai), India, and was educated in
Elphinstone College and the
University of Bombay. He became a
journalist after finishing his education. At 22, he was appointed, on the death of his father, to succeed to the Bombay agency of the
Kathiawar state of Bhavanagar. Bhownaggree went to the United Kingdom in 1882. Called to the bar at
Lincoln's Inn in 1885, in the following year the Maharaja appointed him judicial councillor, a post in which he introduced far-reaching reforms. '' caricature Bhownaggree settled in the United Kingdom in 1891, He originated and unflaggingly maintained in and out of the House the long battle against the disabilities of Indians in South Africa and other overseas dominions of the Crown. His cogent and detailed statement of the case for Indians in the
Transvaal after annexation was the basis of a blue-book (Cd. 2239, 1904), and was sent to
Lord Milner by the Colonial Secretary,
Alfred Lyttelton, with the observation that he felt much sympathy for the views expressed, and that it would be difficult to give a fully satisfactory answer. The practical result was that the proposals of the High Commissioner were in some important particulars rejected. Bhownaggree was one of the first Indians to press forward the need for
technical and
vocational education in India side by side with literary instruction. and was buried in the Parsi Section of
Brookwood Cemetery. ==Writings==