INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS NOTES

ndian National Congress, byname Congress Party,  broadly based political party of India. Formed in 1885, the Indian National Congress dominated the Indian movement for independence from Great Britain and has formed most of India’s governments from the time of independence.

The Indian National Congress first convened in December 1885, though the idea of an Indian nationalist movement opposed to British rule dated from the 1850s. During its first several decades, the Congress passed fairly moderate reform resolutions, though many within the organization were becoming radicalized by the increased poverty that accompanied British imperialism. In the early 20th century, elements within the party began to endorse a policy of swadeshi (“of our own country”), which called for the boycott of imported British goods and the promotion of Indian-made goods. By 1917 the group’s “extremist” Home Rule wing, which was formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant the previous year, had begun to exert significant influence by appealing to India’s diverse social classes.

In the 1920s and ’30s the Congress, led by Mohandas Gandhi, promoted nonviolent noncooperation to protest the perceived feebleness of the constitutional reforms of 1919 and Britain’s manner of carrying them out. Much of this civil disobedience was implemented through the All India Congress Committee, formed in 1929, which advocated tax avoidance to protest British rule. Another wing of the Congress Party, which believed in working within the existing system, contested general elections in 1923 and 1937 as the Swaraj (Home Rule) Party, with particular success in the latter year, winning 7 out of 11 provinces.

When World War II began in 1939, Britain made India a belligerent without consulting Indian elected councils. This angered Indian officials and prompted the Congress to declare that India would not support the war effort until it had been granted complete independence. In 1942 the organization sponsored mass civil disobedience to support the demand that the British “quit India.” British authorities responded by imprisoning the entire Congress Party leadership, including Gandhi, and many remained in jail until 1945. After the war the British government of Clement Attleepassed an independence bill (1947), and in January 1950 India’s constitution as an independent state took effect.

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 1885-1947

Year	Place	President
1885	Bombay	W.C. Bannerji
1886	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji
1887	Madras	Syed Badruddin Tyabji
1888	Allahabad	George Yule First English president
1889	Bombay	Sir William
1890	Calcutta	Sir Pherozeshah Mehta
1891	Nagupur	P. Anandacharlu
1892	Allahabad	W C Bannerji
1893	Lahore	Dadabhai Naoroji
1894	Madras	Alfred Webb
1895	Poona	Surendranath Banerji
1896	Calcutta	M Rahimtullah Sayani
1897	Amraoti	C Sankaran Nair
1898	Madras	Anandamohan Bose
1899	Lucknow	Romesh Chandra Dutt
1900	Lahore	N G Chandravarkar
1901	Calcutta	E Dinsha Wacha
1902	Ahmedabad	Surendranath Banerji
1903	Madras	Lalmohan Ghosh
1904	Bombay	Sir Henry Cotton
1905	Banaras	G K Gokhale
1906	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji
1907	Surat	Rashbehari Ghosh
1908	Madras	Rashbehari Ghosh
1909	Lahore	Madanmohan Malaviya
1910	Allahabad	Sir William Wedderburn
1911	Calcutta	Bishan Narayan Dhar
1912	Patna	R N Mudhalkar
1913	Karachi	Syed Mahomed Bahadur
1914	Madras	Bhupendranath Bose
1915	Bombay	Sir S P Sinha
1916	Lucknow	A C Majumdar
1917	Calcutta	Mrs. Annie Besant
1918	Bombay	Syed Hassan Imam
1918	Delhi	Madanmohan Malaviya
1919	Amritsar	Motilal Nehru
1920	Calcutta	Lala Lajpat Rai
1920	Nagpur	C Vijaya Raghavachariyar
1921	Ahmedabad	Hakim Ajmal Khan
1922	Gaya	C R Das
1923	Delhi	Abul Kalam Azad
1923	Coconada	Maulana Muhammad Ali
1924	Belgaon	Mahatma Gandhi
1925	Cawnpore	Mrs.Sarojini Naidu
1926	Guwahati	Srinivas Ayanagar
1927	Madras	M A Ansari
1928	Calcutta	Motilal Nehru
1929	Lahore	Jawaharlal Nehru
1930	No session	J L Nehru continued
1931	Karachi	Vallabhbhai Patel
1932	Delhi	R D Amritlal
1933	Calcutta	Mrs. Nellie Sengupta
1934	Bombay	Rajendra Prasad
1935	No session	R Prasad continued
1936	Lucknow	Jawahar lal Nehru
1937	Faizpur	Jawahar lal Nehru
1938	Haripura	Subhas Chandra Bose
1939	Tripura	Subhas Chandra Bose
1940	Ramgarh	Abul Kalam Azad
1941-45	No session	Azad continued
1946	Meerut	J B Kripalani