Political history of Sri Aurobindo
Anushilan Samiti was founded as an attempt to organize Bengali youth through a program of physical fitness and spiritual training for a nationalist program. By 1902, Calcutta had three societies working under the umbrella of Anushilan Samity, a society earlier founded by a Calcutta barrister by the name of Pramatha Mitra. These included Mitra's own group, another led by a Bengali lady by the name of Sarala Devi, and a third one led by Aurobindo Ghosh. The Anushilan Samiti had Aurobindo and Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das as the vice-presidents, Suren Tagore the treasurer. Jatindra Nath Banerjee (Niralamba Swami), Bagha Jatin, Bhupendra Nath Datta (Swami Vivekananda's brother), Barindra Ghosh were among other initial leaders.
By 1905, the work of Aurobindo and his brother Barin Ghosh allowed Anushilan Samity to spread through Bengal.
History of the Anushilan Samiti
The early "Anushilan Samity" drew its members largely from the young student fraternity in Calcutta. New recruits were required to swear an oath on the "Gita", and practiced the worship of arms in front of the image of Goddess Durga. These were however technical reasons why Muslims were not accepted. The members trained in Drill, practiced swordplay, boxing, wrestling, and other exercises. Nationalist spirit and moral development was inculcated through weekly classes, and interactions with leading social figures of the likes of Rabindranath Tagore, Bipin Chandra Pal, Gurudas Bannerjee.