Formation Of The Indian National Congress In 1885

The establishment of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1885 was neither a surprise nor a historical occurrence. It was the culmination of a political awakening that began in the 1860s and 1870s and reached a pinnacle point in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The year 1885 was a watershed moment in this process, because it was then that the political Indians, modern intellectuals interested in politics, who no longer saw themselves as representatives of narrow group interests, but rather as representatives of national interests vis-à-vis foreign rule, as a "national party," saw their efforts bear fruit. They established an all-India nationalist body to serve as a platform, organiser, headquarters, and symbol of the new national spirit and politics.

 

•    The new messages being conveyed through nationalist political activity leading up to the founding of the Congress were read quickly by British officials, who viewed them with suspicion and foreboding. As the political activity grew in intensity, the threat of disloyalty, sedition, and Irish-style agitation began to loom over the government. 

 

•    The Indian National Congress (INC) was the first organised expression of the Indian National Movement on a pan-India scale, having been founded in December 1885. It did, however, have a long line of predecessors.

 

Before the Indian National Congress, the following important public organisations existed:

 

a.    The Landholders' Society, founded in 1837, was an association of landlords from Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Its goal was to advance the landlords' class interests. 

 

b.    The Bengal British Indian Society was established in 1843 to protect and promote the general public's interests. 

 

c.    The British India Association was formed in 1851 when the Landholders' Society and the Bengal British Indian Society merged.

 

d.    In 1852, the Madras Native Association and the Bombay Association were founded.

 

e.    Sayyid Ahmad Khan founded the Scientific Society, which was established in various towns across the country. 

 

All of the above-mentioned organisations were dominated by wealthy and aristocratic elements — known as prominent persons in those days and were provincial or local in nature. Members of public associations worked for administrative reform, Indian participation in the administration, and the spread of education, and sent long petitions to the British Parliament outlining Indian demands. 

 

He founded the East India Association in London in 1866 to discuss the Indian question and persuade British public officials to support Indian welfare. Later, he established Association branches in major Indian cities. 

 

•    Dadabhai Naoroji, who was born in 1825, devoted his entire life to the national movement and was soon dubbed the "Grand Old Man of India." India's first economic thinker was Dadabhai Naoroji. 

 

•    In his economic writings, he demonstrated that the British exploitation of India and the drain of its wealth were the root causes of India's poverty.

 

•    Dadabhai was elected president of the Indian National Congress three times.

 

He was a fantastic orator and writer. His superiors could not tolerate the presence of an independent-minded Indian in the ranks of the Indian Civil Service, so he was unfairly dismissed. Banerjea began his public career in 1875, giving brilliant addresses to Calcutta students on nationalist topics. 

 

1.    The Indian association: In July 1876, the younger nationalists of Bengal founded the Indian Association, led by Surendranath and Anandamohan Bose. The Indian Association set out to achieve two goals:

 

a.    Building a strong public opinion in India on political issues

 

b.    Uniting the Indian people behind a common political programme. 

 

•    The Indian Association set a low membership fee for the poorer classes in order to attract a large number of people to its banner. 

 

•    The reform of the Civil Service regulations, as well as the raising of the age limit for its examination, was the first major issue raised by the Indian Association for agitation. 

 

•    During 1877-1878, Surendranath Banerjea toured different parts of the country in an attempt to create a pan-India public opinion on this issue. 

 

•    The Indian Association also campaigned against the Arms Act and the Vernacular Press Act, as well as for the protection of tenants from landlord oppression. 

 

•    From 1883 to 1885, the Indian Association organised thousands of peasant demonstrations in order to change the Rent Bill in favour of the tenants. 

 

•    The Indian Association campaigned for better working conditions for English-owned tea plantation workers. 

 

•    The Indian Association established many branches in Bengal's towns and villages, as well as in other states.

 

2.    The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha: It founded by Justice Ranade and others in the 1870s, was another important public organisation. Under the direction of Justice Ranade, the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha published a quarterly journal. This journal became the new India's intellectual guide, particularly on economic issues. These groups were primarily concerned with critiquing important administrative and legislative actions.

 

3.    The Madras Mahajan Sabha and the Bombay Presidency Association were founded in 1881 and 1885, respectively. 

 

4.    The Indian Association of Calcutta was the most powerful pre-Congress nationalist organisation. 

 

•    O. Hume, a retired English civil servant, and prominent Indian leaders founded the "Indian National Congress," an all-India organisation.

 

•    The Indian National Congress held its first session in Bombay in December 1885. W. C. Bonnerjee presided over the meeting, which was attended by 72 delegates.

 

 

1.    Promotion of friendly relations among nationalist political workers in various parts of the country

 

2.    The development and consolidation of a sense of national unity among all citizens, regardless of caste, religion, or province

 

3.    Formulation and presentation of popular demands to the government

 

4.    Public opinion training and organisation in the country.

 

•    One of Hume's main goals in assisting in the formation of the National Congress was to provide an outlet—or a "safety valve"—for growing popular discontent with British rule.

 

• In 1879, a clerk in the commissariat department named Wasudeo Balwant Phadke gathered a band of Ramoshi peasants and launched an armed uprising in Maharashtra. Despite the fact that this clumsy and ill-prepared attempt was easily defeated, it served as a foreshadowing of events to come. 

 

• Hume, along with other English officials and statesmen, was concerned that educated Indians would lead the masses and organise a powerful rebellion against the foreign government. “A safety valve for the escape of great and growing forces generated by our own action was urgently required,” as Hume put it. 

 

• Hume believed that the National Congress would provide a peaceful and constitutional outlet for the discontent of educated Indians, thereby preventing a popular uprising. The National Congress embodied the desire of politically aware Indians to form a national organisation dedicated to their political and economic advancement. 

 

• In any case, the Indian leaders who aided Hume in founding the National Congress were patriotic men of high character who gladly accepted Hume's assistance because they did not want to arouse official hostility to their efforts at such a young stage of political activity. 

 

• Bengali leaders Surendranath Banerjea and others were unable to attend the first session of the National Congress because they were preparing for the Second National Conference in Calcutta. They joined forces with the National Congress, which held its second session in Calcutta in December 1886 under the presidency of Dadabhai Naoroji. 

 

• Beginning with the Calcutta session, the National Congress was dubbed "the Congress of the Whole Country." Its 436 delegates were chosen by a variety of local organisations and groups. Every year in December, the National Congress convened in a different part of the country. 

 

• The number of delegates quickly grew to tens of thousands. Lawyers, journalists, traders, industrialists, teachers, and landlords made up the majority of the delegates. 

 

• In 1890, Kadambini Ganguli, the first woman to graduate from Calcutta University, gave a speech to the Congress. This was symbolic of India's struggle for independence, which would lift Indian women out of the degraded position to which they had been relegated for centuries. 

 

• Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, P. Ananda Charlu, Surendranath Banerjea, Ramesh Chandra Dutt, Ananda Mohan Bose, and Gopal Krishna Gokhale were some of the great presidents of the National Congress during its early years.