Indian National Congress | Short Notes for PSC

Apr 2022|🟢Current|13 min read|118 entries

Key Takeaway

The Indian National Congress, one of the world's largest and oldest political organizations, was formed onDecember 28, 1885.

Last verified: 12 Feb 2026·Source: www.pscarivukal.com

Indian National Congress | Short Notes for PSC(118)

Item	Detail
Important Facts about Indian National Congress (Pre-independence)Established on	December 28, 1885
Founded by	A.O Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji & Dinshaw Edulji Wacha
Father of the Indian National Congress	A.O Hume
Two Predecessors of Indian National Congress	Indian National Union (A.O Hume, 1884) & Indian National Conference (Surendranath Banerjee & Anand Mohan Bose)
Two sessions of the Indian National Conference were held in	1883 & 1885
Main Architects of Indian National Congress	Surendranath Banerjee & Anand Mohan Bose
The Theory related to the Formation of INC	Safety Valve Theory.*First President –W.C. Bonerjee.also president of Allahabad session in 1892
First General Secretary	A.O Hume
Venue of First Session	Gokul Tejpal Sanskrit School (Bombay).No. of Participants in the First Session –72.No. of registered Muslim delegated who attended the 1st session –2
British Viceroy of India at the time of the first session of the Congress	Lord Dufferin
First resolution of INC was presented by	G. Subramania Iyer
Second President of INC	Dadabhai Naoroji (1886)*
First Parsi President of INC	Dadabhai Naoroji (1886)*
First English man/European/Foreigner to become Congress President	George Yule (1888).No. of English Presidents of Indian National Congress –5
Only English man to be the President of INC twice	William Wedderburn (1889 Bombay & 1910 Allahabad Sessions)*
First Foreigner President of INC in the 20th century	Henry Cotton*
The British Committee of INC was formed in	1889
Journal of the INC's British Committee	India
First Congress session attended by Women	1889 Bombay Session
First Woman member of INC	Kadambini Ganguly (1889, Bombay Session)
First Woman to address a Congress session	Kadambini Ganguly
First Woman President	Annie Besant(1917 Calcutta Session)
First Foreigner Woman President of INC	Annie Besant (Ireland)*
First Indian Woman President	Sarojini Naidu (1925, Kanpur Session).No. of Women Presidents of Indian National Congress –3
First Woman President of INC after Independence	Indira Gandhi (1959 Delhi Session)*
First Muslim President	Badaruddin Tayabji (1887, Madras)
SecondMuslim President	Rahimtulla M. Sayani (Calcutta Session,1896)
First Acting President of INC	Hakkim Ajmal Khan*
First South Indian city to host a congress session	Madras (1887, 3rd INC Session)
First South Indian President of INC	P. Ananda Charlu (1891 Nagpur Session)*
First Malayali to become member of INC	Barrister G.P. Pillai (1889)
First & Only Malayali President of Indian National Congress	Chettur Sankaran Nair (Amraoti session, Maharashtra, 1897)*
Oldest President of INC	Dadabhi Naoroji*
Youngest President of the Indian National Congress	Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (35 years)*
First elected President of INC	Subhas Chandra Bose (1939, Tripuri Session)*
First person to be the President of INC three times	Dadabhai Naoroji (1886, 1893, 1906)*
President for the maximum no. of times	Dadabhi Naoroji(1886, 1893, 1906),Jawahar Lal Nehru(1929, 1936, 1937)
First person to be the President of INC two consecutive times	Rash Bihari Ghosh*
President of the Indian National Congress for six consecutive years	Abul Kalam Azad (1940-1946)*
Nickname	Congress Showboy
National Education Day (11th November; birth anniversary of Abul Kalam Azad).INC president during Quit India movement	Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad
First timeVande Mataramwas sung	Calcutta Session 1896 (12th Session)
President	Rahimtulla M Sayani
First-time recital of National Anthem (Jana Gana Mana) occured in	Calcutta session (1911)
President	Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar
Constitution need emphasized	First time at Allahabad Session, 1888
First Congress session in which Gandhiji participated	Calcutta Session 1901
President	Dinshaw E
The session which was presided over by Gandhiji	Belgaon (1924)
First congress session attended by Jawaharlal Nehru	Bankipur Session (1912)
Congress session in which Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru met for the first time	1916 Lucknow Session
President of Indian National Congress at the time of partition of Bengal in 1905	Gopalakrishna Gokhale*
Viceroy	Lord Curzon
Announced on	July 19, 1905
Came into effect on	October 16, 1905
Session in which 'Poorna Swaraj' was first used at congress platform	Calcutta Session (1906)
President of INC during the formation of All India Muslim League	Dadabhai Naoroji*
Formed on	December 30, 1906
Location	Dhaka (Bangladesh)
Founders	Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Khwaja Salimullah, Aga Khan III &Hakim Ajmal Khan
President of INC at the time of cancellation of partition of Bengal in 1911	B.N. Dhar*
Viceroy	Lord Hardinge II
First joint session of Indian National Congress and Muslim League	Lucknow (1916)
President of INC during the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919)	Motilal Nehru (Amritsar Session)*
The special congress session which passed the resolution of the Non-Cooperation Movement	1920 Calcutta Session
President	Lala Lajpat Rai
President of 1920 Nagpur Session session in which congress gave approval to the Non-Cooperation Movement	C. Vijayaraghavachari*
