History
National Movement: 1885 to 1919
Founding of the Indian National Congress
Founding of the Congress for CGPSC: pre-1885 associations, Ilbert Bill, A.O. Hume, the 1885 Bombay session, the safety-valve debate and sessions to 1919.
Prerequisites
- Socio-Religious Reform Movements — the English-educated middle class created by the reform era formed the Congress
- The Revolt of 1857 — why the next challenge to British rule took a constitutional, middle-class form
- Constitutional Development — the councils the early Congress wanted to enlarge
The Hook: A Session That Changed Venue
Connect
In December 1885 a meeting planned for Poona moved to Bombay at the last moment because of a cholera outbreak in Poona. Seventy-two men from across British India met in a Sanskrit college hall and called themselves the Indian National Congress. Six years later the Congress met at Nagpur, the capital of the Central Provinces, the province that then included Chhattisgarh.
Why did lawyers, journalists and teachers from Madras, Bombay and Calcutta decide in 1885 that they needed one all-India body? And was it, as a famous theory claims, a British “safety valve”?
Why it matters: Prelims tests the first session (date, place, president, number of delegates), the pre-Congress associations, and session-president pairs. Mains asks you to evaluate the safety-valve theory and the nature of early nationalism.
Why Nationalism Emerged
Historians usually list these factors behind the rise of organised nationalism after 1857:
| Factor | How it worked |
|---|---|
| Political and administrative unification | One administration, one legal system and one army from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin made “India” a political unit |
| Western education and English | Created a common language and an educated class that read Locke, Mill and the history of European nationalism |
| Railways, telegraph, post | Leaders and ideas could travel across the country |
| Press and literature | Indian-owned newspapers in English and the regional languages criticised policy daily |
| Economic critique | Writers showed how colonial rule drained wealth and ruined crafts (developed fully by the Moderates) |
| Rediscovery of India’s past | Orientalist scholarship and the reform movements restored self-confidence |
| Racial arrogance and reactionary policies of Lytton (1876–80) | Vernacular Press Act and Arms Act (1878); the lavish Delhi Durbar of 1877 held during a famine; reduction of the maximum age for the ICS examination |
| Ilbert Bill controversy (1883) | Under Lord Ripon, the bill proposed letting Indian judges try Europeans in certain cases. European opposition forced a compromise. Indians learnt that organised agitation works, and that they needed their own all-India organisation |
Pre-Congress Associations
The Congress did not appear from nowhere. Regional associations had already practised petitioning and public meetings.
| Year | Association | Place | Founder / leading figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1838 | Landholders’ Society (Zamindari Association) | Calcutta | Dwarkanath Tagore and others; landlords’ interests |
| 1851 | British Indian Association | Calcutta | Merger of the Landholders’ Society and the Bengal British India Society |
| 1866 | East India Association | London | Dadabhai Naoroji; to influence British opinion |
| 1870 | Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (पूना सार्वजनिक सभा) | Poona | Associated with M.G. Ranade |
| 1875 | Indian League | Calcutta | Sisir Kumar Ghosh |
| 1876 | Indian Association (Indian Association of Calcutta) | Calcutta | Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose |
| 1884 | Madras Mahajan Sabha | Madras | M. Viraraghavachari, G. Subramania Iyer, P. Ananda Charlu |
| 1885 | Bombay Presidency Association | Bombay | Pherozeshah Mehta, K.T. Telang, Badruddin Tyabji |
The Indian Association: the strongest forerunner
The Indian Association (1876) campaigned against the lowering of the ICS age limit and organised an all-India agitation on it. It also held an Indian National Conference in Calcutta in 1883 and again in 1885. The second conference met in the same month as the Congress, and the two streams merged in 1886. This is why some historians see Surendranath Banerjea as a co-founder of the all-India movement in spirit, even though he did not attend the 1885 session.
