British Indian Association

British Indian Association was created after amalgamating the “Landholders Society” and “British India Society” on 31 October 1851. This was the first political organization that brought the Indians together. The President of the first committee of this organization was Raja Radhakanta Deb, while Debendranath Tagore was its secretary.

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History

The year 1851 was a time when the nation was still a conglomeration of British territory, protectorates and a sprinkling of sovereign states whose rulers as well as the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar carried out the wishes of the board of directors of an trading company operating from England. Nearly a century had gone by after the battle of Plassey. The nation was still six years away from. its first bid to shake off the foreign yoke. The society was sharply divided over child sacrifice and widow burning. The iron horse was in the process of being introduced.

The medieval age had almost departed and the modern times was about to step in when British Indian Association (BIA) was set up. It was the first political body of the nation and can really challenge Indian National Congress for the title of the Grand Old Party. With Radhakanta Deb as its first president and Debendranath Tagore as its secretary, BIA has come to stay. The next year, it opened its doors to European landholders of Bengal and Bihar and suggested that the both the Sudder Diwani and Sudder Nizamat Adalat be merged with the Supreme Court, at what was then known as Calcutta. As the years rolled by BIA became inextricably linked with the life of the nation. An association of the landed gentry who at that time were the rich and famous of the day, its activities were not always confined to prayers and petitions to the Raj. Nor was it a typical rich men’s club whose activities usually tend to be in support of the powers that be. Kali Prasanna Singh and Pratap Chandra Sinha of Paikpara, both members of the BIA had paid the “vast sum” of Rs 1000 when Reverend James Long was fined for translating, publishing and circulating Dinabandhu Mitra’s play Nildarpan. Covering itself with glory, BIA marched on. Such was its stature, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhaya, deputy magistrate of Khulna and Dr Mahendralal Sarkarc the founder of Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science became its members. At the height of its glory in 1885, BIA did not care much when the Indian National Congress was established. The INC overshadowed BIA. But the nation’s oldest political body had the last laugh when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, then a little known bar-at-law from Durban visited BIA for drawing up a memorandum to the viceroy to highlight the plight of the Indians in South Africa.

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Names Of Present Members

BRITISH  INDIAN ASSOCIATION
18, ABDUL HAMID STREET
(Formerly British Indian Street)
KOLKATA – 700 069
Telephone : 2231 6315

  1. Dr. S C. Nandy
  2. Mr Gopal Narayan Roy
  3. Mr Bijoy Kumar Swaika
  4. Dr. P C Mahtab
  5. Mr I P Singh Roy, Barrister-at-Law
  6. Dr. Pranab Kumar Mukherjee
  7. Mr Basudev Pal Chowdhury
  8. Mr Samit Chandra Nandy
  9. Mr Ajay Chand Mahtab
  10. Mr Indrajit Roy
  11. Mr Srikumar Mukherjee
  12. Mr Amartya Sinha
  13. Mr Rajeev Swaika
  14. Dr. Bikash Sinha
  15. Mr Adip Nath Pal Chowdhury
  16. Mr Sanjoy Singh Roy
  17. Mr Ranajoy Sinha

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