Session in which Indian National Congress passed the resolution for Poorna Swaraj	Lahore
Complete Independence demand was raised for the first time	Lahore (1929)
First person to suggest that Swaraj be defined as complete independence	Moulana Hasrat Mohani
All India Khadi Board was formed as a result of	1923 Delhi Session
Khadi was made compulsory in	Guwahati Session (1926)
All India Youth congress was formed in	Calcutta Session (1928)
The congress session during which the resolution to abolish untouchability was passed, which spurred the start of the Vaikom Satyagraha	1923 Kakinada Congress Session
President	Maulana Mohammad Ali.AnUntouchability Abolition Committee (UAC)was formed immediately after this session by KPCC under the leadership ofT. K. Madhavan, K. Kelappan (convener), Kurur Nilakantan Namboothiri, T.R. Krishna Swami Iyer & K. Velayudha Menon
Fundamentals Rights and Economic Policy Proposals Passed	Karachi Session 1931
Congress was declared illegal during	1932, 1933 Sessions
Socialism in Congress	1936 Lucknow Session
First village session	Fazipur, near Jalgaon (1936)
The first session of Congress after Independence	Jaipur
President	Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
First Meeting of Gandhiji & Nehru.32nd Session1917CalcuttaAnnie BesantFirst Woman President of Congress.33rd Session1918DelhiMadan Mohan MalaviyaSpecial Session1918Bombay(August)Syed Hasan ImamTo discuss Montagu	Chelmsford Reforms Scheme.34th Session1919AmritsarMotilal NehruTo Codemn Jallianwala Bagh massacre*
Famous People & Their Opinions About INCFamous PeopleOpinionsLord DufferinMicroscopic minority of IndiaA factory of seditionLord CurzonIn my belief, Congress is to tottering to its fall and one of mygreat ambitions while in India is to assist it to a peaceful demise.(1885)Aurobindo GhoshINC is a begging instituteBal Gangadhar TilakINC should be distinguished between begging and claiming the rightsBipin Chandra PalINC playing with bubbles📝SideNotes:Grand Old Man of India	Dadabhai Naoroji
Iron Man of India	Sardar Vallabhai Patel
Rashtraguru	Surendranath Banerjee
Mahamana	Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (by Tagore)
Deshabandhu	C.R. Das
Lokmanya	Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak National Award 2021	Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla.cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a memento
Lal Bal Pal	Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak & Bipin Chandra Pal
The Lion of South India	C. Vijayaraghavachariar
First Indian to contest an election to the British House of Commons	W.C. Bonnerjee
First Indian elected to the British House of Commons	Dadabhai Naoroji
First Asian to be elected to the British Parliament	Dadabhai Naoroji (1892)
First Indian to be a member of the British House of Lords & first baron of Raipur	Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha
First Indian to be appointed as a Standing Counsel	W.C. Bonnerjee (1882, 1884, 1886 &1887)
The political organization which opposed the INC / The association which was formed to counter Congress propaganda	United Indian Patriotic Association (UIPA)
Established by	Sir Syed Ahmad Khan & Raja Shiv Prasad Singh (1888)
Political Guru of Mahatma Gandhi	Gopalakrishna Gokhale
Other Epithets	'Diamond of India', 'the jewel of Maharashtra ' & 'the prince of workers.' ( By Tilak)Father of Indian Ornithology / Pope of Indian Ornithology –Allan Octavian Hume
Political Guru of A.O. Hume	Mahadev Gobind Ranade
The biographical memoir of A. O. Hume was written by	Sir William Wedderburn
Leader of Moderates / Naram Dal	Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Leader of Extremists/ Garam Dal	Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Founder of Benares Hindu University, Asia’s largest residential university	Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
First Muslim sheriff of Madras	Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur
First president of Mohun Bagan AC	Bhupendra Nath Bose*
Only person to have been appointed president of the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and the All India Khilafat Committee	Hakim Ajmal Khan*
Official historian of Indian National Congress	Pattabhi Sitharamiyyah
Diary of Pattabhi Sitharamiyyah	Feathers and stones
Famous Book	History of Congress (1935)
Oldest President of INC after independence	Sitaram Kesri (77 years)*
Youngest President of the Indian National Congress	Rajiv Gandhi (41 years)*
Youngest Indian Prime minister	Rajiv Gandhi (40 years)*
Founder of both Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University and the Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia (medical) College	Hakim Ajmal Khan.Co-Founder of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University –Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari
University Grants Commission and the Indian Institutes of Technology	Abul Kalam Azad
First Malayali to be a member of Viceroy’s Executive Council	Chettur Shankaran Nair.In response to theJallianwala Bagh massacre, he resigned from the Executive Council
Famous Book	Gandhi and Anarchy (1922).*Safety Valve Theory– According to one alternative theory, A.O. Hume founded the Congress with the hope that it would serve as a "safety valve" for the Indians' growing resentment. He expected the National Congress to provide a peaceful and constitutional outlet.In order to do this, he persuaded Lord Dufferin not to block the establishment of the Congress