The First Session, 1885
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dates | 28–31 December 1885 |
| Venue | Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay (moved from Poona because of cholera) |
| President | Womesh Chunder (W.C.) Bonnerjee (व्योमेश चंद्र बनर्जी), Calcutta barrister |
| Delegates | 72 |
| Organiser | Allan Octavian Hume (ए.ओ. ह्यूम), a retired British ICS officer, who became the first General Secretary |
| Name | Hume’s earlier plan spoke of an “Indian National Union”; the name “Indian National Congress” was adopted at the session (credited to Dadabhai Naoroji in many accounts) |
| Viceroy | Lord Dufferin (1884–88) |
Aims stated at the founding (as summarised in standard texts): to promote friendly relations among nationalist workers from different regions; to develop a feeling of national unity irrespective of caste, religion or province; to formulate popular demands and present them to the government; to train and organise public opinion.
The first session passed nine resolutions, among them a demand for a Royal Commission to enquire into Indian administration, abolition of the India Council of the Secretary of State, expansion of the legislative councils with elected members, and simultaneous ICS examinations in England and India.
The Safety-Valve Debate
The theory
The safety-valve theory (सेफ्टी वाल्व सिद्धांत) says that Hume founded the Congress, with the blessings of Lord Dufferin, to provide a harmless outlet for growing Indian discontent and so prevent another 1857.
- It rests largely on William Wedderburn’s biography of Hume (1913), which said Hume had seen secret reports of brewing unrest.
- Lala Lajpat Rai used it in Young India (1916) to attack the Moderates: the Congress, he argued, was a product of British design.
- Later, some Marxist and conservative writers used it for opposite reasons.
The criticism
| Argument | Point |
|---|---|
| The “secret reports” | Historians who searched could not find the volumes Wedderburn described |
| Dufferin’s own attitude | Dufferin soon turned hostile. In 1888 he called the Congress a “microscopic minority” |
| Indian initiative | Associations, conferences and press campaigns had been building for decades. The leaders were already looking for an all-India platform |
| “Lightning conductor” view | Bipan Chandra argued that Indian leaders used Hume as a lightning conductor: a retired Englishman at the helm would reduce official suspicion of a new political body. If Hume wanted a safety valve, the Indians wanted a lightning conductor |
Mains line
The Congress was the culmination of Indian political awakening, not a British invention. Hume’s role was real, but as a facilitator. The leaders used him to win official tolerance in the early years.
Landmark Sessions, 1885–1919
| Year | Venue | President | Why remember it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1885 | Bombay | W.C. Bonnerjee | First session; 72 delegates |
| 1886 | Calcutta | Dadabhai Naoroji | Merger with the National Conference stream |
| 1887 | Madras | Badruddin Tyabji | First Muslim president |
| 1888 | Allahabad | George Yule | First English president |
| 1891 | Nagpur | P. Ananda Charlu | Session in the Central Provinces; Chhattisgarh was part of this province |
| 1896 | Calcutta | Rahimtulla M. Sayani | Vande Mataram sung at a Congress session (by Rabindranath Tagore) |
| 1905 | Benares | G.K. Gokhale | Supported the anti-partition and swadeshi movement in Bengal |
| 1906 | Calcutta | Dadabhai Naoroji | Swaraj declared the goal; resolutions on swadeshi, boycott and national education |
| 1907 | Surat | Rash Behari Ghosh | Split between Moderates and Extremists |
| 1911 | Calcutta | B.N. Dhar | Jana Gana Mana first sung (27 December 1911) |
| 1916 | Lucknow | A.C. Mazumdar | Reunion of Moderates and Extremists; Lucknow Pact with the Muslim League |
| 1917 | Calcutta | Annie Besant | First woman president |
Chhattisgarh angle: the Central Provinces
From 1862 the Chhattisgarh region formed a division of the Central Provinces, administered from Nagpur. Nationalist politics reached the region through this provincial capital: Congress workers from Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg were part of the Central Provinces political network, and the 1891 Nagpur session was held in their own province. The mass phase in Chhattisgarh came later, from 1920 (Kandel satyagraha, Gandhi’s visit). See Freedom Movement in Chhattisgarh and British Rule, Princely States and Zamindaris.
