Foundation of Indian National Congress

Foundation of Indian National Congress

2020-04-27 15:14 :00

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• INC founded in 1885 by 72 political workers was the first organised expression of Indian Nationalism on an all India scale. AO Hume played an imp role in its foundation.
• First session of the Indian National Congress at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College.
• Presided by WC Bonnerji.
• Tried to eliminate regional diff.
• Dev consolidation of sentiments of national unity.

The Nationalist Demands of the time Were (Not Necessarily INC demands)

• No reduction of import duties on textile import.
• No expansion in Burma and Afghanistan.
• Right to bear arms.
• High expenditure on famine relief.
• Reduction of military expenditure.
• Right of Indian to join semi military volunteer corps.
• Right of Indian judges to try Europeans in criminal cases.
• Appeal to British voters to vote for a party which would listen to Indians.

Other Pre INC Political Agitations

• Indianisation of the Govt
• Against Vernacular Press Act
• Against Plantation Labour and Inland Emigration Act 1881-82
• In favour of Ilbert Bill 1883

Problems with other Political Associations pre INC

• British Indian Association of Bengal had increasingly identified itself with the interests of the zamindars and, thus, gradually lost its anti-British edge
• The Bombay Association and Madras Native Association had become reactionary and moribund.

Other Associations

• M. Viraraghavachariar, G. Subramaniya Iyer, P. Ananda Charlu and others --- formed the Madras Mahajan Sabha in 1884.
• In Bombay, the more militant intellectuals like K.T. Telang and Pherozeshah Mehta broke away from older leaders like Dadabhai Framji and Dinshaw Petit on political grounds and formed the Bombay Presidency Association in 1885.
• All these agitations and association had failed because a concerted all India effort was missing whereas the Europeans were together in all their political agitations.
• Dadabhai Naoroji (1904), Gopal Krishna Gokhale(1905) and Lokmanya Tilak (1906) demanded self-government on the lines of the self-governing colonies of Canada and Australia.