1. Protest against the press ordinance of 1823,
2. Agitation against the Jury act of 1827 ( this had been focussed by "Samachar Darpan " on 27 June 1818, and on 16 June 1827)
3. At the request of the leading citizens of Calcutta the Sheriff called a public meeting at the Town Hall on 5 Jan. 1835, where a strong protest was made against some of the provisions of the Charter Act of 1833and demand was made for the repeal of the press Ordinance of 1823.
EMS Namboodripad in his book, "A History of India Freedom Struggle", wrote, "Much before the works of Naoroji, Ranade, and Dutt .....agitation in their primary forms had started first in Bengal and later in other centres against some of these ill effects of the British Rule and in defence of certain demands of the people . ....As far as we know, the premier oganisation thus formed was the Academic Association started by Rammohan Roy in 1828. Although this organisation was concerned primarily with religious and moral questions.it also organised debates on social and political issues."
It was led by the members of the educated middle class who had been imbued with the ideas of Bourgeois democracy that was gaining strength in Europe. It functioned as a dual purpose of opposing the backwardness of social and religious doctrines, on the one side, and promoting such values as freedom and democracy, on the other. In 1838, the Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge was also formed, which "discussed legal issues, political issues and labour issues."
The Land Holders' Society came into existence in the context's of the Government policies initiated by Lord Bentinck, of resuming rent-free (lakhiraj) lands in Bengal as a new source of revenue. It affected the class interest of the zamindars who strongly protested against it in a number of news papers and journals like the Reformer, Bengal Herald, India Gazette, and Bengal Hurkara. A society was formed in Calcutta in 1836, called the Bangabhasa Prakashika Sabha. It did not last long, but it was the nucleus of Landholders' Society founded two years later, in July 1838, which deserves special mention for several reasons. Dwarakanath Tagore also realized the formation of such a society.In the first place, as Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra very justly observed, it may be regarded as the pioneer of freedom in this country.
Secondly it was the avowed object of the organizers to establish "branch societies, in every districts of the British Indian empire with the view of establishing regular communications, on all subjects connected with object of the society.