Memory Tricks
First session: 28-72-B-B
28 December · 72 delegates · Bombay · Bonnerjee. “Two-Eight, Seven-Two, Bombay Bonnerjee.”
First Muslim, first English, first woman
T-Y-B in order of years: Tyabji (1887) → Yule (1888) → Besant (1917). Then Naidu (1925) is the first Indian woman.
Associations ladder
“Land, British, East, Poona, Indian”: Landholders’ Society 1838 → British Indian Association 1851 → East India Association 1866 → Poona Sarvajanik Sabha 1870 → Indian Association 1876.
Don’t Confuse
| This | vs | That |
|---|---|---|
| British Indian Association (1851, Calcutta, landlords) | vs | Indian Association (1876, Calcutta, Surendranath, middle class) |
| East India Association (1866, London, Naoroji) | vs | East India Company (trading company, 1600) |
| Safety-valve (Wedderburn, Lajpat Rai used it) | vs | Lightning conductor (Bipan Chandra’s reply) |
| Annie Besant — first woman president (1917) | vs | Sarojini Naidu — first Indian woman president (1925) |
| Dufferin — Viceroy when the Congress was founded | vs | Ripon — Viceroy of the Ilbert Bill (1883) |
Common Mistakes
MCQ traps
- “The first session was held at Poona.” It was planned for Poona but held at Bombay.
- “Surendranath Banerjea presided over the first session.” He did not even attend. He was busy with the Indian National Conference in Calcutta. The president was W.C. Bonnerjee.
- “A.O. Hume was the first president.” Hume was the founder-organiser and General Secretary, not president.
- “Lala Lajpat Rai proposed the safety-valve theory.” The theory goes back to Wedderburn’s biography of Hume (1913). Lajpat Rai used it in 1916.
- “The East India Association was in Calcutta.” It was in London.
Practice
All questions below are original practice questions written in CGPSC style. They are not previous-year questions.
Level 1: Foundation
- The first session of the Indian National Congress was presided over by ______ and attended by ______ delegates.
- Who founded the East India Association, and where?
- Who was the first Muslim president of the Congress?
Answers
- W.C. Bonnerjee; 72 delegates.
- Dadabhai Naoroji, in London (1866).
- Badruddin Tyabji (Madras, 1887).
Level 2: Prelims MCQs
Q1. Consider the following statements about the founding of the Indian National Congress:
- The first session was originally planned to be held at Poona.
- Lord Ripon was the Viceroy when the first session was held.
- A.O. Hume was a retired officer of the Indian Civil Service.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 1 and 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer and explanation
(b) 1 and 3 only. The session moved from Poona to Bombay because of cholera. Hume was a retired ICS officer. Statement 2 is wrong: Lord Dufferin was Viceroy in December 1885. Ripon (Ilbert Bill, 1883) had left in 1884.
Q2. Match List I (Association) with List II (Founder or leading figure):
| List I | List II |
|---|---|
| A. Indian Association (1876) | 1. Dadabhai Naoroji |
| B. East India Association (1866) | 2. Surendranath Banerjea |
| C. Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (1870) | 3. Pherozeshah Mehta |
| D. Bombay Presidency Association (1885) | 4. M.G. Ranade |
- (a) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
- (b) A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
- (c) A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4
- (d) A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3
Answer and explanation
(a) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3. Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose founded the Indian Association. Naoroji founded the East India Association in London. Ranade was the guiding figure of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha. Pherozeshah Mehta, K.T. Telang and Badruddin Tyabji led the Bombay Presidency Association.
Q3. The “lightning conductor” interpretation of the founding of the Congress is associated with:
- (a) William Wedderburn
- (b) Lala Lajpat Rai
- (c) Bipan Chandra
- (d) Lord Dufferin
Answer and explanation
(c) Bipan Chandra. He argued that Indian leaders used Hume as a lightning conductor to protect a new political organisation from official hostility. Wedderburn’s biography of Hume is the source of the safety-valve view, which Lajpat Rai used against the Moderates. Dufferin later dismissed the Congress as a “microscopic minority”.
Q4. Which one of the following Congress sessions was held in the Central Provinces, the province that then included the Chhattisgarh region?
