The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party or simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. The Congress led India to independence from the United Kingdom, and significantly influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India also known as British Raj. It lasted until 1947.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale was an Indian political leader and a social reformer during the Indian independence movement and political mentor of Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi.
Dadabhai Naoroji, was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar and writer who served as 2nd, 9th, and 22nd President of the Indian National Congress from 1886 to 1887, 1893 to 1894 and 1906 to 1907. He was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons, representing Finsbury Central between 1892 and 1895. He was the second person of Asian descent to be a British MP, the first being Indian MP David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who was disenfranchised for corruption after nine months in office.
Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS was a British political reformer, ornithologist, civil servant and botanist who worked in British India, who founded the party Indian National Congress. He supported the idea of self-governance by Indians. A notable ornithologist, Hume has been called "the Father of Indian Ornithology" and, by those who found him dogmatic, "the Pope of Indian Ornithology".
Shimla is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city became the capital of East Punjab and was later made the capital city of Himachal Pradesh. It is the principal commercial, cultural and educational centre of the state.
The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. Before the BML Government's decision for the partition of Bengal was made public in December 1903, there was a lot of growing discontentment among the Indians. In response the Swadeshi movement was formally started from Town Hall at Calcutta on 7 August 1905 to curb foreign goods by relying on domestic production. Mahatma Gandhi described it as the soul of swaraj (self-rule). The movement took its vast size and shape after rich Indians donated money and land dedicated to Khadi and Gramodyog societies which started cloth production in every household. It also included other village industries so as to make village self-sufficient and self-reliant. The Indian National Congress used this movement as arsenal for its freedom struggle and ultimately on 15 August 1947, a hand-spun Khadi tricolor Ashoka Chakra Indian flag was unfurled at Princess Park near India Gate, New Delhi by Jawaharlal Nehru.
The first Partition of Bengal (1905) was a territorial reorganization of the Bengal Presidency implemented by the authorities of the British Raj. The reorganization separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas. Announced on 20 July 1905 by Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, and implemented West Bengal for Hindus and East Bengal for Muslims, it was undone a mere six years later. The nationalists saw the partition as a challenge to Indian nationalism and as a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengal Presidency on religious grounds, with a Muslim majority in the east and a Hindu majority in the west. The Hindus of West Bengal complained that the division would make them a minority in a province that would incorporate the province of Bihar and Orissa. Hindus were outraged at what they saw as a "divide and rule" policy, even though Curzon stressed it would produce administrative efficiency. The partition animated the Muslims to form their own national organization along communal lines. To appease Bengali sentiment, Bengal was reunited by King George V in 1911, in response to the Swadeshi movement's riots in protest against the policy.
Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree was a British Conservative Party politician of Indian Parsi heritage. He was a member of parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Bethnal Green North East in the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1895 and 1906, the third British MP of Indian descent, after David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, and fellow Parsi Dadabhai Naoroji. Bhownaggree was the longest-serving British Asian MP until Keith Vaz, a Labour Party Black Sections member.
The Indian National Congress was established when 72 representatives from all over the country met at Bombay in 1885. Prominent delegates included Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, W. C. Bonnerjee, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar, S. Subramania Iyer, and Romesh Chunder Dutt. The Englishman Allan Octavian Hume, a former British civil servant, was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress.
Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee was an Indian barrister. He was a co-founder and the first president of Indian National Congress.
The Indian Home Rule Society (IHRS) was an Indian organisation founded in London in 1905 that sought to promote the cause of self-rule in British India. The organisation was founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma, with support from a number of prominent Indian nationalists in Britain at the time, including Bhikaji Cama, Dadabhai Naoroji and S.R. Rana, and was intended to be a rival organisation to the British Committee of the Indian National Congress that was the main avenue of the loyalist opinion at the time.
Chakravarti Vijayaraghavachariar was an Indian politician. He rose to prominence following his appeal against the false charges alleging him to have instigated a Hindu – Muslim riot in Salem. The legal battle and eventual victory in proving his innocence earned him the title The Lion of South India.
Poona Sarvajanik Sabha,, was a sociopolitical organisation in British Raj which started with the aim of working as a mediating body between the government and people of India and to popularise the peasants' legal rights.
The Early Nationalists, also known as the Moderates, were a group of political leaders in India active between 1885 and 1907. Their emergence marked the beginning of the organised national movement in India. Some of the important moderate leaders were Pherozeshah Mehta and Dadabhai Naoroji. With members of the group drawn from educated middle-class professionals including lawyers, teachers and government officials, many of them were educated in England.
Perin Ben Captain (1888–1958) was an Indian freedom activist, social worker, and the grand daughter of renowned Indian intellectual and leader, Dadabhai Naoroji. The Government of India honoured her in 1954 with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award for her contributions to the country, placing her among the first group of recipients of the award.
'The British Committee of the Indian National congress' was established in Britain by the Indian National Congress in 1889. Its purpose was to raise awareness of Indian issues to the public in Britain, to whom the Government of India was responsible. It followed the work of W.C. Bonnerjee and Dadabhoi Naoroji, who raised India related issues in the British parliament through the support of radical MPs like Charles Bradlaugh. William Wedderburn served as the first chairmanship and William Digby as secretary.
Shankar Abaji Bhisey, Sunker Abaji Bhisey, Shanker Abaji Bhise or Sunker Bisey Abaji was a self-taught Indian inventor who was once called by the New York American as the "Edison of India". Sponsored by Indian nationalists, he moved to England where his inventions included a type-setting machine for the printing industry, an advertising innovation and so on. He then moved to the US where he designed a modification of the then popular ouija board where the supposed message of the spirit was printed onto a strip of paper. This spirit typewriter was patented in the US on 27 June 1922. He made no money from it but shortly after that he promoted a form of iodine termed as "atomidine" as a patent medicine, promoted by the American psychic Edgar Cayce, earned him royalty and fame. He had nearly 200 inventions to his credit with 40 of them patented.
Chetan Singh is an academic historian from Himachal Pradesh, India. He is noted for his work on the history of early modern and modern western Himalayas.
