Mr. Hume, with the support of some prominent Indians, succeeded in giving effect to his plan, and the first Indian National Congress met in Bombay during the Christmas week of 1885 under the Presidency of a Bengal barrister, Mr. W. C. Bonnerjee. About the same time the second session of the Indian National Conference was held in Calcutta. It appears that the two movements were simultaneous and independent, and the organisers of neither knew about the other until on the eve of their sittings. Both the organisations were conceived on the same lines and adopted the same programme, and it was obviously undesirable that there should be two such associations working independently in two different parts of India. It is a striking testimony to the growth of a feeling of national unity that without any difficulty the Indian National Conference silently merged itself into the Indian National Congress. The Madras Mahajan Sabha and the Bombay Presidency Association came into existence in 1884 and 1885 respectively, and both these organisations tried to focus attention of the people on various problems of administration and public life.
The first Indian National Congress consisted only of seventy delegates, for some prominent leaders, including Surendranath, could not attend it on account of the simultaneous session of the Indian National Conference. Henceforth the Congress met every year, during Christmas week, in some important town of India, the second and third sessions being held respectively in Calcutta and Madras. Everywhere it evoked great enthusiasm among the local public, and attracted gradually increasing numbers of delegates from different parts of India. It admirably fulfilled the object which Hume had formulated in the following words in his opening manifesto: “directly, to enable all earnest labourers in the National cause to become personally known to each other, to discuss and decide upon the political operations to be undertaken during the ensuing year; and indirectly, this Conference will form the germ of a Native Parliament, and, if properly conducted, will in a few years constitute an unanswerable reply to the assertion that India is unfit for any form of representative institutions.”
Throughout the nineteenth century the Congress chiefly concerned itself with criticism of Government policy and demands for reforms. Its views were formulated in the shape of resolutions, which were forwarded to the Government for their consideration.
It drew the attention of the Government to the appalling poverty of the country and asked for proper inquiry and redress. It criticised the Arms Act and various administrative measures, particularly the Excise and Salt tax.
As regards reforms, it laid special emphasis on the following specific measures:
(1) Development of self-government by means of representative councils both in the Central as well as in the Provincial Governments.
(2) Abolition of the Indian Council.
(3) Spread of education, both general and technical.
(4) Reduction of military expenditures and military training of Indians.
(5) The separation of Judicial and Executive functions in the administration of criminal justice.
(6) Wider employment of Indians in the higher offices in the Public Service, especially by instituting I.C.S. examinations both in England and India.
In criticising Government policy the Congress always maintained great dignity and moderation. It professed unswerving loyalty to the Throne and cherished an unbounded faith in the liberalism and sense of justice of British statesmen. Its whole endeavour was directed towards rousing their consciousness to the inherent justice of the Indian claims.
In the year 1896 an Industrial Exhibition was held in connection with the Congress to give an impetus to Indian industry. A Social Conference was also added in order to call public attention to, and devise means for the removal of, the acknowledged social evils.
At the very beginning the Government looked upon the Congress movement with favour, at least without any dislike. Government officials not only attended the first meeting of the Congress, but even took part in its deliberations. Congress members were invited to a garden party by the Governor- General (Lord Dufferin) in Calcutta (1886), and the Governor in Madras (1887).
But the official world soon changed its view. Lord Dufferin, on the eve of his retirement, expressed his disapproval of the policy, and methods of the Indian National Congress at the St. Andrew’s Dinner in Calcutta and described the educated community” microscopic minority”. The high officials took their cue from him, and gradually the Government officers kept aloof from the Congress movement.
The official attitude to the Congress was based on the plea that the educated community as an infinitesimal minority had no right or claim to represent the views of India. The Congress rejoinder to this argument formed the basis on which rested the sole justification of its claim to a representative character. It was ably summed up as follows by Sir Ramesh Chandra Mitra in his speech as Chairman of the Reception Committee of the Congress held in Calcutta in 1696:
“The educated community represented the brain and conscience of the country, and were the legitimate spokesmen of the illiterate masses, the natural custodians of their interests. To hold otherwise would be to presuppose that a foreign administrator in the service of the Government knows more about the wants of the masses than, their educated countrymen. It is true in all ages that those who think must govern those who toil; and could it be that the natural order of things was reversed in this unfortunate country?”
It is no wonder that the resolutions of the Congress evoked but little response from the government. As Hume declared, “the National Congress had endeavoured to instruct the Government, but the Government had refused to be instructed”. Disappointed with the Government attitude, the Congress decided to bring pressure upon the Government by organising public opinion both in India and England. The method, popularly known as Constitutional Agitation, henceforth became the chief instrument of the Congress. Apart from organisation of meetings in India, a paid agency was established in London in 1888. It arranged Iectures in different parts of England and distributed pamphlets to educate public opinion. Its place was soon taken by the British Committee of the Indian National Congress, which published a weekly paper called India.
