A nation begins to think of itself
For most of history, people in India thought of themselves as Bengalis, Marathas, Tamils, Punjabis — not as Indians. The national movement is the story of how that changed.
Several forces worked together in the late 1800s to create this new feeling of being one nation. English education gave educated Indians a common language to talk to each other across regions. Railways and the telegraph and the press connected the country physically. The drain of wealth argument showed that all Indians, whatever their region or religion, were losing to the same ruler. And British racism — the daily experience of being treated as inferior in their own country — pushed Indians together.
Out of this awakening came political organisations, and finally, in 1885, the body that would lead India to freedom: the Indian National Congress.
The Congress was not the first political body. Earlier ones included the Indian Association (1876) of Surendranath Banerjea in Calcutta, and the Bombay Presidency Association. But the Congress was the first that was truly all-India.
The founding of the Congress — 1885
The Indian National Congress held its first session in December 1885 at Bombay, at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College. 72 delegates attended from across the country.
| Answer | |
|---|---|
| Founded by | Allan Octavian Hume (A.O. Hume) — a retired British civil servant, called the Father of the Congress |
| First session | December 1885, Bombay |
| First president | Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee (W.C. Bonnerjee) |
| Delegates at the first session | 72 |
| Viceroy at the time | Lord Dufferin |
Hume believed educated Indians needed a safe outlet for their unhappiness — a safety valve, so that anger would not build up into another 1857. Whether the Congress was really meant as a safety valve for British rule is an old debate. What matters is what Indians made of it: within twenty years, the safety valve had become the engine of the freedom movement.
Early presidents who get asked: Dadabhai Naoroji (the Grand Old Man, president three times), Badruddin Tyabji (the first Muslim president, 1887), and George Yule (the first English president, 1888). Annie Besant (1917) became the first woman president, and Sarojini Naidu (1925) the first Indian woman president.
The Moderates — 1885 to 1905
For its first twenty years the Congress was led by men we call the Moderates — leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta and Surendranath Banerjea. They were lawyers, teachers and journalists, educated in the Western way, and they believed British rule could be reformed from within.
Petition, Prayer and Protest — always within the law. The Moderates wrote memoranda, passed resolutions, sent delegations to London, and asked politely for more Indian seats on councils, Indianisation of the services, and economic relief. Critics later mocked this as political mendicancy — begging for rights instead of demanding them. The word mendicancy means begging.
What did they achieve? Honestly, little that was concrete — the Indian Councils Act of 1892 slightly enlarged the councils, and that was about all. But their real achievement was deeper: they created the habit of all-India politics, trained a generation in public life, and — through Naoroji's drain theory — gave nationalism its economic argument.
The Extremists — a new temper
By 1900 a younger group had lost patience. Twenty years of asking politely had produced almost nothing. These leaders — called the Extremists — wanted Swaraj, meaning self-rule, and they wanted to fight for it with pressure, not petitions.
Their leaders were the famous trio Lal-Bal-Pal: Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, and Bipin Chandra Pal of Bengal. With them stood Aurobindo Ghosh.
Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it.
| Moderates (Naram Dal) | Extremists (Garam Dal) | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Reforms and more Indian say within British rule | Swaraj — self-rule |
| Method | Petitions, prayers, delegations — the three Ps | Boycott, Swadeshi, national education, passive resistance |
| Faith in Britain | Believed British rule could be reformed | Believed nothing would come from asking |
| Social base | A thin educated elite | Reached out to students, the lower middle class, the masses |
| Leaders | Naoroji, Gokhale, Mehta, Banerjea | Lal-Bal-Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh |
The Hindi names get asked directly: Moderates were the Naram Dal (the soft group), Extremists the Garam Dal (the hot group). And pair the leaders with their work: Tilak — the newspapers Kesari and Mahratta, and the Ganapati and Shivaji festivals; Gokhale — the Servants of India Society (1905); Gokhale was also the political guru of Gandhi.
Who were Lal, Bal and Pal?
Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, and Bipin Chandra Pal of Bengal — the three great Extremist leaders.
1905 — the spark of Bengal
In 1905, Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal, officially for administrative convenience — but Bengalis saw it as a plan to divide Hindus and Muslims and weaken the most politically awake province. The country erupted.
The answer was the Swadeshi Movement: boycott British goods, burn foreign cloth, use Swadeshi — Indian-made — goods, and build national schools. The word Swadeshi means of one's own country. This was the Extremist method in action, and for the first time, protest reached shops, streets and students, not just meeting halls.
