247 / 822
must leave the adjustment of social reforms,
and other class questions, to class Con-
gresses..... "
During the session in Calcutta, the idea
gained ground that the Congress was the
handiwork of the Bengalis; Maleson, a noted
historian of the mutiny, wrote that it (INC)
was
"started by the noisy Bengalis".
Simi-
larly Syed Ahmed on the eve of the 3rd
session said (to Muslims),
"If you accept that
the country should groan under the yoke of
Bengali rule and its people lick the Bengali
shoes, then, in the name of God jump into the
train, sit down, and be off to Madras, be off to
Madras."
Even the Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, in
his letter, dated 4th January 1887, to the Sec-
retary of State, Lord Cross, referred to the
Congress as a
'Bengalee Constitution.'
(* Ref. Sec. Z-9, 10. Wisdom of India)
The III session : 1887 - Madras
President: Badruddin Tyabji.
The need of a regular constitution of the
Congress was expressed in this session. One
of the resolutions at the session regarding the
poverty of the people said :
"That having
regard to the poverty of the people, it is desir-
able that the Government be moved to elabo-
rate a system of Technical Education, suitable
to the condition of the country, to encourage
indigenous manufactures by a more strict ob-
servance of the orders already existing in
regard to utilizing such manufactures for State
purposes, and to employ more extensively
than at present the skill and talents of the
people of the country."
The session decided to
set up at the beginning of each session a small
“representatitve committee”
to chalk out pro-
grammes and draft resolutions.
The II session : 1886 - Calcutta
President : Dadabhai Naoroji.*
He praised the blessings of the British
rule in India; A resolution about the poverty
of the people was also passed, which reads as
below,
"That this Congress regards with
deepest sympathy....the increasing poverty
of
vast
number
of
population
of
India....desires to record its fixed conviction
that the introduction of representative in-
stitutions will prove one of the most practi-
cal steps towards the amelioration of the
condition of the people."
Speaking on social reforms and the Con-
gress Naoroji said,
"How can this gathering of
all classes discuss social reforms? What do
any of us know of the internal home life, of the
traditions, customs, feelings, prejudices of
any class but his own?... A National Congress
must confine itself to questions in which the
entire nation has a direct participation, and it
IV
session - 1888 - Allahabad
President:
George
Yule
1248 delegates including 222 Muslims
attended the Congress; this was achieved in
spite of the fact that the organisers could not
procure a proper venue on account of British
government restrictions.
V
session -Dec. 1889 - Bombay
President: Sir William Wedderbum
The session was memorable due to the
presence of Charles Bradlaugh, a British MP.
He said,
"For whom should I work if not for
the people ? Born of the people, trusted by the
people, I will die for the Indian people."
It
was this pro-Indian attitude of his that earned
FREEDOM MOVEMENT
Eternal India
encyclopedia
Gandhi said:
Congress claimed to represent over
85% of the population of India, Congress
alone claims to represent the whole of
India, all interests. It is no communal
organisation; it is a determined enemy of
communalism in any shape or form.
Congress knows no distinction of race,
colour or creed; its platform is universal...
The Congress is the only All-India-wide
National Organization....; that it does
represent all the minorities....".
The Sessions of the INC
The Inaugural session
1885;25th Dec. - Bombay
President: W. C. Bannerjee
The stated objectives of the Congress were:
"To enable all the most earnest labourers
in the cause of national progress to become
personally known to each other; and to
discuss and decide upon the political opera-
tions to be undertaken during the ensuing
year.”
A note was expressed that
"indirectly this
conference will form the germ of a native
parliament and, if properly conducted, will
constitute... unanswerable reply to the asser-
tion that India is still wholly unfit for any form
of representative institutions".
"All the lead-
ing native political associations and the princi-
pal Anglo-native newspapers were repre-
sented".
W.C. Banneijee
W.C. Bannerjee:
a leading barrister, pre-
sided over the session and said,
"All that we
desire is that the basis of the government
should be widened and that the people should
have their proper and legitimate share in it. ”
He elaborated the objects of the Congress
thus:
(a)
The promotion of personal intimacy and
friendship amongst the workers....
(b)
The eradication of race, creed and provin-
cial prejudices....
The Congress passed 9 resolutions:
most of them were in the form of demands
to the government;
1)
Appointment of a royal commission
to inquire into the working of Indian
administration.
2)
Abolition of the Indian Council.
3)
Creation of legislative councils (in
north-west, Avadh and Punjab).
4)
Admission of elected members in
the legislative councils.
5)
Reduction of military expenditure.
6)
Simultaneous holding of civil service
examinations (both in India and Eng-
land) and raising of the age.
The main result of the first session was
that
it quickened the pace of political
awareness of the people.
But the success
of it was due to the presence of Suren-
dranath Banerji.
In this connection attention may be
drawn to the following observation of a for-
eign writer:
"The Congress owes more to
Surendranath Banerji than what tradition
has hitherto given him. Had not Banerji
joined the Congress in 1886 the Congress
would probably have been a different insti-
tution today. The Congress became truly
national, not in 1885, the year of its found-
ing but in 1886, the year in which Suren-
dranath Banerji (and Bengal with him)
joined it."
(W.Wedderbum)