Important Facts about Indian National Congress (Pre-independence)Established on

December 28, 1885

Founded by

A.O Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji & Dinshaw Edulji Wacha

Father of the Indian National Congress

A.O Hume

Two Predecessors of Indian National Congress

Indian National Union (A.O Hume, 1884) & Indian National Conference (Surendranath Banerjee & Anand Mohan Bose)

Two sessions of the Indian National Conference were held in

1883 & 1885

Main Architects of Indian National Congress

Surendranath Banerjee & Anand Mohan Bose

The Theory related to the Formation of INC

Safety Valve Theory.*First President –W.C. Bonerjee.also president of Allahabad session in 1892

First General Secretary

A.O Hume

Venue of First Session

Gokul Tejpal Sanskrit School (Bombay).No. of Participants in the First Session –72.No. of registered Muslim delegated who attended the 1st session –2

British Viceroy of India at the time of the first session of the Congress

Lord Dufferin

First resolution of INC was presented by

G. Subramania Iyer

Second President of INC*

Dadabhai Naoroji (1886)

First Parsi President of INC*

Dadabhai Naoroji (1886)

First English man/European/Foreigner to become Congress President

George Yule (1888).No. of English Presidents of Indian National Congress –5

Only English man to be the President of INC twice*

William Wedderburn (1889 Bombay & 1910 Allahabad Sessions)

First Foreigner President of INC in the 20th century*

Henry Cotton

The British Committee of INC was formed in

1889

Journal of the INC's British Committee

India

First Congress session attended by Women

1889 Bombay Session

First Woman member of INC

Kadambini Ganguly (1889, Bombay Session)

First Woman to address a Congress session

Kadambini Ganguly

First Woman President

Annie Besant(1917 Calcutta Session)

First Foreigner Woman President of INC*

Annie Besant (Ireland)

First Indian Woman President

Sarojini Naidu (1925, Kanpur Session).No. of Women Presidents of Indian National Congress –3

