Episode 2: The Foundation of the Indian National Congress: A Narrative

 The Indian National Congress (INC) is the oldest political party in India. It was formed in the year 1885, with A. O Hume, William Wedderburn, W.C. Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjea, Monomohun Ghose, Lalmohan Ghosh, Badruddin Tyabji, M.G. Ranade, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha and Pherozeshah Mehta as the founding members. W.C. Bonnerjee was selected as the first president of the INC. 

Now, the founding committee of the INC comprised of two English men of the highest bureaucracy of the then British India Government, it does seem rather odd right?

Well, let me narrate to you the circumstances and the situation of the country and the foundation scenario of the INC. 

 The foundation of the INC was no sudden or a historical accident. It was a culmination of a series of political awakenings in the 1860s, 1870s and it took a major leap in the late 1870s and early 1880s. As this political activity took shape and gathered force, the prospects of disloyalty, sedition and Irish-type agitations began to haunt the government.

What are these Irish-type agitations?

During the years 1879-82, The Land War began in rural Ireland in the wake of three years of economic downturn. This led to a negative impact on many Irish farmers and heightened the anxiety of vulnerable small tenants. This situation was given focus by a coalition of radical and constitutional nationalists. This coalition joined hands with the peasants and conducted agitations against the government. This type of agitation was named as Irish-type agitation.

The demands that were placed by the Indian Nationalists of those years were as follows:

1. No reduction of import duties on textile imports
2. No expansion in Afghanistan or Burma
3. The right to bear arms by Indians
4. Freedom of the press
5. Reduction of military expenditure
6. Increased expenditure by the government towards famine relief
7. Indianization of the Civil services, 
8. The right of Indian judges to try European criminals in the court of law
9. The right of Indians to join the semi-military volunteer corps, and last but not the least
10. The appeal to British voters to vote for a party which would listen to Indians
    

Now, after reading these points, it does seem rather mild demands, right?

But, the colonial regime would also not concede to these demands because then they would undermine its hegemony over the colonial people. 

As time progressed and more youth getting inspired and fired up by the nationalists, they entered politics during these years. The young nationalists and intellectuals established new associations because the old ones had somewhat become narrowly conceived. 

Just to illustrate this, here are a couple of examples:

The British Indian Association of Bengal had increasingly identified itself with the interests of the zamindars and thus had lost their anti-British edge. Young nationalists like Surendranath Banerjea and Anand Mohan Bose from Bengal founded the Indian Association in 1876. From Madras, youth like M. Viraraghavachariar, G Subramaniya Iyer, P. Ananda Charlu and others formed the Madras Mahajan Sabha in 1884. Even in Bombay (now Mumbai), more intellecctuals like K.T. Telang and Pherozeshah Mehta broke away from older leaders like Dadabhai Framji and Dinshaw Petit. 

Newspapers of the country were showcasing a new political life in India. Papers like The Hindu, Tribune, Bengalee, Mahratta, Kesari and the likes of these dominated the Indian scene till 1918, until the First World War. They were responsible for setting the footing for a new political beginning. 

In 1885 of course, the need and necessity was felt for an all-India political organisation became clear and the INC was founded. 

The Indians had now gained a fair-bit of experience in organizing agitations against the British during 1875-1885. They used this against the government and compelled it to contribute towards the Second Afghan war, which was more of Lord Lytton's adventure. The government later tried to control the Indian press through the Vernacular Press Act against which the Indian Press waged a major campaign. After successful agitations against the British, the Indians then realized their mistake and were quick to draw the political lessons of the loss of 1857. They had failed because of lack of coordination on an all-India basis. 

The Indians went further ahead to raise a National Fund which would be used to promote political agitation not only in the country but also in England. It thus becomes clear that the foundation of the INC was the culmination of the various political work of the previous years.

The INC Indian founders took to task their first objective: To bring together the Indian masses and promote the process of creating the identity of The Indian People. The various foreign colonial powers, who had previously ruled India and were still having a presence in the country had openly expressed, mocked and asserted that the Indian people can never be a nation and can never be free. They were but a mere geographical representations. The leaders of the INC did not deny the former expression and had in fact acknowledged it openly. However, more importantly, leaders like Surendranath Banerjea, Tilak and others fondly put it, India is a nation-in-the-making. 

