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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