Indian Association, a nationalist organisation that was a precursor of the Indian National Congress, was founded on this day by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose. It displaced the Indian League, founded in 1875, and was a challenge to the older British Indian Association, which it considered limited as an organisation of the landowning rich.
Indian Association was supported by a set of educated Indians from different professions committed to newer ideas of political, intellectual and material progress of the Indian people.
The association protested against the lowering of the age limit for civil service examinations in 1877, which went against Indian candidates.
In 1878 it protested against the Vernacular Press Act, meant to clamp down on the Indian press. It demanded local self-government and tenant rights.
The Bengal Tenancy Act was passed in 1885, the year Indian National Congress was founded. Indian Association merged with Indian National Congress.