- (a) Allahabad, 1888
- (b) Lahore, 1893
- (c) Benares, 1905
- (d) Nagpur, 1891
Answer and explanation
(d) Nagpur, 1891, presided over by P. Ananda Charlu. Nagpur was the capital of the Central Provinces. Allahabad and Benares were in the North-Western Provinces (later the United Provinces), and Lahore was in Punjab.
Q5. Arrange in chronological order: 1. Indian Association 2. British Indian Association 3. Madras Mahajan Sabha 4. East India Association
- (a) 2, 4, 1, 3
- (b) 4, 2, 1, 3
- (c) 2, 1, 4, 3
- (d) 2, 4, 3, 1
Answer and explanation
(a) 2, 4, 1, 3. British Indian Association 1851 → East India Association 1866 → Indian Association 1876 → Madras Mahajan Sabha 1884.
Level 3: Mains Answer Writing
Q1. (150–200 words) “The Indian National Congress was the product of the safety-valve designed by A.O. Hume.” Critically examine.
Model answer outline
- Intro: The INC was founded at Bombay in December 1885, with A.O. Hume as organiser and W.C. Bonnerjee as president. The safety-valve theory claims it was a British device to channel discontent.
- Case for the theory: Hume’s role and contacts with Dufferin; Wedderburn’s biography (1913) speaking of secret reports of unrest; early loyalist tone of the Congress.
- Case against:
- The reports Wedderburn cited have not been traced by historians.
- A chain of associations (1838–1885) and the Indian National Conference (1883, 1885) show strong Indian initiative.
- The Ilbert Bill agitation (1883) had already shown the need for all-India organisation.
- Dufferin turned hostile (“microscopic minority”, 1888), which a planned safety valve would not provoke.
- Bipan Chandra’s “lightning conductor”: Indians used Hume to avoid official suspicion.
- Regional note: The Congress soon took root in the provinces. It met at Nagpur in 1891, the capital of the Central Provinces that included Chhattisgarh.
- Conclusion: The Congress was the culmination of a maturing Indian political consciousness. Hume was a facilitator, not the architect.
Q2. (60 words) What was the significance of the Ilbert Bill controversy for Indian nationalism?
Model answer outline
- Under Ripon (1883), the bill let Indian judges try Europeans; the European community’s organised opposition forced a compromise.
- It exposed racial privilege at the heart of British rule.
- It showed educated Indians the power of organised, country-wide agitation, and it hastened the formation of an all-India body in 1885.
Quick Revision Table
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First session | 28–31 Dec 1885, Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay; 72 delegates |
| President / organiser | W.C. Bonnerjee / A.O. Hume (General Secretary) |
| Viceroy in 1885 | Lord Dufferin |
| Ilbert Bill | 1883, Lord Ripon |
| Indian Association | 1876, Surendranath Banerjea, Ananda Mohan Bose |
| East India Association | 1866, London, Dadabhai Naoroji |
| Safety-valve | Wedderburn’s Hume (1913); used by Lajpat Rai (1916) |
| Lightning conductor | Bipan Chandra |
| First Muslim / English / woman president | Tyabji 1887 / Yule 1888 / Besant 1917 |
| Nagpur session | 1891, P. Ananda Charlu (Central Provinces) |
| Swaraj declared | Calcutta 1906, Dadabhai Naoroji |
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- Organised nationalism grew from unification, Western education, the press, economic critique and resentment of Lytton’s policies and the Ilbert Bill episode.
- Regional associations from 1838 to 1885 prepared the ground. The Indian Association (1876) was the most important forerunner.
- The first session met at Bombay, 28 December 1885, with 72 delegates, under W.C. Bonnerjee; A.O. Hume organised it.
- The safety-valve theory is weakly supported. The lightning-conductor view stresses Indian initiative.
- The Congress soon spread to the provinces, including the Central Provinces (Nagpur, 1891), the political home of Chhattisgarh.
What’s Next
- Moderates and Extremists — what the early Congress demanded, and why a new school challenged it
- Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi Movement
- National Movement 1885–1919 — Quick Revision
- Socio-Religious Reform Movements — the intellectual background of the founders
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