20-02-2011 Birth of Indian National Congress

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Birth of Indian National Congress

Birth of Indian National C ongress took place in 1885. It was founded by Allan Octavian Hume Dadabhai Naoroji,
and others.

• Advent of Europeans to • European colonies in • British Empire in India

India
• Foundation of British Rule
in India
• Partition of Bengal 1905
• Maritime India
• Indo-Pak Wars
• Indian Revolutionaries
• Revolutionary Terrorist
Movement in India
• Growth of the Left
Ideologies in India
• Theosophical movement
• Ilbert Bill
• India and Second World
War
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• Sepoy Mutiny • Birth of Indian National E-Magazine on History of
C ongress India
• Socio-Religious Reform • Indian Renaissance
Movements in India
• Famines in India • Viceroys of India
• Integration of Indian • C ellular Jail
States
• Indian Nationalism • Indian Organisations
during Freedom
Struggle
• Indian Revolts • Rise of Extremism in
India
• Peasant movement and • Interim Government
uprisings in India
• Aligarh Movement • Portuguese Rule in
India
• Maharaja Ranjit Singh • Surat Split

• First phase of Foundation • Second phase of • Rise of the C ongress Left

of Indian National Foundation of Indian Wing
C ongress national C ongress

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The Indian National C ongress (also known as the C ongress and abbreviated INC ) is a
major political party in India. It is the largest and oldest democratic political party in
the world. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw
Wacha, Womesh C handra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose,
Mahadev Govind Ranade and William Wedderburn, the Indian National C ongress
became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million
members and over 70 million participants in its struggle against British rule in India.
After independence in 1947, it became the nation`s dominant political party, led by the
Nehru-Gandhi family for the most part; major challenges for party leadership have
only recently formed.

Development of Indian National Congress

The history of the Indian
National Congress falls into
two distinct eras:
The pre-independence era,
when the party was at the
forefront of the struggle for
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 20-02-2011 Birth of Indian National Congress
forefront of the struggle for
independence and was
instrumental in the whole of
India;

The post-independence era,

when the party has enjoyed a
prominent place in Indian
politics, ruling the country for 48
of the 60 years since
independence in 1947.

In
the
pre-independence era, the C ongress was divided in two
groups, moderate and activist. The moderates were more
educated and wanted to win people`s faith to lead the
nation to independence without bloodshed. The activists
however wanted to follow a revolutionary path and make it
a militant organization. By 1907 the party was split into two
halves: the Garam Dal (literally "hot faction") of Bal
Gangadhar Tilak, or Extremists, and the Naram Dal
(literally "soft faction") of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, or
Moderates, distinguished by their attitude towards the
British. Under the influence of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the
C ongress became the first integrated mass organization in
the country, bringing together millions of people against the
British. The Indian National Congress was the only
political party to provide harmony to all the sects of the Indian society.

In its time as the nation`s leader in the freedom struggle, it

produced the nation`s greatest leaders. Before the Gandhi
Era came leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin
Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna Gokhale,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (later leader of the Muslim League
and instrumental in the creation of Pakistan), all starting with
the first legendary icon of Indians: Dadabhai Naoroji, the
president of the sister Indian National Association and later
the first Indian Member of Parliament in the British House of
C ommons. The C ongress was transformed into a mass
movement by Surendranath Banerjea and Sir Henry C otton
during the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the resultant
Swadesi Movement. Gandhi came back from South Africa in
1915 and with the help of the moderate group led by
Ghokhale became the President of the C ongress and formed
an alliance with the Khilafat Movement. In protest a number of leaders went out of
C ongress. Khilafat movement ended up in a disaster and the C ongress was split. A
number of leaders C hittaranjan Das, Annie Besant, Motilal Nehru, went out of The
C ongress to set up the Swaraj Party.

With the rise of Mahatma Gandhi`s popularity and his

Satyagraha art of revolution came Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,
Jawaharlal Nehru (the nation`s first Prime Minister), Dr.
Rajendra Prasad (the nation`s first President), Khan
Mohammad Abbas Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Chakravarti
Rajgopalachari, Jivatram Kripalani and Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad. With the already existing nationalistic feeling combined with
Gandhi`s popularity the C ongress became a forceful mass
organization in the country, bringing together millions of people by
specifically working against caste differences, untouchability,
poverty, and religious and ethnic boundaries. Although
predominantly Hindu, it had members from virtually every
religion, ethnic group, economic class and linguistic group. In 1939, Subhas Chandra
Bose, the elected president in both 1938 and 1939 was expelled from the C ongress
for his socialist views and The C ongress was reduced to a pro-Business group financed
by the business houses of Birla and Bajaj. At the time of the Quit India movement,
the C ongress was undoubtedly the strongest political and revolutionary organization in
India, but the C ongress disassociated itself from the Quit India movement within a few
days. Besides the Indian National C ongress there were other political parties, like, the
Hindu Mahasabha, Azad Hind Sarkar and All India Forward Bloc.

Although predominantly Hindu, it had members from virtually every religion, ethnic
group, economic class and linguistic group. At the time of the Quit India movement,
the C ongress was undoubtedly the strongest political and revolutionary organization in
India. The Indian National C ongress could claim to be the true representative of the
Indian people. The 1929 Lahore session under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru
holds special significance as in this session Poorna Swaraj was declared as the goal of
INC . 26 January 1930 was declared as the "Poorna Swaraj Diwas". It was to
commemorate this date particularly that The Constitution of India was formally
adopted on 26 January 1950(even though it was passed on 26 November 1949).

Policies And Programmes of Indian National Congress

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 20-02-2011 Birth of Indian National Congress
Policies And Programmes of Indian National Congress
Social policy of the INC is based on Gandhian concept of Sarvodaya (upliftment of all
sections of the society.) In particular INC gives special emphasis on the welfare of the
economically and socially disadvantaged sections of the society. This includes
"affirmative action" reservations for weaker sections of the society in education and
employment, emphasis on employment generation for rural population (through
schemes such as National Rural Employment Generation Scheme) etc. The party
supports family planning with birth control but opposes elective abortion, in particular
sex selective abortions and late term abortions.

Economic policy
Traditionally, Economic policy of the INC emphasized on the
importance of the public sector aimed at establishing a
"socialistic pattern of society". However, since the economic
liberalizations initiated by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then
Finance Minister in the early 1990s, the economic policy of
INC has been changed somewhat and it is now committed to
liberalization and market economy, though at the same time
it is in favour of taking a cautious approach in proceeding
with liberalization to ensure that the weaker sections are not
affected too hard by the liberalization process.

Traditionally, nonalignment has been the bedrock of the

foreign policy of the INC .

(Last Updated on : 14/06/2010)

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