Indian National Congress: Formation, Moderates and Extremists
The Indian National Congress, founded in 1885 by A.O. Hume, evolved from a Moderate-led petitionist body into a mass nationalist organisation, split between Moderates and Extremists at Surat (1907) before Gandhi transformed it into the vehicle for mass independence agitation.
Indian National Congress (INC), founded on 28 December 1885 in Bombay by Allan Octavian Hume (a retired British civil servant) in collaboration with Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, and Pherozeshah Mehta, was the principal organisation of Indian nationalism and the party that led India to independence in 1947. From its elite, English-educated, petition-writing origins, the Congress evolved over six decades through three distinct phases — the Moderate era (1885–1905), the Extremist-Moderate confrontation (1905–1920), and the Gandhian mass movement era (1920–1947) — becoming one of the largest and most consequential nationalist organisations in world history.
The founding of the Congress was facilitated by the colonial context in several ways. The spread of English education had created an all-India intelligentsia capable of articulating grievances in a common language. The expansion of railways and the telegraph created the infrastructure for political coordination across the subcontinent. Hume's role remains debated: nationalist historiography saw him as genuinely sympathetic; revisionist historians (such as Anil Seal) have argued the Congress was partly a "safety valve" designed to channel elite discontent into constitutional channels. The early Congress drew primarily from the western-educated professional classes — lawyers, journalists, teachers, and doctors — from the major presidency cities of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras.
The Moderate phase (1885–1905) was characterised by faith in British justice, constitutional methods, and incremental reform. Leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta, and Surendranath Banerjee submitted petitions, testified before parliamentary committees, and articulated the economic critique of colonialism. Naoroji's "Drain Theory" — elaborated in Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901) — argued that India's poverty was caused by the systematic transfer (drain) of its wealth to Britain through home charges, unremunerative terms of trade, and the employment of British over Indian civil servants. The Moderates achieved significant gains: the Indian Councils Act 1892 expanded the legislative councils, and Gokhale lobbied successfully for the creation of the Royal Commission on Public Services.
What Divided Moderates and Extremists?
| Issue | Moderates | Extremists |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Administrative reforms; dominion status within Empire | Swaraj (self-rule); complete independence |
| Methods | Petition, memoranda, constitutional agitation | Boycott, passive resistance, national education, swadeshi |
| Mass mobilisation | Wary; feared losing upper-class support | Embraced; used Hindu revivalism and festivals for mass appeal |
| British Empire | Trusted British institutions; believed in justice | Distrusted; saw colonialism as inherently exploitative |
| Key leaders | Gokhale, Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta | Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh |
| Split at | Surat Congress (December 1907) — Extremists expelled | |
How Did Gandhi Transform the Congress?
Gandhi returned to India in January 1915 after 21 years in South Africa, where he had developed satyagraha (truth-force) as a technique of non-violent mass resistance. At the Nagpur Session (1920), he restructured Congress: provincial Congress committees were reorganised along linguistic lines (anticipating the future states reorganisation); membership fees were reduced to four annas, enabling mass enrolment; and the organisational base was extended into rural areas and among artisans and women. The Congress became simultaneously a political party, a social service organisation, a movement for economic self-reliance (through khadi), and a vehicle for the daily practice of nationalist identity. Under Gandhi's leadership, Congress contested elections while also conducting mass civil disobedience campaigns — a dual strategy that kept it central to Indian political life through 1947.
- 1885: INC founded in Bombay; 72 delegates from across India
- 1905–08: Swadeshi Movement transforms Congress into an assertive nationalist body
- 1907: Surat Split — Moderates and Extremists formally divided
- 1916: Lucknow Pact — Moderates and Extremists reunited; Congress-League pact on separate electorates
- 1920: Nagpur Session — Gandhi restructures Congress as mass organisation
- 1929: Lahore Session — Purna Swaraj (complete independence) declared; 26 January 1930 as Independence Day
- 1947: Congress forms independent India's first government under Jawaharlal Nehru
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded the Indian National Congress and when?
The Indian National Congress was founded on 28 December 1885 in Bombay by A.O. Hume, a retired British civil servant, in collaboration with Indian leaders including Dadabhai Naoroji and Surendranath Banerjee.
What was the Drain Theory of Dadabhai Naoroji?
Dadabhai Naoroji's Drain Theory argued that British colonial rule caused India's poverty by systematically transferring India's wealth to Britain through home charges, trade imbalances, and the employment of expensive British officials, constituting an economic drain from India to Britain.
What was the Surat Split of 1907?
The Surat Split was the formal division of the Indian National Congress at its December 1907 session into Moderate and Extremist factions over methods and goals; the Extremists led by Tilak were expelled and the Moderates retained control of the organisation until reunification in 1916.
What was the Lucknow Pact (1916)?
The Lucknow Pact was an agreement between the Congress and the Muslim League in 1916 by which Congress accepted the principle of separate electorates for Muslims in exchange for League support for self-government demands; it also reunified the Moderate and Extremist factions within Congress.
How did Gandhi transform the Indian National Congress after 1920?
Gandhi restructured Congress at the Nagpur Session (1920) by reorganising it along linguistic lines, reducing membership fees to enable mass enrolment, extending the organisation into rural areas, and transforming it from an elite petition body into a mass nationalist movement practising non-violent civil disobedience.
Sources and Further Reading
According to IGNOU's BHIC-134, the Indian National Congress was the central institutional vehicle of Indian nationalism, and its evolution from elite constitutionalism to mass politics under Gandhi's leadership represents one of the most remarkable transformations in the history of anti-colonial movements.
- IGNOU BHIC-134: Units on the Rise of Nationalism and Indian National Congress
- Bipin Chandra, India's Struggle for Independence
- Sumit Sarkar, Modern India 1885–1947
- Anil Seal, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism
- Dadabhai Naoroji, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901)