ABSTRACT
It is, however, characteristic of this earlier political movement that persons connected with its foundation were largely men who had settled in Calcutta only very recently and did not belong to the aristocracy. Newer types of men, mostly from the middle class, were coming to the front in Indian politics. The landed classes did not oppose this intrusion. Kristodas Paul, one of the prominent members of the British Indian Association, supported the idea of the Indian Association, which was formally established on Ju ly 26, 1875, mainly through the efforts of Surendranath Banerjea. After he had been dismissed from the Civil Service, he was offered a post as a teacher in a Calcutta College. There he came in contact with a large number of young • men dissatisfied with the existing order of things.
