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.
Ponnambalam Arunachalam
Arunachalam was knighted in 1914. In 1917 he became the first Ceylonese to be elected president of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He founded the Senthamil Paripalana Sabai and was president of the Ceylon Saiva Paripalana Sabai. He and his wife founded the Sri Arunachaleswarar Temple at Mutwal. Arunachalam co-founded the Ceylon Social Services League in 1915 and served as its president. He was also involved in the fledgling trade union movement in Ceylon and founded Ceylon's first trade union, the Ceylon Workers' Welfare League, in 1919. He served as president of the Ceylon Workers' Federation from 1920 to 1921. Arunachalam led the campaign for a university in Ceylon and was known as the "father of the Ceylon University", having founded the Ceylon University Association in 1906. He died on 9 January 1924 in Madurai whilst on Hindu pilgrimage in southern India.