Indian National Congress

Introduction

The Indian National Congress was founded at Bombay in December 1885.

The early leadership – Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, W.C. Bonnerji, Surendranath Banerji, Romesh Chandra Dutt, S. Subramania Iyer, among others – was largely from Bombay and Calcutta.

A retired British official, A.O. Hume, also played a part in bringing Indians from the various regions together.

Formation of Indian National Congress was an effort in the direction of promoting the process of nation building.

In an effort to reach all regions, it was decided to rotate the Congress session among different parts of the country.

The President belonged to a region other than where the Congress session was being held.

Important Sessions of INC

  1. Bombay -1885 President: Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee, Formation of Indian National Congress.
  2. Second Session: Calcutta in 1886. President: Dadabhai Naoroji
  3. Third Session:Madras in 1887. President: Syed Badruddin Tyabji, first muslim President.
  4. Fourth Session: Allahabad in 1888. President: George Yule, first English President.
  5. 1896: Calcutta. President: Rahimtullah Sayani, National Song ‘Vande Mataram’ sung for the first time by Rabindranath Tagore.
  6. 1899: Lucknow. President: Romesh Chandra Dutt, Demand for permanent fixation of Land revenue
  7. 1901: Calcutta. President: Dinshaw E.Wacha, First time Gandhiji appeared on the Congress platform
  8. 1905: Benaras. President: Gopal Krishan Gokhale, Formal proclamation of Swadeshi movement against government
  9. 1906: Calcutta. President: Dadabhai Naoroji, Adopted four resolutions on: Swaraj (Self Government), Boycott Movement, Swadeshi & National Education
  10. 1907: Surat. President: Rash Bihari Ghosh, Split in Congress- Moderates & Extremist, Adjournment of Session
  11. 1910: Allahabad. President: Sir William Wedderburn, M.A Jinnah decried the separate electorate system introduced by act of 1909
  12. 1911: Calcutta. President: B.N. Dhar, First time recital of Jan-Gan-Man in Congress session
  13. 1915: Bombay. President: Sir S.P. Sinha, Constitution of the Congress was altered to admit the delegates from the extremist section
  14. 1916: Lucknow. President: A.C. Majumdar, Unity between two factions-Moderates and Extremists of Congress, Lucknow Pact signed between Congress and Muslim League to build political consensus
  15. 1917: Calcutta. President: Annie Besant, First Woman President of Congress
  16. 1918 (Special session): Bombay. President: Syed Hasan Imam
  17. The session was convened to deliberate the contentious Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms Scheme
  18. 1919: Amritsar. President: Motilal Nehru, Congress extended support to Khilafat Movement
  19. 1920 (Special Session): Calcutta. President: Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Gandhi moved the Non cooperation resolution
  20. 1920: Nagpur. President: C. Vijayaraghavachariar, Reconstitution of Working committees of Congress on Linguistic basis, MA Jinnah left the Indian National Congress
  21. 1922: Gaya. President: C.R. Das, CR Das and other leaders broke away from INC, Formation of Swaraj Party
  22. 1924: Belgaum. President: M.K. Gandhi, Only Session presided over by Mahatma Gandhi
  23. 1925: Kanpur. President: Sarojini Naidu, First Indian Woman President
  24. 1927: Madras. President: Dr. M.A. Ansari, Passed a resolution against the use of Indian troops in China, Iran and Mesopotamia. Passed a resolution against boycott of Simon Commission, Adoption of resolution on Purna Swaraj
  25. 1928: Calcutta. President: Motilal Nehru, Formation of All India Youth Congress
  26. 1929: Lahore. President: Jawahar Lal Nehru, Passed the resolution on ‘Poorna Swaraj. Civil Disobedience movement for complete independence to be launched, 26 January to be observed as ‘Independence Day’.
  27. 1931: Karachi. President: Vallabhbhai Patel, Resolutions on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme, Endorsement of Gandhi-Irwin pact, Gandhi nominated to represent INC in the Second Round Table Conference to be held in London
  28. 1934: Bombay. President: Rajendra Prasad, Amendment in the Constitution of Congress,
  29. 1936: Lucknow. President: Jawahar Lal Nehru, Push towards socialist ideas by Jawahar Lal Nehru
  30. 1937: Faizpur. President: Jawahar Lal Nehru, First Session to be held in a village
  31. 1938: Haripura. President: Subhas Chandra Bose, National Planning Committee set up under Jawahar Lal Nehru.
  32. 1939: Tripuri. President: Rajendra Prasad, Subhas Chandra Bose was re-elected but had to resign, Rajendra Prasad was appointed in his place,  Subhash Chandra Bose formed Forward Bloc
  33. 1940: Ramgarh. President: Abul Kalam Azad,  Civil Disobedience movement to be launched at appropriate time and circumstances.
  34. 1941–45: This Period is marked by events i.e. Quit India movement, RIN Mutiny & INA trials. Phase of constitutional negotiations such as Cripps Mission, Wavell Plan and Cabinet Mission. On account of these events during this phase no congress session was held.
  35. 1946: Meerut. President: J.B Kripalani, Last session before independence, J.B Kriplani was the president of INC at independence.

Important Questions

Q.1 What is the main objective of the Indian National Congress?

Answer: The main objectives of the Indian National Congress were:

  1. To promote the nation-building process in India in order to create a national identity of being an Indian among the people and to promote National Unity.
  2. To provide for an all India political platform which will allow political workers from all over the country to educate and mobilize masses under a common all India political organization.
  3. To promote political consciousness and political awakening among the educated citizens and then to all the sections of the society.
  4. To promote other things in the country like-political liberal democracy, democratic culture, anti-colonial ideology among the people.

Q.2 The Lahore Session of Indian National Congress in 1909 was presided by?

Answer: The Lahore Session of 1909 was presided over by Madan Mohan Malaviya.

Q.3 At the time of the first session of the Congress, who was the Viceroy of British India?

Answer: At the time of the first session of the INC, Lord Dufferin was the Viceroy. Get the list of all governors-general and viceroys in the linked article.

Q. 4 The Indian National Congress split into two part-Moderates and Extremists during which session?

Answer: The split between the moderates and the extremists happened in the Surat session in 1907. (To revise the topic- Extremists & Moderates