The full story of the partition and the Swadeshi years has its own page, along with the birth of the Congress, the Moderate-Extremist contest, and the revolutionaries who chose the bomb instead.
Read in detail
The four chapters of this story, each on its own page.
The Surat Split — 1907
The quarrel between the two camps finally broke the Congress apart. At the Surat session of 1907, held on the banks of the Tapti river, the dispute over the presidency turned into chaos — shoes were thrown, the stage was stormed — and the Congress split into two.
The Moderates kept the official Congress. The Extremists were pushed out, and the British moved swiftly against them — Tilak was jailed for six years (1908) and sent to Mandalay in Burma. With its fighting wing gone, the Congress went quiet for nearly a decade.
The two wings came back together at the Lucknow session of 1916. The same session produced the Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the Muslim League — a rare moment of Hindu-Muslim political unity. 1916 is a heavy exam year: reunion of the Congress, the Lucknow Pact, and the Home Rule Leagues of Tilak and Annie Besant all belong to it.
The Home Rule Movement (1916) demanded self-government on the Irish model. Tilak's league worked in Maharashtra and central India, Annie Besant's league in the rest of the country. It kept the national demand alive during the war years, before Gandhi arrived on the scene.
1885 born, 1905 Bengal split, 1907 Congress split, 1916 reunited. Four dates carry this whole page. The Moderates dominate before 1905; the Extremists set the tone after.
Everything on one look
The founding facts, the two camps, and the split and reunion.
- Congress founded December 1885, Bombay — 72 delegates
- A.O. Hume — founder, Father of the Congress
- W.C. Bonnerjee — first president
- Lord Dufferin was Viceroy in 1885
- Badruddin Tyabji — first Muslim president
- Annie Besant — first woman president, 1917
- Dadabhai Naoroji — president three times
- Moderates (Naram Dal) — the three Ps, 1885-1905
- Extremists (Garam Dal) — Swaraj, boycott, Swadeshi
- Lal-Bal-Pal — Lajpat Rai, Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal
- Tilak — Kesari and Mahratta; jailed to Mandalay 1908
- Gokhale — Servants of India Society, Gandhi's guru
- Surat Split 1907, on the Tapti
- Lucknow reunion 1916, with the Lucknow Pact
- A.O. Hume founded the Congress; W.C. Bonnerjee was its first president — the two are swapped constantly
- The first session was at Bombay in December 1885, with 72 delegates
- Lord Dufferin, not Ripon, was Viceroy when the Congress was founded
- Badruddin Tyabji was the first Muslim president (1887); George Yule the first English one
- Moderates = Naram Dal, Extremists = Garam Dal — soft and hot
- Tilak's papers were Kesari (Marathi) and Mahratta (English)
- Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society (1905) and was Gandhi's political guru
- The Surat Split was in 1907, the reunion at Lucknow in 1916
- Swaraj means self-rule; Swadeshi means of one's own country — different words, often confused
- Tilak was deported to Mandalay in Burma after his 1908 conviction
- The Indian National Congress was founded in December 1885 at Bombay
- Allan Octavian Hume, a retired civil servant, founded the Congress
- W.C. Bonnerjee was the first president of the Congress
- Seventy-two delegates attended the first session
- Lord Dufferin was the Viceroy when the Congress was founded
- The Indian Association of 1876 was founded by Surendranath Banerjea
- Badruddin Tyabji was the first Muslim president of the Congress, in 1887
- Annie Besant became the first woman president in 1917
- Dadabhai Naoroji served as Congress president three times
- The period 1885 to 1905 is called the Moderate phase
- The Moderate method was the three Ps — petition, prayer and protest
- Critics called the Moderate method political mendicancy, meaning begging
- The Extremists demanded Swaraj, meaning self-rule
- Lal-Bal-Pal were Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal
- Tilak said Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it
- Tilak edited the newspapers Kesari and Mahratta
- Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society in 1905
- Gokhale was the political guru of Mahatma Gandhi
- Moderates were called the Naram Dal and Extremists the Garam Dal
- The Congress split at the Surat session of 1907, held on the Tapti river
- Tilak was jailed in 1908 and deported to Mandalay in Burma
- The Congress reunited at the Lucknow session of 1916
- The Home Rule Leagues of Tilak and Annie Besant began in 1916