Consider the following pairs:
- 1.Radhakanta Deb — First President of the British Indian Association
- 2.Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty — Founder of the Madras Mahajana Sabha
- 3.Surendranath Banerjee — Founder of the Indian Association
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only
Pairs 1 and 3 are correct; pair 2 is wrong. Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty founded the Madras Native Association in 1852, whereas the Madras Mahajana Sabha was a different body formed in 1884.
- ✓ 1. The British Indian Association was founded at Calcutta on 29 October 1851 with Raja Radhakanta Deb as its President and Debendranath Tagore as its Secretary.
- ✗ 2. Chetty, a businessman and journalist, founded the Madras Native Association in 1852, the first Indian political organisation of the Madras Presidency. The Madras Mahajana Sabha came 32 years later, in May 1884, as a separate body, established by S. Ramaswami Mudaliar and P. Anandacharlu.
- ✓ 3. Surendranath Banerjee, with Ananda Mohan Bose, founded the Indian Association in Bengal in 1876. It was a forerunner of the Indian National Congress.
Remember · British Indian Association (1851): Radhakanta Deb, president. Madras Native Association (1852): G. L. Chetty. Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884). Indian Association (1876): Surendranath Banerjee.
Sources
- University of Calicut (School of Distance Education): Modern Indian History, Indian National Movement (British Indian Association) ↗ · reference work “British Indian Association was founded on October 29, 1851 at Calcutta with Raja radhakanta dev and debendranath Tagore as its President and Secretary respectively. … In May 1884, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar and P. Anandacharlu established the Madras Mahajana Sabha.”
- Madras Native Association, Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗ · reference work “Chetty founded the Madras Native Association (MNA) in 1852 to provide an organized platform for resistance against colonial authorities. … including the Madras Mahajana Sabha (founded in 1884 to advocate for Indian self-rule and civil rights)”
- Indian Association, Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗ · reference work “The association was founded in Bengal in 1876 by Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·