First Woman President of INC after Independence*

Indira Gandhi (1959 Delhi Session)

First Muslim President

Badaruddin Tayabji (1887, Madras)

SecondMuslim President

Rahimtulla M. Sayani (Calcutta Session,1896)

First Acting President of INC*

Hakkim Ajmal Khan

First South Indian city to host a congress session

Madras (1887, 3rd INC Session)

First South Indian President of INC*

P. Ananda Charlu (1891 Nagpur Session)

First Malayali to become member of INC

Barrister G.P. Pillai (1889)

First & Only Malayali President of Indian National Congress*

Chettur Sankaran Nair (Amraoti session, Maharashtra, 1897)

Oldest President of INC*

Dadabhi Naoroji

Youngest President of the Indian National Congress*

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (35 years)

First elected President of INC*

Subhas Chandra Bose (1939, Tripuri Session)

First person to be the President of INC three times*

Dadabhai Naoroji (1886, 1893, 1906)

President for the maximum no. of times

Dadabhi Naoroji(1886, 1893, 1906),Jawahar Lal Nehru(1929, 1936, 1937)

First person to be the President of INC two consecutive times*

Rash Bihari Ghosh

President of the Indian National Congress for six consecutive years*

Abul Kalam Azad (1940-1946)

Nickname

Congress Showboy

National Education Day (11th November; birth anniversary of Abul Kalam Azad).INC president during Quit India movement

Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad

First timeVande Mataramwas sung

Calcutta Session 1896 (12th Session)

President

Rahimtulla M Sayani

First-time recital of National Anthem (Jana Gana Mana) occured in

Calcutta session (1911)

President

Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar

Constitution need emphasized

First time at Allahabad Session, 1888

First Congress session in which Gandhiji participated

Calcutta Session 1901

President

Dinshaw E

The session which was presided over by Gandhiji

Belgaon (1924)

First congress session attended by Jawaharlal Nehru

Bankipur Session (1912)

Congress session in which Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru met for the first time

1916 Lucknow Session

President of Indian National Congress at the time of partition of Bengal in 1905*

Gopalakrishna Gokhale

Viceroy

Lord Curzon

Announced on

July 19, 1905

Came into effect on

October 16, 1905

Session in which 'Poorna Swaraj' was first used at congress platform

Calcutta Session (1906)

President of INC during the formation of All India Muslim League*

Dadabhai Naoroji

Formed on

December 30, 1906

Location

Dhaka (Bangladesh)

Founders

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Khwaja Salimullah, Aga Khan III &Hakim Ajmal Khan

President of INC at the time of cancellation of partition of Bengal in 1911*

B.N. Dhar

Viceroy

Lord Hardinge II

First joint session of Indian National Congress and Muslim League

Lucknow (1916)

President of INC during the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919)*

Motilal Nehru (Amritsar Session)

The special congress session which passed the resolution of the Non-Cooperation Movement

1920 Calcutta Session

President

Lala Lajpat Rai

President of 1920 Nagpur Session session in which congress gave approval to the Non-Cooperation Movement*

C. Vijayaraghavachari

Session in which Indian National Congress passed the resolution for Poorna Swaraj

Lahore

Complete Independence demand was raised for the first time

Lahore (1929)

First person to suggest that Swaraj be defined as complete independence

Moulana Hasrat Mohani

All India Khadi Board was formed as a result of

1923 Delhi Session

Khadi was made compulsory in

Guwahati Session (1926)

All India Youth congress was formed in

Calcutta Session (1928)

The congress session during which the resolution to abolish untouchability was passed, which spurred the start of the Vaikom Satyagraha

1923 Kakinada Congress Session

President

Maulana Mohammad Ali.AnUntouchability Abolition Committee (UAC)was formed immediately after this session by KPCC under the leadership ofT. K. Madhavan, K. Kelappan (convener), Kurur Nilakantan Namboothiri, T.R. Krishna Swami Iyer & K. Velayudha Menon

Fundamentals Rights and Economic Policy Proposals Passed

Karachi Session 1931

Congress was declared illegal during

1932, 1933 Sessions

Socialism in Congress

1936 Lucknow Session

First village session

Fazipur, near Jalgaon (1936)

