British India Society 1839-43

It took over a 100 years to the Indians to understand the true nature of the colonist British rule as an exploitative, alien rule. The Nationalism in India certainly grew after the foundation of Indian national Congress in 1885, but prior to that there were some secular political organizations that came up with some primitive ideas about independence. The first among them was British India Society.

In 1838, Dwarkanath Tagore had established the “Landholders Society” along with Prasanna Kumar Tagore, Radhakanta Deb, Ramkamal Sen and Bhabani Charan Mitra. The Landholders society was known as the first organization of Bengal with distinct political object. It was followed by British India Society in 1839.

• British India Society was founded in 1839 in England with the efforts of William Adam, one of the friends of Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
  

  William Adam had come to India and got in touch with Raja Ram Mohan Roy and when he returned England, he took up India’s cause along with George Thompson, William Ednis, and Major General Briggs.
  

  The result was organizing meetings at several places and creating awareness about the conditions in India.
  

• In 1841, this society started printing a newspaper “British Indian Advocate“.
  

  In 1842, Dwarkanath Tagore went to England along with Chandramohan Chatterjee and Paramananda Maitra. He returned from England with George Thomson.
  

• With the efforts of George Thomson, Bengal British India Society was founded on 20 April 1843.
  

  The idea was to secure the welfare, and advance the interests of all classes, in pure loyalty to the government of the reigning sovereign of the British dominions.