UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 15 of 150

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.

• (a)1, 2, 4, 3 — 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)1, 3, 2, 4 — 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)2, 1, 4, 3 — 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).

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.

The trap in this question is geographical, not chronological. Because 'Indian Association' sounds like the most Indian and therefore the oldest of the four, and because 'East India Association' sounds like a British commercial body, students instinctively reshuffle the list. In fact three of the four were founded in Britain and the only one founded on Indian soil — the Indian Association, 1876 — is the last. Fix two anchors and the rest follows: Naoroji's East India Association is 1866 (the earliest) and Banerjea's Indian Association is 1876 (the latest). That alone eliminates options (a), (b) and (c), because each of them ends with something other than 4.

• East India Association — founded by Dadabhai Naoroji in London in 1866, developing out of the London Indian Society he had founded in 1865; it opened branches in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras and lobbied British opinion on Indian questions.
• National Indian Association — founded in England by Mary Carpenter of Bristol after her visits to India, for Indian education, social reform and the welfare of Indian students in Britain; Indian textbooks date it 1867, British records 1870, with a London branch from 1871. Either date lies between 1866 and 1872.
• Indian Society — founded in London in 1872 by Ananda Mohan Bose, who four years later co-founded the Indian Association at Calcutta.
• Indian Association — founded at Calcutta on 26 July 1876 by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose; its first all-India campaign was against the lowering of the maximum age for the Indian Civil Service examination to 19, and it convened the Indian National Conference in 1883 and 1885 before merging with the Indian National Congress in 1886.
• Do not confuse the Indian Association (1876, Calcutta, Banerjea) with the British Indian Association (1851, Calcutta, first president Raja Radhakanta Deb), a landlord-dominated body of an earlier generation.

• Assuming the body with the most Indian-sounding name is the oldest. Three of these four were founded in Britain; the only one founded in India, the Indian Association of 1876, is the youngest.
• Confusing the Indian Association (1876, Calcutta, Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose) with the British Indian Association (1851, Calcutta) or with Mary Carpenter's National Indian Association in England.
• Getting stuck on the exact year of the National Indian Association — sources give 1867 or 1870. It does not matter here, because both years sit between 1866 and 1872 and the ordering is the same either way.

UPPSC repeatedly sets strict chronological-ordering items on nineteenth-century associations and gives you no dates at all, so the founding years must be memorised; UPSC prefers to pair an organisation with its founder or to ask which body performed a specific act in a specific year, as in its 2002 question on the 1875 petition to the House of Commons.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The East India Association was founded in London in 1866 by :

  • (a)Surendranath Banerjea
  • (b)Dadabhai Naoroji
  • (c)Ananda Mohan Bose
  • (d)W. C. Bonnerjee

  Answer(b) Dadabhai Naoroji — it grew out of the London Indian Society he had founded in 1865. Ananda Mohan Bose founded the Indian Society (1872) and, with Surendranath Banerjea, the Indian Association (1876); Bonnerjee presided over the first Congress session in 1885.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indian Association, founded at Calcutta in 1876, took up as its first all-India agitation the question of :

  • (a)the Vernacular Press Act
  • (b)the maximum age limit for the Indian Civil Service examination
  • (c)the Ilbert Bill
  • (d)the partition of Bengal

  Answer(b) the maximum age limit for the Indian Civil Service examination — it was lowered to 19 in 1876, and Surendranath Banerjea toured India campaigning against it. The Vernacular Press Act (1878), the Ilbert Bill controversy (1883) and the partition of Bengal (1905) all came later.