KAS -MODERN INDIA TALENT ACADEMY MODERN INDIA | MODULE 2 INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS FORMATION OF INC The Indian National Congress was formed at a national convention held at Bombay in December 1885. A.O. Hume, a former British civil servant and a political liberal is considered as the founder of INC. He toured across India, met various political leaders and persuaded them to meet at this national conference. He is also known as the father of Indian National Congress. Initially, it was decided to meet at Poona and Poona Sarvajanik Sabha offered to host this event. But because of a plague outbreak, venue was shifted from Pune to Bombay. The first session of INC was held from December 28 to 31, at Gokul Das Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay. It was attended by 72 delegates from different parts of the country. Prominent among them were: A.O.Hume (Simla), Dadabhai Naoroji, K.T.Telang, Pherozeshah Mehta, D.E. Wacha, B.M.Malabari, N. G. Chandavarkar (from Bombay), G.G.Agarkar, W.S. Apta (from Poona), W.C.Bonnerjee, Narendra Nath Sen (from Calcutta), G.Subrahmaniya Iyer, M. Viraraghavachariar, P.R. Naidu (from Madras) etc. Majority of them from Bombay. A.O. Hume was the first person to address this session. Dadabhai Naoroji suggested the name „Congress‟ for this organization, which he adopted from North American history. They decided to hold congress session in every year at different parts of the country and to choose a president to lead the organization for a year. The president should be from a region other than the one where the session was being held. W.C. Bonnerjee, a barrister from Calcutta became the first president of Congress. A.O. Hume served as the General Secretary of Congress till he left for England in 1894. The major objectives of Congress, as listed by W.C. Bonnerjee were: o Promoting personal relationship among the leaders of the country by eradicating all kinds of prejudices – based on race, creed or provincial o Fuller development and consolidation of sentiments of national unity o To lay down the future course of political action 1 KAS - MODERN INDIA TALENT ACADEMY Total nine resolutions were presented in the first session of INC, and the first Resolution demanding the appointment of Royal Commission for India was presented by G. Subrahmaniya Iyer. The President made it clear that Congress was not going to be “the nest of conspirators and disloyalists”; they were “thoroughly loyal and consistent well wishers of British empire.” The main demand raised by the congress can be summarized as this: “the basis of the government should be widened and the (Indian) people should have their proper and legitimate share in it.” Important Persons at the time of Congress Formation British Monarch : Queen Victoria British Prime Minister : Lord Salisbury Viceroy of India : Lord Dufferin Governor of Bombay : Lord Reay ALLAN OCTAVIAN HUME Allan Octavian Hume was born in 1829 at Scotland, Britain. He arrived in India in 1849 to serve in the Bengal Civil Service. He was the administrator of Ittawah during the revolt of 1857. His concerns about the attitudes of the British began after the Great Revolt of 1857 when many of the promises made to India by Queen Victoria‟s Government were not kept or only half-heartedly implemented. He wrote a book called Awakening that predicted an even bloodier uprising if ways were not found to give India self-government. He later became the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce Department, in 1870s but removed from that post because of his criticisms of the Government. Hume retired from the civil service in 1882. In 1883 he wrote an open letter to the graduates of Calcutta University, calling upon them to form their own national political movement. In that letter he said: “if even fifty men could be not found with sufficient power to sacrifice and willing to devote rest of their lives, then there was no hope for India”. A.O. Hume addressed a Theosophical Society Convention in Madras in 1884. It is said that seed for the founding of Congress was sown at this convention. After the convention, 17 men met at the house of Dewan Bahadur Raghunatha Rao in Mylapore to chart out a plan for the formation of an Indian political movement to speak for the people of India. They are known as Mylapore 17. In the same year, he founded an organisation called Indian National Union. One year later, it became Indian National Congress. Indian National Union is also known as Predecessor of INC or the first name of INC. Page | 2 KAS - MODERN INDIA TALENT ACADEMY A.O. Hume was a renowned ornithologist. Hume wrote extensively over the birds in Indian subcontinent. He started the quarterly journal Stray Feathers, the first journal of ornithology in India. Because of his vast contributions, he is known as „father of Indian ornithology‟ and „Pope of South