Surendranath Bannerjee was born on 10th Nov 1848, at Taltala, Central Calcutta. His father was the well-known doctor, Durgacharan Bannerjee. He completed his bachelor's degree from Dovton College & moved to England to complete the coveted I.C.S. along with Biharilal Gupta and Rameshchandra Datta. They all passed the I.C.S. in 1869 but

Bold as ever, he filed a case against the authority and won. In 1871, he was selected to be the Asst. Magistrate of the District of Syllet. Problems occurred with the British authority and this time he quit. Vidyasagar invited him as a professor of English at the Metropolitan College. After a short stint he moved on to the City College and then the Free Church College. He later founded a school, which later became the Ripon College. He joined politics to suppress his angst against the imperialistic policies of the British-Raj.

From 1876 till 1899 he was a member of the Calcutta Corporation and from 1885 onwards he held the post of Chairman of the North Barrack pore municipality. For 8 consecutive times he was a member of the Banga Byabasthapak Sava. He started writing for Hindu patriot, but in 1879 he started editing his own paper, the Bengali. It was on this paper he wrote an article which the British rulers didn't find amusing. He was arrested and became the first political prisoner of British India. 

In 1876 he founded the Indian Association along with Andomohan Basu, which was the basis of The Indian National Congress. He was elected the President of The I.N.C. twice, in 1895 at the Poona session and in 1902 at the Ahmedabad session. India agitated under his leadership when Lord Curzon divided Bengal in 1905. But his views of making India free from British rule just by holding meetings and discussions was not supported by the growing radicals and his respect to the British masters was not welcomed. He had to retire from politics after the defeat of his moderate views. 

  S.N. Bannerjee died on 6th August 1925. He was the grand old man of Indian Politics and obviously the forerunner of what was going to be nation wide revolution for freedom. His book, ' Nation in Making' is a valuable source of Indian history.