The organisation was founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma, with support from a number of prominent Indian nationalists in Britain at the time, including Bhikaji Cama, Dadabhai Naoroji and S.R.
Rana,[1][2] and was intended to be a rival organisation to the British Committee of the Indian National Congress that was the main avenue of the loyalist opinion at the time.
[3] Founded on 18 February 1905, the IHRS was a metropolitan organisation modelled after Victorian public institutions of the time.
[4] It had a written constitution and the stated aims to "secure Home Rule for India, and to carry on a genuine Indian propaganda in this country by all practicable means".
The society was founded amongst efforts and movements that arose to reverse the flow of authority and power from Britain to India.