Asian ornithology‟. He also founded a local vernacular newspaper, 'Lokmitra‟. His books include: My Scrap Book, List of the Birds of India, The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds , Game Birds of India, Burmah and Ceylon , Agricultural Reform in India, Stray Feathers (11-volumes) He wrote a poem titled An Old Man’s Hope in 1886. It was republished in Annie Besant‟s New India newspaper during Home Rule Movement. The starting lines are: “Sons of Ind, why sit ye idle, Wait ye for some Deva's aid? Buckle to, be up and doing! Nations by themselves are made!” INDIAN ASSOCIATION AND INDIAN NATIONAL CONFERENCE Indian Association was established under the leadership of Surendra Nath Banerjee and Anand Mohan Bose in 1876. They actively attempted to form a strong public opinion against the unjust policies of the British Government The Indian Association organised All-India National Conferences twice in 1883 and 1885, both at Calcutta. Since the second Indian National Conference was being held at Calcutta during the same period when the first Congress session was meeting in Bombay (1885 December), Surendra Nath Banerjee could not attend the Congress. There were only 4 delegates from Calcutta because of this. TWO THEORIES ON ORIGIN OF CONGRESS Safety Valve Theory According to Safety Valve Theory, the then Viceroy Lord Dufferin deputed a retired civil servant A.O. Hume to form a pan-Indian organization that could vent the growing frustration of the people on a platform overseeable and controllable by the government. A large number of British in India such as Sir William Wedderburn, George Yule and Charles Bradlaugh supported A O Hume in this endeavour. This theory originated from William Wedderburn‟ s biography of Hume published in 1913( Hume died in 1912). He wrote that in 1878 Hume came across seven volumes of secret reports showing discontent among the lower classes and conspiracy to overthrow British rule. Page | 3 KAS - MODERN INDIA TALENT ACADEMY He met Lord Dufferin and they together decided to form an organization with educated Indians serving as a safety valve against the popular discontent. This theory has been discarded now. The Secret Report mentioned in Wedderburn‟s book, according to historians, was a fiction constructed by the author to portray him as a British patriot. As the official correspondence reveals, Dufferin and the then Bombay Governor Lord Reay were suspicious and disapproved of the proposed meeting of Congress in 1885. Dufferin criticised Congress as representing only a microscopic minority and this statement shuns the safety valve conspiracy theory. The safety Valve theory says that INC was created by British to thwart any threat to British rule. But it is culmination of long political process rather than a random act of an individual or groups. Lightning Conductor Theory Lightning Conductor theory says that Indian leaders used A.O. Hume to escape from the suspicion and hostility of British rulers. The presence of Hume gave a legitimacy and protection to Indian Members of the Congress. In Gopalaksrishna Gokhale‟s words, ““No Indian could have started the Indian National Congress . if an Indian had . come forward to start such a movement embracing all India, the officials in India would not have allowed the movement to come into existence. If the founder of the Congress had not been a great Englishman and a distinguished ex-official, such was the distrust of political agitation in those days that the authorities would have at once found some way or the other to suppress the movement.” (1913) Safety Valve theory – Proposed by William Wedderburn in his biography of A.O. Hume, 1913 (PSC answer: Lala Lajpat Rai, in his book Young India) Lightning rod theory – Proposed by Gopalakrishna Gokhale OPINIONS ABOUT CONGRESS Holiday recreation : B.G.Tilak Begging Institute : Aurobindo Ghosh Three day Thamasha: Ashinikumar Dutt Mouthpiece of a Microscopic Minority : Lord Dufferin Congress should distinguish between begging and claiming rights: B.G.Tilak Indians could not achieve success if we croak once in a year: B.G.Tilak Congress playing with bubbles: Bipin Chandra Pal Congress is in reality a civil war without arms: Sayyed Ahmmed Khan English knowing upper class affair : Jawaharlal Nehru (on early Congress) Page | 4 KAS - MODERN INDIA TALENT ACADEMY DEMANDS OF EARLY CONGRESS Administrative reform by appointing more Indians in higher posts in civil services (Indianisation of civil services) Include Indians in Viceroy‟s executive Council. Enlarge and empower legislative council with more Indian members. Reduce Military expenditure Abolish India Council of Secretary of State for India Repeal discriminatory laws against Indians Opposition to Congress Sayyed Ahmmed Khan, an influential Muslim religious reformer opposed the participation of Muslims in the congress and given a call for a boycott of Congress.