By the turn of the twentieth century, there was a well defined public sphere in Bengal within which politics was conducted. A number of developments over the past century contributed to the evolution of this public sphere. The steady development of Bengali as a literary language in the course of the nineteenth century as a result of the efforts of litterateurs like Rammohun Roy, Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Michael Madhusudan Dutt led to the emergence of a literary realm within which ideas and opinions on literary subjects were freely exchanged. The Bengali language came to be regarded as an indispensable instrument for the building of a nation as it was widely accepted that the ‘enrichment of the mother tongue is closely associated with the overall development and enrichment of the whole nation.’ The nation-building project became the site for the fusion of literature and politics. Writers like Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, Hemchandra Bandopadhayay, Akshaykumar Dutt, Ramesh Chandra Dutt and Nabinchandra Sen gave expression to the vision of the nation through their novels, plays, poems and historical fiction. Their writings embodied their longing for a nation that was united, glorious and strong. The literary public realm thus became closely related to the formation of national identity.

A more concretely political realm emerged with the formation of political associations like the Students' Association, the Indian Association and the Indian National Conference, a process that culminated in the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885.