Spectrum Summary: The Foundation & the Moderate Phase of the INC | History for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Foundation of Indian National Congress

• In the late 1800s, people in India were getting ready to form a big organization that would represent everyone across the country.
• A retired English officer named A.O. Hume played a big role in making this organization, called the Indian National Congress (INC).
• The first meeting of the INC happened in Bombay in 1885, and 72 important people attended.
• Before the INC, there were other meetings called Indian National Conferences, organized by leaders like Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose.
• The INC kept meeting every year in different parts of India.
• Some important leaders in the early years were Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tyabji, and others.
• One special thing happened in 1890 when Kadambini Ganguly, the first woman graduate from Calcutta University, spoke at the INC meeting, showing that women were also important in the fight for freedom.
• Apart from the INC, people also worked for the freedom cause through local meetings, newspapers, and writings.

Was It a Safety Valve?

• A theory proposes that A.O. Hume created the Indian National Congress (INC) as a 'safety valve' to ease growing discontent among Indians.
• Hume convinced Lord Dufferin not to hinder the INC's formation.
• Extremist leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai supported the 'safety valve' theory.
• Marxist historian R.P. Dutt suggested a 'conspiracy theory,' linking the INC's birth to thwart a potential uprising in India, with bourgeois leaders involved.
• Modern Indian historians dispute the 'safety valve' idea, asserting that the INC represented politically conscious Indians' desire for a national body to express their political and economic demands.
• According to Bipan Chandra, early Congress leaders used Hume as a 'lightning conductor' to unite nationalistic forces, even if under the guise of a 'safety valve.'

Aims and Objectives of the Congress

The main aims of the Indian National Congress in the initial stage were to—

• found a democratic, nationalist movement;
• politicize and politically educate people;
• establish the headquarters for a movement;
• promote friendly relations among nationalist political workers from different parts of the country;
• develop and propagate an anti-colonial nationalist ideology;
• formulate and present popular demands before the government to unify the people over a common economic and political programme;
• Develop and consolidate a feeling of national unity among people irrespective of religion, caste or province.
• Carefully promote and nurture Indian nationhood.

The Era of Moderates (1885-1905)

Important Leaders

• Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozshah Mehta, D.E. Wacha, W.C. Bonnerjea, and S.N. Banerjea were prominent leaders shaping Congress policies in the early period.
• These leaders were strong advocates of 'liberalism' and 'moderate' politics.
• They became known as Moderates to distinguish them from the later neo-nationalists, termed Extremists, emerging in the early twentieth century.

Moderate Approach

• Moderate political activity focused on constitutional agitation within the law for slow but orderly progress.
• Moderates believed British intentions were just but lacked awareness of Indian conditions.
• The strategy involved creating public opinion, raising awareness, and uniting people on political issues.
• Advocated 'prayer and petition' as a method and resorted to constitutional agitation if needed.
• A British committee of the Indian National Congress was set up in London in 1889, with Dadabhai Naoroji actively campaigning for India's cause abroad.
• Initially an INC session in London in 1892, but it was postponed and not revived.
• Moderates believed in maintaining political connections with Britain at that historical stage and transforming colonial rule as close to national rule as possible.

 Contributions of Moderate Nationalists

Economic Critique of British Imperialism

• Early nationalists, including Dadabhai Naoroji, R.C. Dutt, and Dinshaw Wacha, examined British rule's impact on India's political economy.
• They introduced the "drain theory" to explain British exploitation, emphasizing the shift from a self-sufficient Indian economy to a colonial one.
• Moderates aimed to establish a broad public opinion that British rule was a primary cause of India's poverty and economic backwardness.
• To improve Indian conditions, early nationalists advocated:
  • Severance of economic subservience to Britain.
  • Development of an independent economy involving Indian capital and enterprise.
• Specific demands included:
  • Reduction in land revenue.
  • Abolition of salt tax.
  • Improvement in working conditions for plantation labor.
  • Decrease in military expenditure.
• Encouragement of modern industry through tariff protection and government aid.

Constitutional Reforms and Propaganda in Legislature

Campaign for General Administrative Reforms

The Moderates campaigned on the following grounds - 

• Indianisation of government service
• Call for separation of judicial from executive functions.
• Criticism of an oppressive and tyrannical bureaucracy and an expensive and time-consuming judicial system.
• Criticism of an aggressive foreign policy that resulted in the annexation of Burma, attack on Afghanistan and suppression of tribals in the North-West—all costing heavily for the Indian treasury.
• Call for an increase in expenditure on welfare (i.e., health, sanitation), education— especially elementary and technical—irrigation works and improvement of agriculture, agricultural banks for cultivators, etc.
• Demand for better treatment for Indian labour abroad in other British colonies, where they faced oppression and racial discrimination.

Protection of Civil Rights

• Civil rights encompassed speech, thought, association, and a free press.
• Nationalists actively campaigned to promote modern democratic ideas.
• Protection of civil rights became an integral part of the freedom struggle.
• Public outrage emerged in 1897 due to the arrests of leaders like Tilak and journalists.
• The arrest and deportation of the Natu brothers without a trial intensified public discontent.
• The significance lies in the recognition of civil rights' importance in the fight for freedom and the link between democratic ideals and the nationalist movement.

An Evaluation of the Early Nationalists

The early nationalists did a great deal to awaken the national sentiment, even though they could not draw the masses to them.

• They represented the most progressive forces of the time.
• They were able to create a wide national awakening of all Indians having common interests and the need to rally around a common programme against a common enemy, and above all, the feeling of belonging to one nation.
• They trained people in political work and popularized modern ideas.
• They exposed the exploitative character of colonial rule, thus undermining its moral foundations.
• Their political work was based on hard realities, and not on shallow sentiments, religion, etc.
• They were able to establish the basic political truth that India should be ruled in the interest of Indians.
• They created a solid base for a more vigorous, militant, mass-based national movement in the years that followed.
• They failed to widen their democratic base and the scope of their demands.

Role of Masses

The moderate phase of the national movement had a narrow social base and the masses played a passive role. This was because the early nationalists lacked political faith in the masses; they felt that there were numerous divisions and subdivisions in Indian society, and the masses were generally ignorant and had conservative ideas and thoughts.

The attitude of the Government