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Indian National Congress Formed
On 28 December 1885, the first session of the Indian National Congress (INC) was held at Bombay and continued till 31 December. Retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume along with Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Wacha founded the INC.
The INC is the first national movement of a political kind in India with the initial aim of getting more Indians involved in the governance of the country. Later on, its purpose upgraded to complete independence.
For the first session,
- Hume obtained permission from the then Viceroy of India Lord Dufferin.
- It was initially supposed to be held in Poona but was moved to Bombay due to the outbreak of cholera in Poona.
In 1883, Hume had written an open letter to Calcutta University graduates expressing his idea of having a body for educated Indians to demand more share in the government and also for a platform by which dialogue could be initiated and sustained between educated Indians and the British government.
- 72 delegates from all the Indian provinces attended the first session.
- There were 54 Hindus, 2 Muslims and the rest were Jain and Parsi members.
The president of the first session was Womesh Chandra Bannerjee.
Prominent attendees of the maiden session were DadabhaiNaoroji, DinshawWacha, William Wedderburn, Pherozeshah Mehta, etc.
The first or early phase of Indian Nationalism is also termed as Moderate Phase (1885-1905).
Moderate leaders were W.C Banerjee, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, R.C Dutt, Ferozeshah Mehta, George Yule, etc.
- Moderates have full faith in British Government and adopted PPP path i.e. Protest, Prayer, and Petition.
Cause for the Rise of Extremists
- Due to disillusionment from Moderates methods of work, extremism began to develop within the congress after 1892.
- Dissatisfaction with the methods and achievements of moderates
- Loss of Britain in the Boer wars demolished the myth of Whiteman supremacy 1899-1902
- Indian official Secrets Act to restrict freedom of press and partition of Bengal
- Extremists gave the idea of India’s independence the central place in India’s politics
Methods of the Extremists
- Promotion of Swadeshi and Boycott of foreign goods
- Non Cooperation with Britishers
- They want to take the movement outside Bengal
The Extremist leaders were LalaLajpat Rai, Bal GangadharTilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, and Aurobindo Ghosh. Instead of PPP path they emphasise on self-reliance, constructive work, and swadeshi.
- 1st president of INC – WC Bonnerjee
- 1st Woman President – Annie Besant
- 1st Muslim President – Badruddin Tayabji
- 1st English President – George Yule
- Gandhi became President – 1924, Belgaum
- Jawaharlal Nehru became President – 1929, Lahore
- Subhash Bose became President – 1938, Haripura
Partition Of Bengal By Lord Curzon
The decision to split Bengal came in July and by October 16, 1905
Bengal had been divided into Piston Bengal and Assam (with a population of 31 million) and the rest of Bengal (with a population of the 4 million of who 18 million were Bengalis, and 36 million Biharis and Oriyas).
The decision had come after Lord Curzon claimed that Bengal was too large to be governed effectively
The partition separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas
It was definitely the ‘divide and rule’ policy for the Indians and the whole population was outraged about the fact that the colonisers were turning native population against itself in order to rule.
Curzon left for Britain in 1905, but the agitation continued for many years.
Partition was finally reversed in 1911 by Lord Hardinge in the face of unrelenting opposition.
The Swadeshi movement, which had grown significantly during the agitation, later reached nationwide proportions. The partition of Bengal and the highhanded behavior of Curzon fired the national movement and the Congress.
Rabindranath Tagore composed the National song Amar Sonar Bangla for the occasion
This song was adopted as National Anthem by Bangladesh in 1971 after its liberation from Pakistan
Split of Congress
In 1906 Sri Aurobindo came to Bengal with the purpose of a public initiation of a more forward and direct political action than the moderate reformism which had till then been the creed of the Indian National Congress.
He joined the ‘New Party’ which had been recently formed in the Congress and persuaded its chiefs in Bengal to come forward publicly as an All-India party – The Nationalist Party – with Tilak at its head and to attack the then dominant Moderate (Reformist or Liberal) oligarchy of veteran politicians and capture from them the Congress and the country.
The origin of the historic struggle between the Moderates and the Nationalists (called by their opponents Extremists) which in two years changed altogether the face of Indian politics.
Surat Split 1907
The Surat Split was the splitting of the Indian National Congress into two groups – the Extremists and the Moderates – at the Surat session in 1907
Leaders of the Nationalist Party
The main leaders of the Nationalist Party at Surat were: Lokmanya Tilak, Sri Aurobindo, G.S. Kharpade, Sardar Ajit Singh, H. Mukherjee, B.C. Chatterjee. Subramaniam Bharati and S. DoraiswamyIyer had arrived from Madras.
Extremists were led by Lal,Bal,Pal while Moderates were led by GK Gokhale
Moderated
They demanded mild constitutional reforms, economic relief, administrative reorganization and protection of civil rights
Extremists
- They were dissatisfied with the achievement of the moderates
- They realized that the true nature of British was exploitative
- There were 3 groups of extremists
- The Maharashtrian group headed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak
- The Bengal group – BC Pal and Aurobindo
- The Punjab group – Lal Lajpat Rai
Lahore Session of the Congress (1929 December)
- The annual session of the Congress was held at Lahore 1929 where Jawaharlal Nehru was elected the president.
- The Lahore session of the Congress passed a series of landmark resolutions.
- The Nehru Committee report had lapsed, as dominion status was not acceptable
- As per the Poorna Swaraj resolution passed at the Lahore Congress the word Swaraj in the Congress Constitution would mean complete independence.
- All future elections were to be boycotted.
- Round Table Conference decided to be held in London would be boycotted.
- Civil Disobedience was to be launched. The Congress Working Committee allowed Gandhi to determine the time, place and issue on which movement was to be launched. Gandhi decided to launch the movement by violating the salt laws at the coast of Dandi, Gujarat.
- On 31st Dec 1929 the newly adopted tricolor was hoisted and 26th Jan 1930 was fixed as the First Independence day
