Indian National Congress

Foundation of Indian National Congress

• Final shape to this idea was given by a retired English civil servant, A.O. Hume.
• First session of the Indian National Congress at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay in December 1885.
• Surendranath Banerjea & Ananda Mohan Bose main architects of the Indian National Conference.
• 72 delegates and presided over by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee.
• Presidents - Dadabhai Naoroji (thrice president), Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozshah Mehta, P. Anandacharlu, Surendranath Banerjea, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Ananda Mohan Bose and Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
• Other prominent leaders - Mahadeo Govind Ranade, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sisir Kumar Ghosh, Motilal Ghosh, Madan Mohan Malaviya, G. Subramaniya Aiyar, C. Vijayaraghavachariar, Dinshaw E. Wacha.
• 1890, Kadambini Ganguly, the first woman graduate of Calcutta University, addressed the Congress session.
• Nationalist activity was carried out through provincial conferences and associations, newspapers and literature.

Foundational theories of INC and prominent believers:

• Safety Valve Theory
• Hume formed the Congress, ‘safety valve’ for releasing the growing discontent of the Indians.
• Convinced Lord Dufferin not to obstruct the formation of the Congress.
• Lala Lajpat Rai believe in it.
• National body to express the political and economic demands of the Indians.
• Conspiracy Theory - R.P. Dutt
• Lightning conductor Theory - G.K. Gokhale
• Important leaders of Moderate Phase: Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, P. Ananda Charlu, Surendranath Banerjea, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Ananda Mohan Bose, G.K. Gokhale, etc.

Aims and Objectives of the Congress

1. Found a democratic, nationalist movement;
2. Politicise and politically educate people;
3. Establish the headquarters for a movement;
4. Promote friendly relations among nationalist political workers from different parts of the country;
5. Develop and propagate an anti-colonial nationalist ideology;
6. Formulate and present popular demands before the government with a view to unifying the people over a common economic and political programme;
7. Develop and consolidate a feeling of national unity among people irrespective of religion, caste or province.
8. Carefully promote and nurture Indian nationhood.

Era of Moderates (1885-1905)

• Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozshah Mehta, D.E. Wacha, W.C. Bonnerjea, S.N. Banerjea who dominated the Congress policies during the early period (1885-1905) believers in 'liberalism' and 'moderate' distinguish them from the neo-nationalists, early 20th century who were referred to as the Extremists.

Moderate Approach

• Slow but orderly political progress.
• Public opinion could be created in the country and public demands be presented to the government through resolutions, petitions, meetings, etc.,
• Worked on a two-pronged methodology
1. Create a strong public opinion to arouse consciousness and national spirit and then educate and unite people on common political questions.
2. Persuade the British Government and British public opinion to introduce reforms in India on the lines laid out by the nationalists.
• British committee of the Indian National Congress was established in London in 1889.
• Moderate leaders try and transform the colonial rule to be as close to a national rule as possible.

Contributions of Moderate Nationalists

Economic Critique of British Imperialism

• Led to Dadabhai Naoroji, R.C. Dutt, Dinshaw Wacha and others, put forward the “drain theory” to explain British exploitation of India.
• British rule in India was the major cause of India’s poverty and economic backwardness.
• early nationalists demanded severance of India’s economic subservience to Britain and development of an independent economy through involvement of Indian capital and enterprise.
• Also demand reduction in land revenue, abolition of salt tax, improvement in working conditions of plantation labour, reduction in military expenditure, and encouragement to modern industry through tariff protection and direct government aid.

Constitutional Reforms and Propaganda in Legislature

• Imperial Legislative Council constituted by the Indian Councils Act (1861).
• 1885 to 1892, nationalist demands for constitutional reforms.
1. Expansion of councils. i.e. greater participation.
2. Reform of councils, i.e. powers to councils especially greater control over finances.
• Early nationalists, long term objective of a democratic self-government.
• Demands for constitutional reforms, so Indian Council Act 1892 enacted.
• Now, they demanded
1. A majority of elected Indians, and
2. Control over the budget, i.e., the power to vote upon and amend the budget.
• They gave the slogan - “No taxation without representation”.
• Constitutional demands was widened. Dadabhai Naoroji (1904), Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1905) and Lokmanya Tilak (1906).
• Lines of the self-governing colonies of Canada and Australia.
• Nationalists were able to transform these councils into forums for ventilating popular grievances, for exposing the defects of an indifferent bureaucracy, for criticising government policies/proposals, raising basic economic issues, especially regarding public finance.
• Nationalists failed to widen the democratic base of the movement by not including the masses, especially women, and not demanding the right to vote for all.

Campaign for General Administrative Reforms

• Indianisation of government service:
• Economic grounds: British civil servants got very high emoluments.
• Political grounds: salaries of British bureaucrats were remitted back home and pensions paid in England.
• Moral grounds: Indian discriminated against positions of trust and responsibility.
• Call for separation of judicial from executive functions.
• Criticism of oppressive and tyrannical bureaucracy and an expensive and time-consuming judicial system.
• Criticism of an aggressive foreign policy - annexation of Burma, attack on Afghanistan & suppression of tribals in the North-West.
• Call for increase in expenditure on welfare.
• Demand better treatment for Indian labour abroad in other British colonies.

Protection of Civil Rights

• Right to speech, thought, association nd a free press.
• Civil rights became an integral part of the freedom struggle.
• Arrest of Tilak and several other leaders and journalists in 1897 and at the arrest and deportation of the Natu brothers without a trial.

An Evaluation of the Early Nationalists

Deal to awaken the national sentiment.

• Represented the most progressive forces.
• Able to create a wide national awakening of all Indians.
• Trained people in political work and popularised modern ideas.
• Exposed the basically exploitative character of colonial rule.
• Political work was based on hard realities, not on sentiments, religion.
• Establish the basic political truth, India should be ruled in the interest of Indians.
• Created a solid base for a more vigorous, militant, mass-based national movement in the years.
• Failed to widen their democratic base and the scope of their demands.

Role of Masses

• Narrow social base and the masses played a passive role.
• Lack of mass participation, the Moderates could not take militant political positions against the authorities.
• Later nationalists differed from the Moderates precisely on this point.

Attitude of the Government

• Government failed to persuade the Congress to confine itself to social issues when the Congress was becoming increasingly critical of the colonial rule.
• Calling the nationalists “seditious brahmins”, “disloyal babus”.
• Government adopted a ‘divide and rule’ policy towards the Congress.
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Raja Shiv Prasad Singh of Benaras to organise the United Indian Patriotic Association to counter Congress propaganda.
• DIvide the nationalists on the basis of religion.
• Moderates against the Extremists, but government failed to check the rising tide of nationalism.