A Short Note on Shri Surendranath Banerjee

Surendranath Banerjee was a resident of Calcutta and was born on November 10, 1848. He was known as one of the early political leaders of India during the rule of the Britishers. He was the founding member of the Indian National Association, a nationalist organisation. He and Anandamohan Bose led the Indian National Conference session for two years between 1883 and 1885. He later became one of the senior members of the Indian National Congress and was also responsible for Banerjee’s rejection of reforms about Montagu–Chelmsford. He left Congress with several liberal leaders and then established a new organisation in 1919 named Indian National Liberation Federation. 

The early life of  Surendranath Banerjee

Surendranath Banerjee’s information consists that he was a citizen of Calcutta and belonged to the Kulin Brahmin family in the Bengal province. His ancestors are tracked from losing a small village in the Faridpur district. His great grandfather Babu Gour Kishore Banerjee was the one who migrated from their ancestral place to Monirampur, a village near Barrackpore. He had deep, liberal, and progressive thinking, which was credited to him by Durga Charan Banerjee, who was his father and a doctor by profession. He graduated from the University of Calcutta and, in 1868, travelled to England to compete in an examination for the Indian Civil Service. In 1869 he cleared the examination, but he was not admitted and barred. 

He also went to University College, London, for classes. He returned to India in August 1871 after taking his final exams. Surendernath Banerjee denied responsibility for making an error in a major judicial case. He then went to England for discharge, but he was not pardoned for being racially biassed. Banerjee then returned to India after being bitter against the British. This led to a protest against the injustice by the British. Surendernath Banarjee, according to the British, was known as ‘Surrender Not Banerjee.’ The contribution of Surendranath Banerjee was influenced by a nationalist from Italy named Giuseppe Mazzini. 

The political career of Surendernath Banerjee

When Surendernath Banerjee returned to India, he became a professor of English at the Metropolitan Institution, Ripon College, also known as Surendranath College, founded in 1882, and the Free Church Institution. He then began to give speeches about liberal and political subjects. Banerjee was the founding member of the Indian National Association and his partner Anandamohan Bose. The organisation he founded was used to tackle the age limit issue of students from India appearing for the ICS examinations. Surendernath was against the British empire’s racial profiling and discrimination in India. He bought the newspaper in 1879 titled The Bengalee and then began to edit it for the next 40 years. When Banerjee was arrested for some remarks he made in the newspaper, protests and hartals commenced across Bengal and some Indian cities. 

He was the first journalist in India to be imprisoned. When the Indian National; Congress was founded in 1885 in Bombay. Surenderanath Banarjee and his organisation merged with the Indian National Congress due to similar interests. He became the president of the Indian National Congress in 1895 at Poona and in Ahmedabad in 1902.

Major Contributions of Surendernath Banerjee

Surendernath Banerjee was a crucial part of the political realm and was crucial for the people who participated in the freedom struggle.  Contributions of Surendernath Banerjee included participation as an active member in protest, extensive support from the public, petitions in India, particularly in Bengal. His efforts also led to reversing the Bengal bifurcation in the year 1912. Banarjee also fought for the remarriage of widows and raising the barrier for the age of marrying for girls. 

Surendernath Banarjee became a messiah for the people of Bengal and was one of the rising leaders like Sarojini Naidu and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Banerjee was also an important part of the infamous Swadeshi movement as he promoted the use of goods that were Indian manufactured and encouraged boycotting foreign products. His popularity was huge and made him the famous and indisputable leader of Bengal. 

Conclusion

Surendranath Banerjee was one of the notable political leaders in India. He was the founding member of the Indian National Association, which happened to be one of the initial Indian political organisations. Banerjee later became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Surendranath was born on November 10, 1848, and he was the second Indian to qualify for the Indian civil exams at the time. He has been appointed a position in his homeland of Sylhet. 

In 1874 Surendernath Banarjee was disputed as he was found to be minor and didn’t clear the exam due to a procedural error. Banerjee felt he was discriminated against and thus led to his reforms and struggle against injustice against the British government and oppressors.