THE BIRTH OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
THE BIRTH OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
- The First session of congress which was held in Dec, 1885 in Bombay was preceded by two sessions of Indian National Conference in 1883 and 1885.
- These two sessions were organised by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose.
- It drew leaders from all the presidencies and served as a precursor to Indian National Congress.
- The first session of congress was presided by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee and it was attended by 72 delegates.
- The Indian National Congress met every year in Dec. It was led by a leadership which believed in moderation hence known as moderates.
- This leadership was western educated and therefore believed in peaceful ways of petition and representation.
- They had faith in higher echelons of British administration. However, participation of masses was still a distant dream.
- Nevertheless, they were not parochial like earlier leaders who demanded reforms benefitting only a particular section of society (mainly landholding upper caste aristocracy).
- Hereafter, the prominence of moderates gradually declined and this gave rise to another group within congress, known as ‘extremists’.
- The work of congress was supplemented by other provincial and local organisations apart from newspapers, journals and public meetings. THE BIRTH OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
- In 1890, Kadambini Ganguly, the first woman graduate of Calcutta University, addressed the congress session which was held in Calcutta and presided by Pherozeshah Mehta.
- This highlighted the need of bringing women into the mainstream national politics.
OBJECTIVES OF THE CONGRESS
The Indian National Congress was formed to –
- Raise awareness among people regarding political questions and inculcate a spirit of nationalism among them
- Provide a meeting ground for exchange of ideas among different provincial groups
- Draft and petition government to introduce popular reforms
- Provide a platform to foster greater unity among different people irrespective of caste, region, language, or religion. THE BIRTH OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
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