Surendranath Banerjee (1848-1925) was a major figure in early Indian nationalism. A believer in moderate means, he was deeply committed to achieving constitutional objectives by constitutional methods.

Surendranath Banerjee was born in Calcutta on Nov. 10, 1848, into a Brahmin family. His father was a distinguished physician. Banerjee received his early education at Doveton College in Calcutta. Upon taking a degree in English literature from Calcutta University, he went to London and in 1869 became the second Indian to succeed in the Indian civil service competitive examination, after an official effort to exclude him had failed.

Banerjee was appointed to a post in Sylhet in his homeland; however, in 1874 he was dismissed for a minor and apparently inadvertent procedural error. His efforts at reinstatement failed, and as a dismissed civil servant he was also refused admission to the bar. Banerjee felt he had been discriminated against because he was Indian. He...