The British Indian Association, which was amongst the foremost events in India during the 19th century, was formed on 31st October 1851. The establishment of the association signified that the Indian population had banded together and would not be avoided and ignored further. The initial committee of the British Indian Association comprised of several members. Almost all of the original leaders of the association were conservatives by tradition, as well as by character. But there were a few progressive leaders also, such as Peary Chand Mitra and Ramgopal Ghosh. The British Indian Association was established with the merger of the Bengal British India Society and the Landholders` Society.
Objectives of British Indian Association
During the initial years, the activities of the British Indian Association contained primarily of submissions of petitions to the British Government of India and to the British Parliament on grievances. The establishment had an intrinsic trust in the good intentions of the British authorities. The association aimed to represent the issues of all sections of the Indian society but sometimes it also took conscious efforts in order to defend the right of the landed aristocracy. Even though the organisation had several deficiencies, but it was the only association of Indian populace that could stand for their causes and represented the issues to the British Indian government.
The first annual report of the British Indian Association noted the formations of similar associations at Poona (Pune), Madras (Chennai) and Bombay (Mumbai). Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee founded the Awadh British Indian Association in Lucknow in the year 1871. He campaigned for the creation of a provincial government with equivalent number of nominated and elected legislators. The British Indian Association played a significant role in forming the political consciousness in the nation.
Members of British Indian Association
The members of the initial committee of the British Indian Association included the following :-
* Raja Radhakanta Deb (President)
* Raja Kali Krishna Deb (Vice President)
* Debendranath Tagore (Secretary)
* Digambar Mitra (Assistant Secretary)
* Raja Staya Saran Ghosal (Member)
* Harakumar Tagore (Member)
* Prasanna Coomar Tagore (Member)
* Ramanath Tagore (Member)
* Jay Krishna Mukerjee (Member)
* Asutosh Deb (Member)
* Harimohan Sen (Member)
* Ramgopal Ghosh (Member)
* Umesh Chandra Dutta- Rambagan (Member)
* Krishna Kishore Ghosh (Member)
* Jagadananda Mukhopadhyay (Member)
* Peary Chand Mitra (Member)
* Sambhunath Pandit (Member)
