Question

Who founded the Indian Association?
A) Rabindranath Tagore
B) Surendranath Banerjee
C) Bankim Chandra Chatterji
D) None of the above

Answer 1

Hint:
The Indian Association was established in British India in the year 1876 as the first avowed nationalist organization. The Association drew qualified Indians and civic leaders from all regions of the country, it is also one of the pioneer political associations with an all India outlook.

Complete step by step solution:
This Indian Association was founded in Bengal by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose, on 26th September 1876, it was a nationalist political party that supported local self- government and acted as a preparatory agent for the Indian National Congress that was more genuinely national.
Among the Bengali intellectual elite, the association was joined primarily by younger professional men. It spread to other parts of India beyond Bengal, but remained Bengal in structure, using Bengal expatriate communities as hubs for its provincial branches.
In opposing the reduction of the age limit for civil service exams (1877), which was disadvantageous to Indian applicants, the association found a problem, and in 1878 it opposed the Vernacular Press Act, which stifled the Indian press. It promoted the rights of local self-government and tenants, and it called for the representative government when the Bengal Tenancy Act was finally passed in 1885.
This association had worked to help the educated middle class in India to develop national awakening and political unity. The very term 'Indian Association' suggested that the national movement assumed the character of all India in perspective and strategy. The Association was above radical and narrow Hindu nationalism and parochialism as it was established by moderate leaders such as Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose, who were also at the center of its affairs. They invited Nawab Mohammad Ali to preside over their second annual conference as a sign of solidarity and goodwill to the Muslims.

Option B, Surendranath Banerjee is the correct answer.

Note:
However prominent the Indian association was, after the establishment of the Indian National Congress in the year 1885 this Indian association lost its prominence and gradually lost ground, and was eventually not heard after the year 1888.