The first session of Congress after Independence

Jaipur

President

Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya

First Meeting of Gandhiji & Nehru.32nd Session1917CalcuttaAnnie BesantFirst Woman President of Congress.33rd Session1918DelhiMadan Mohan MalaviyaSpecial Session1918Bombay(August)Syed Hasan ImamTo discuss Montagu*

Chelmsford Reforms Scheme.34th Session1919AmritsarMotilal NehruTo Codemn Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Famous People & Their Opinions About INCFamous PeopleOpinionsLord DufferinMicroscopic minority of IndiaA factory of seditionLord CurzonIn my belief, Congress is to tottering to its fall and one of mygreat ambitions while in India is to assist it to a peaceful demise.(1885)Aurobindo GhoshINC is a begging instituteBal Gangadhar TilakINC should be distinguished between begging and claiming the rightsBipin Chandra PalINC playing with bubbles📝SideNotes:Grand Old Man of India

Dadabhai Naoroji

Iron Man of India

Sardar Vallabhai Patel

Rashtraguru

Surendranath Banerjee

Mahamana

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (by Tagore)

Deshabandhu

C.R. Das

Lokmanya

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Lokmanya Tilak National Award 2021

Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla.cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a memento

Lal Bal Pal

Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak & Bipin Chandra Pal

The Lion of South India

C. Vijayaraghavachariar

First Indian to contest an election to the British House of Commons

W.C. Bonnerjee

First Indian elected to the British House of Commons

Dadabhai Naoroji

First Asian to be elected to the British Parliament

Dadabhai Naoroji (1892)

First Indian to be a member of the British House of Lords & first baron of Raipur

Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha

First Indian to be appointed as a Standing Counsel

W.C. Bonnerjee (1882, 1884, 1886 &1887)

The political organization which opposed the INC / The association which was formed to counter Congress propaganda

United Indian Patriotic Association (UIPA)

Established by

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan & Raja Shiv Prasad Singh (1888)

Political Guru of Mahatma Gandhi

Gopalakrishna Gokhale

Other Epithets

'Diamond of India', 'the jewel of Maharashtra ' & 'the prince of workers.' ( By Tilak)Father of Indian Ornithology / Pope of Indian Ornithology –Allan Octavian Hume

Political Guru of A.O. Hume

Mahadev Gobind Ranade

The biographical memoir of A. O. Hume was written by

Sir William Wedderburn

Leader of Moderates / Naram Dal

Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Leader of Extremists/ Garam Dal

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Founder of Benares Hindu University, Asia’s largest residential university

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya

First Muslim sheriff of Madras

Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur

First president of Mohun Bagan AC*

Bhupendra Nath Bose

Only person to have been appointed president of the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and the All India Khilafat Committee*

Hakim Ajmal Khan

Official historian of Indian National Congress

Pattabhi Sitharamiyyah

Diary of Pattabhi Sitharamiyyah

Feathers and stones

Famous Book

History of Congress (1935)

Oldest President of INC after independence*

Sitaram Kesri (77 years)

Youngest President of the Indian National Congress*

Rajiv Gandhi (41 years)

Youngest Indian Prime minister*

Rajiv Gandhi (40 years)

Founder of both Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University and the Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia (medical) College

Hakim Ajmal Khan.Co-Founder of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University –Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari

University Grants Commission and the Indian Institutes of Technology

Abul Kalam Azad

First Malayali to be a member of Viceroy’s Executive Council

Chettur Shankaran Nair.In response to theJallianwala Bagh massacre, he resigned from the Executive Council

Famous Book

Gandhi and Anarchy (1922).*Safety Valve Theory– According to one alternative theory, A.O. Hume founded the Congress with the hope that it would serve as a "safety valve" for the Indians' growing resentment. He expected the National Congress to provide a peaceful and constitutional outlet.In order to do this, he persuaded Lord Dufferin not to block the establishment of the Congress

* Time-sensitive data — verify for latest information

Indian National Congress | Short Notes for PSC

Key Takeaway

Indian National Congress | Short Notes for PSC(118)

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