Three days in December
On 28 December 1885, seventy-two men gathered in a Sanskrit college in Bombay. None of them knew they were starting the organisation that would, sixty-two years later, take power from the British Empire.
The Indian National Congress was founded in December 1885 at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay, with seventy-two delegates. Its guiding organiser was Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British civil servant, and its first President was Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee. Every fact in that sentence is asked in exams — and so is the argument about why Hume did it.
Allan Octavian Hume was a retired officer of the Indian Civil Service — not a serving official, and not an Indian. After retirement he toured India, met leading Indian intellectuals, and persuaded them to convene a national body. He is called the founder of the Congress, though the desire for such an organisation was already alive among educated Indians.
The first session — the facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date | 28 December 1885 (the session ran to 31 December) |
| Place | Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay |
| Delegates | 72, drawn from law, trade, landholding and teaching |
| First President | Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, a Calcutta barrister |
| Viceroy at the time | Lord Dufferin |
| Original plan | A meeting at Poona under the name Indian National Union — shifted to Bombay because of a cholera outbreak in Poona |
Exams like this one because it has two testable parts: the original name — Indian National Union — and the original venue — Poona, changed to Bombay because of cholera. A question offering Poona as the site of the first session is testing exactly this.
Why did Hume do it? The two theories
The claim that Hume founded the Congress so that Indian discontent could escape harmlessly through talk — like steam through a safety valve — instead of exploding into revolt. The idea first appeared in William Wedderburn's 1913 biography of Hume, and extremist leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai believed it. The Marxist historian R.P. Dutt built his conspiracy theory on it.
The counter-view associated with early nationalist thinking: educated Indians already wanted an all-India organisation, and they used Hume as a lightning conductor — a safe channel. A British founder meant the government could not easily crush the new body at birth. Hume was the instrument, not the author.
The safety-valve story rests on thin evidence. Political associations — like the Indian Association of Calcutta, founded 1876 by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose, which held an All-India National Conference in 1883 — show that Indians were organising nationally before Hume acted. And Dufferin himself soon attacked the Congress, mocking it as the voice of a microscopic minority — strange behaviour towards his own supposed safety valve. The balanced view: Hume was a catalyst, not a puppet-master.
The early sessions and the secular pattern
The Congress deliberately rotated its presidency across regions and communities. The sequence of early presidents is a favourite exam list.
| Year | Session | President | Why remembered |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1885 | Bombay | W.C. Bonnerjee | First session, first President |
| 1886 | Calcutta | Dadabhai Naoroji | The National Conference merged with the Congress |
| 1887 | Madras | Badruddin Tyabji | First Muslim President |
| 1888 | Allahabad | George Yule | First English President |
In its first four years the Congress was led by a Christian, a Parsi, a Muslim and an Englishman — a deliberate display of its claim to speak for all of India. Kadambini Ganguli became the first woman to address a Congress session, in 1890.
What was the Congress originally going to be called, and why did the venue change?
The planned body was the Indian National Union, meeting at Poona. A cholera outbreak in Poona forced the shift to the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay, where the first session met on 28 December 1885.
72 delegates, 28 December, 1885, Bombay. And the first four presidents: Bonnerjee, Naoroji, Tyabji, Yule — Christian, Parsi, Muslim, Englishman.
Everything on one look
The session, the founder, the theories and the early presidents.
- The Congress was founded in December 1885 in Bombay
- The first session met at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College
- Seventy-two delegates attended the first session
- A.O. Hume, a retired civil servant, was the founder
- W.C. Bonnerjee was the first President
- Lord Dufferin was the Viceroy in 1885
- The Safety Valve theory came from Wedderburn's 1913 biography
- Gokhale's side offered the Lightning Conductor reply
- Badruddin Tyabji in 1887 was the first Muslim President
- George Yule in 1888 was the first English President
- Dadabhai Naoroji presided in 1886 at Calcutta
- The Indian Association of Calcutta, 1876, preceded the Congress
- The first session was at Bombay, not Poona — cholera forced the change
- The planned name was the Indian National Union
- W.C. Bonnerjee, not Hume, was the first President — Hume was the organiser
- Seventy-two delegates attended the first session
- Lord Dufferin was Viceroy in 1885, and later mocked the Congress
- The Safety Valve theory appears first in Wedderburn's 1913 biography of Hume
- Badruddin Tyabji was the first Muslim President, in 1887
- George Yule was the first English President, in 1888
- Naoroji presided in 1886, and twice more later — three times in all
- Kadambini Ganguli first addressed the Congress in 1890, not at the first session
- The Indian National Congress was founded in December 1885
- The first session met on 28 December 1885 in Bombay
- The venue was the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College
- Seventy-two delegates attended the first session
- Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British civil servant, founded the Congress
- Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee was the first Congress President
- Lord Dufferin was the Viceroy when the Congress was founded
- The body was originally to be called the Indian National Union
- The first meeting was planned for Poona but shifted due to cholera
- The Safety Valve theory says the Congress was meant to release discontent harmlessly
- The Safety Valve idea first appeared in William Wedderburn's 1913 biography of Hume
- Lala Lajpat Rai was among those who believed the Safety Valve theory
- The Lightning Conductor theory says Indians used Hume as a safe channel
- Dufferin later called the Congress the voice of a microscopic minority
- The Indian Association of Calcutta was founded in 1876 by Surendranath Banerjea
- The All-India National Conference of 1883 preceded the Congress
- Dadabhai Naoroji presided over the 1886 Calcutta session
- Badruddin Tyabji became the first Muslim Congress President in 1887
- George Yule became the first English Congress President in 1888
- Kadambini Ganguli was the first woman to address a Congress session, in 1890