The Brahmo Conference owes its inception to the inspiration received in 1889 when the fifth session of the Indian National Congress was held at Bombay. Brahmo leaders of Bombay organised an All India Theistic Conference, which was attended by many Brahmo friends, some of whom were from Barisal of East Bengal (now Bangladesh). They conceived of holding such a conference of Brahmos of East Bengal, and it was resolved that a Conference might be held every year, in the place where the Indian National Congress happened to hold its session.

The Brahmo Conference was established with the principal object “To maintain and uphold according to Brahmo religion the worship of one true God who is without material form and all perfect and to cultivate love towards Him and service His will” as laid down in the memorandum of association that was registered in 1944, under Act XXI of 1860. There is a thought that the East Bengal Brahmo Conference was founded on the lines of All India Monotheistic Association (Nikhil Bharat Ekeshwarbadi Sammelan). The main idea was to foster a sense of brotherhood amongst the Brahmos and discuss the important issues at hand and overall progress of the Brahmo Samaj and Brahmo movement. The Conference would run with funds collected via donations from the people and funds collected via sale of literature and periodicals.

The objectives of the Brahmo Conference as accepted in the first session in 1890 were to discuss (a) the spiritual sadhana in Brahmo methods of worship, (b) mission work of the Brahmo Samaj including preaching of Brahmo religion in erstwhile East Bengal, (c) publication and distribution of journals, books and pamphlets etc., (d) moral and religious training of Brahmo boys and girls, (e) forms of Brahmo marriage, (f) provision for the maintenance and help of Brahmo family without means and (g) social governance. The inaugurators were of opinion that such a conference would promote solidarity among the Brahmos and infuse new energy in the pursuit of Brahmo ideals.

The first Calcutta Session was held in 1938 when Sri Subodh Chandra Mahalanobis chaired the reception committee and Sri Ramananda Chatterjee presided over the session. The second Calcutta Session presided over by Sri Rajanikanta Guha while Sri Baroda Kanta Basu was the chairman of the reception committee.

The above was the formalization of the efforts of some Brahmo friends namely Sri Rajanikanta Ghosh-secretary Bangladesh Brahmo Samaj, Sri Naba Kanta Chattopadhaya, Sri Jitendra Prasad Mitra, Sri Chandikishor Kushari, Sri Jagabandhu Laha, Sri Shashibhusan Dutta, Sri Satishchandra Ghosh, together with the active assistance of Sri Krishna Kumar Mitra, Sri Mathura Nath Guha and Sri Satish Chandra Chakrabarty. The first Conference Session was held in Dhaka from 25th to 27th October 1890 at the Bangladesh Brahmo Samaj, Dhaka where eighty Brahmo friends from all over Bangladesh and Calcutta gathered. At the commencement sub-committees were formed under the chairmanship of Sri Gurucharan Mahalanobis a noted leader of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj to conduct the session. Sri Bhubanmohan Sen was elected to preside over the main session. The first secretary of the Brahmo Conference was Sri Sashibhusan Dutta. The Brahmos present decided that such session should be organised every year so that Brahmos and other like-minded people could get-together to further the cause of the Brahmo Samaj. From then onwards sessions have been held every year except for a few occasions.

The Brahmo Conference has a history of over a hundred and thirty five years. It was initially established as ‘Purba Bangla Brahmo Sammilani by some member of the Purba Bangla Brahmo Samaj and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj as already mentioned. Its activities were mostly within Purba Bangla now Bangladesh. The area of activities was later extended to North Bengal, Assam and West Bengal. Consequently the name was also changed to Bangla-O Assam Brahmo Sammilani.

The Bangla-O-Assam Brahmo Sammilani (Bengal & Assam Brahmo Conference) was then registered with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies of Bengal with its registered office at 2 & 3 Lyall Street, Dhaka. After the partition of India the office was shifted to 211, Cornwallis Street now Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata-700 006. In 1958 in the annual meeting of the Bangla-O-Assam Brahmo Sammilani held during the annual session at Patna a resolution was passed and the present name BRAHMO CONFERENCE was adopted. The change of name was duly intimated to and recorded by the Registrar of Societies,

In the recent past the Brahmo Conference is going through a bad phase. It was found that a few Brahmos caused a split in the organisation and set up a parallel break away association. The Bangladesh Brahmo Samaj and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj (the two founders of the Brahmo Conference) stepped in and revived the original Brahmo Conference body and made it functional according to its original untampered constitution. Efforts were made at reconciliation and to mend the rift that had been caused. In its efforts at mending the rift the session of 2002 could not be held. Brahmo friends realising the seriousness of the situation came forward with their support and the Darjeeling Session in October 2003 and then in Santiniketan in the following year in November. Despite appeals from the registered Brahmo Conference body – the breakaway group continued to stage Brahmo conferences on an annual basis and parallel conferences were organised in 2003 and 2004. A steering committee was also set up by the then Secretary of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj to reconcile and have a single conference, bu desite several efforts no tangible results were achieved.