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Unit 9: Establishment of the Indian National Congress: Home Rule Movement, Moderates and Extremists

of their programmes and political activity as well as social bases. For example, the British Indian Notes
Association of Bengal had increasingly identified itself with the interests of the zamindars and,
thus, gradually lost its anti-British edge. The Bombay Association and Madras Native Association
had become reactionary and moribund. And so the younger nationalists of Bengal, led by
Surendranath Banerjea and Anand Mohan Bose, founded the Indian Association in 1876. Younger
men of Madras — M. Viraraghavachariar, G. Subramaniya Iyer, P. Ananda Charlu and others —
formed the Madras Mahajan Sabha in 1884. In Bombay, the more militant intellectuals like K.T.
Telang and Pherozeshah Mehta broke away from older leaders like Dadabhai Framji and Dinshaw
Petit on political grounds and formed the Bombay Presidency Association in 1885. Among the
older associations only the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha carried on as before. But, then, it was already
in the hands of nationalist intellectuals.
A sign of new political life in the country was the coming into existence during these years of
nearly all the major nationalist newspapers which were to dominate the Indian scene till 1918 —
The Hindu, Tribune, Bengalee, Mahratta and Kesari. The one exception was the Amrita Bazar Patrika
which was already edited by new and younger men. It became an English language newspaper
only in 1878.
By 1885, the formation of an all-India political organization had become an objective necessity,
and the necessity was being recognized by nationalists all over the country. Many recent scholars
have furnished detailed information on the many moves that were made in that direction from
1877. These moves acquired a greater sense of urgency especially from 1883 and there was intense
political activity. The Indian Mirror of Calcutta was carrying on a continuous campaign on the
question. The Indian Association had already in December 1883 organized an All-India National
Conference and given a call for another one in December 1885. (Surendranath Banerjea, who was
involved in the All-India National Conference, could not for that reason attend the founding
session of the National Congress in 1885).
Meanwhile, the Indians had gained experience, as well as confidence, from the large number of
agitations they had organized in the preceding ten years. Since 1875, there had been a continuous
campaign around cotton import duties which Indians wanted to stay in the interests of the Indian
textile industry. A massive campaign had been organized during 1877-88 around the demand for
the Indianization of Government services. The Indians had opposed the Afghan adventure of
Lord Lytton and then compelled the British Government to contribute towards the cost of the
Second Afghan War. The Indian Press had waged a major campaign against the efforts of the
Government to control it through the Vernacular Press Act. The Indians had also opposed the
effort to disarm them through the Arms Act. In 1881-82 they had organized a protest against the
Plantation Labour and the Inland Emigration Act which condemned plantation labourers to serfdom.
A major agitation was organized during 1883 in favour of the llbert Bill which would enable
Indian magistrates to try Europeans. This Bill was successfully thwarted by the Europeans. The
Indians had been quick to draw the political lesson. Their efforts had failed because they had not
been coordinated on an all-India basis. On the other hand, the Europeans had acted in a concerted
manner. Again in July 1883 a massive all-India effort was made to raise a National Fund which
would be used to promote political agitation in India as well as England. In 1885, Indians fought
for the right to join the volunteer corps restricted to Europeans, and then organized an appeal to
British voters to vote for those candidates who were friendly towards India. Several Indians were
sent to Britain to put the Indian case before British yoters through public speeches, and other
means.
It, thus, becomes clear that the foundation of the Congress was the natural culmination of the
political work of the previous years. By 1885, a stage had been reached in the political development
of India when certain basic tasks or objectives had to be laid down and struggled for. Moreover,
these objectives were correlated and could only be fulfilled by the coming together of political
workers in a single organization formed on an all-India basis. The men who met in Bombay on 28
December 1885 were inspired by these objectives and hoped to initiate the process of achieving
them. The success or failure and the future character of the Congress would be determined not by
who founded it but by the extent to which these objectives were achieved in the initial years.

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