Another major objective that the INC took up was the promotion of nation-unity and nationalism. This objective later become one of the major achievements of the INC. In order to promote nation unity in every nook and corner of the country, the INC decided to rotate the Congress sessions among different parts of the country.

Modern politics was in its nascent stage in India. The popular measures of participation, agitation, dharnas and mobilization of people seemed very new to the general public. The notion that the political activities are a privilege of the few and not a domain for everyone to participate was still dominating the minds of the people.

As time passed, the INC realized that without mass movement, it would be impossible to make the British budge. Hence, the took immediate steps to form people's attitude towards politics. They began with training, organizing and making the educated and intellectual minds determined for action and change. The leaders shifted their primary focus from redressal of short term grievances to long term organized and sustained political activity. 

Here is an instance that illustrates this shift:

In 1891, the young and impatient twenty six year old Gokhale, was infuriated when the government sent a two line reply to a carefully curated and prepared memorial by the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha. Justice Ranade, who was also known to many as a political sage, had replied to Gokhale - " You do not realise our place in the history of our country. These memorials are nominally addressed to the government by in reality they are to be addressed to the people, so that they can learn how to think in these matters. This work must be done for many years, without expecting any results, because politics of this kind is altogether new in this land. 

Examples and instances like these made the leaders realise that mass movements can be successful only if they are organised in the right fashion and are headquartered someplace and led by someone.The leaders also had to be unified, must share a collective identification, evolve into a common outlook, perspective, sense of purpose and even common feelings.

The early nationalist leaders based their politics on the doctrine of sovereignty of the people, or to put it in simple words as Dadabhai Naoroji did - " The kings are made for the people, not the peoples for the kings". 

Since inception, the INC was organised as a parliament. People of the organisation used to debate, express, approve, disapprove and even vote on matters that were brought to its fore. In-fact, the word Congress was borrowed from the North American History connoting - An assembly of people. Now, some people believe that the colonial and authoritarian state made it possible for the parliamentary democracy to begin in India, but the entire credit in this matter must be handed to the Congress. 

Now, let us put ourselves into the shoes of our nationalist leaders, to understand and have an experience as to what their situation was back in the 1870s and 80s. 

The leaders did not have a ready-made answer for the anti-colonial ideology. They played a dual role of learners and teachers simultaneously and had to develop an ideology on the basis of reality and own practice. The fight was first against their own mindset and not against colonialism. They had to find answers to the ideological struggle. The questions that they asked themselves were:

Is Britain ruling India for its benefit? If yes, then what benefit are they drawing? Are the rulers and the ruled in harmony in this country? Is the fight against the British bureaucracy or British government? Are the Indian people capable of fighting the British? How is the war to be waged?

Of course, there were mistakes that were made, assumptions assumed during the initial days of the building of the ideology, but they were no misfortunes'. Sometimes, it is necessary to fail to get back even stronger. India today is fortunate to their nationalist leaders of the 1900s, that they did not have any ready-made answer or formulae to beat the British, because, such formulae are usually lifeless and poor guides to action. 

Now, before I conclude this article, I would like to sum up the objectives of the INC. The basic objective was to lay the foundations for a secular and democratic movement, to build a political mindset among the public, to form a headquarter and a leadership group and to develop and propagate anti-colonial nationalist ideology.

History always judges people based on their achievements and outcomes. The role that the Indian National Congress played in achieving the objectives was substantial and hence, no historian in the world would ever deny this fact.

You might be wondering, why did the Congress choose A. O. Hume and William Wedderbrun as their chief organisers, right?

Courageous and committed people like Dadbhai Naoroji, Justice Ranade, Pherozeshah Mehta, G. Subramaniya Iyer and Surendranath Banerjea cooperatedwith Hume because they did not want to arouse official hostility at such an early stage of their work. 

If Hume and other English liberals hoped to use the Congress as a Safety-valve, then the Congress leaders hoped to use Hume as a Lightning Conductor, and the later developments show that it was the Congress whose hopes were fulfilled.