Consider the following events and arrange them in chronological order :
1. East India Association
2. National Indian Association
3. Indian Society
4. Indian Association
Select the correct answer from

Question

Consider the following events and arrange them in chronological order :
1. East India Association
2. National Indian Association
3. Indian Society
4. Indian Association
Select the correct answer from the codes given below :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, 1, 2, 3, 4. The four bodies happen to be listed already in the order they were founded, which is why the sequence is the plain one. (1) The East India Association was set up by Dadabhai Naoroji in London in 1866, growing out of the London Indian Society he had started the previous year, to put Indian questions before the British public and Parliament; it soon opened branches in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. (2) The National Indian Association was founded in England by the Bristol social reformer Mary Carpenter after her tours of India, to promote Indian education and social reform and to look after Indian students in Britain — Indian textbooks usually date it 1867 while British records give 1870, but either date falls between 1866 and 1872, so the ordering is unaffected. (3) The Indian Society was founded in London in 1872 by Ananda Mohan Bose, then a student in England. (4) The Indian Association was founded at Calcutta on 26 July 1876 by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose, and became the most important of the pre-Congress political organisations. 1866 → 1867/1870 → 1872 → 1876 gives 1, 2, 3, 4.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This puts the Indian Association (Calcutta, 1876) before the Indian Society (London, 1872). The two are separate bodies four years and one continent apart — Ananda Mohan Bose founded the Indian Society while studying in England, and only after returning did he join Surendranath Banerjea in founding the Indian Association at Calcutta. The Calcutta body cannot precede the London one.  (b) This places the Indian Society (1872) ahead of the National Indian Association. Mary Carpenter's National Indian Association was in existence well before 1872 — the standard Indian-history date is 1867 and even the more conservative British date of 1870, with a London branch from 1871, is earlier than the Indian Society. Only the first and last positions in this option are right.  (c) This gets both ends wrong. It makes the National Indian Association the earliest, but Naoroji's East India Association of 1866 predates it on any of the dates given for Carpenter's body; and it again places the Indian Association (1876) before the Indian Society (1872).

Concept: Between the 1830s and 1885 Indian political life was carried on by 'associations' rather than parties, and a striking number of them were founded in Britain rather than in India — the point was to reach the British Parliament and the British electorate, since that is where Indian policy was actually settled. Dadabhai Naoroji's London Indian Society (1865) and East India Association (1866) were the pioneers of this London lobby; Mary Carpenter's National Indian Association was the British-run counterpart working on education and social reform; Ananda Mohan Bose's Indian Society (1872) was a students' body in London. The Indian Association of 1876 then brought the method home to Calcutta, built a mass-based membership with a low subscription, and through Surendranath Banerjea's Indian National Conferences of 1883 and 1885 became the direct forerunner of the Indian National Congress, into which it merged in 1886.

State PCS 2024 Q15 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q15 — History PYQ with Answer