Consider the following:
- 1.Calcutta Unitarian Committee
- 2.Tabernacle of New Dispensation
- 3.Indian Reform Association
Keshab Chandra Sen is associated with the establishment of which of the above?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only
Keshab Chandra Sen set up the New Dispensation (Nava Vidhan) church (1881). The Calcutta Unitarian Committee (1821) was founded long before he was active, by William Adam and Rammohun Roy.
- ✗ 1. The Calcutta Unitarian Committee was founded in September 1821 by William Adam and Rammohun Roy. Keshab was born in 1838, so he had no hand in it.
- ✓ 2. Keshab founded the New Dispensation (Naba Bidhan or Nava Vidhan) in 1881, an institution meant to bring the truths of all great religions together. The question's 'Tabernacle of New Dispensation' is this church.
- ✓ 3. UPSC's official key treats this statement as correct; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
Remember · Keshab Chandra Sen: Brahmo Samaj of India (1866), New Dispensation (1881). The Unitarian Committee (1821) belongs to Rammohun Roy and William Adam.
Sources
- Sen, Keshab Chandra (Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh) ↗ · reference work “Shortly after coming back from England, Keshab formed the Indian Reform Association (November 1870). Its activity had five aspects: Charity, temperance, improvement of women's material and social conditions, mass education through mother tongue and cheap reading materials.”
- Church of the New Dispensation (Encyclopaedia Britannica) ↗ · reference work “In 1881 Keshab founded the Church of the New Dispensation (Naba Bidhan) for the purpose of establishing the truth of all the great religions in an institution that he believed would replace them all.”
- Cosmotopia Delineated: Rammohun Roy, William Adam, and the Calcutta Unitarian Committee (Itinerario, Cambridge University Press) ↗ · reference work “The Calcutta Unitarian Committee, jointly founded by William Adam and Rammohun Roy in September 1821, sought to bring together prominent Brahmins who were friends of Roy's and supporters of his agenda”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Keshab Chunder Sen ↗ · reference work “Keshab Chunder Sen (born November 19, 1838, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died January 8, 1884, Calcutta) was a Hindu philosopher and social reformer”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·