THE GREAT INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT The most important events during Lord Dufferin’sPeriod (1884-1888) were the third Anglo BurmeseWar (1885-86) and the establishment of the first AllIndia organisation, the Indian National Congress. The INC was founded in December 28, 1885 at theGokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay. 72 delegates participated in the first session of theINC in Bombay. It was founded by A.O. Hume a retired Civil Servant. W.C. Banerjee was the first president of INC. The Indian Association of S.N. Banerjee and AnandMohan Bose, organised an All Indian National Conferencein 1883 December. They had given a call foranother conference in 1885. ‘Congress’ means assembly of the people. The name Congress was suggested to theorganisation by Dadabhai Naoroji. Dadabhai Naoroji founded the East Indian Associationin 1866. A.O. Hume was the General Secretary of INC till1892. The Second Session of the INC met at Calcutta inDecember 1886, under the presidentship ofDadabhai Naoroji. The period from 1885 to 1905 is known as the ModeratePhase of Indian National Congress. Prominentleaders of this phase were Dadabhai Naoroji,Badruddin Tyabji, Pheroz Shah Mehta,Surendranath Banerjee, Gopalakrishna Gokhale etc. ‘‘We do not ask favours, we only want justice’’,these were the words of Dadabhai Naoroji. Dadabhai Naoroji is the author of the book ‘‘Povertyand UnBritish Rule in India’’ which containsthe famous ‘‘drain theory’’. Dadabhai Naoroji is known as ‘‘The Grand OldMan of India’’. He was the first Indian to become amember of the House of Commons on the LiberalParty ticket. He became the president of INC thrice,in 1886, 1893 and 1906. He founded ‘Gyan PrakashMandali’ and Bombay Association in 1852. He isalso known as ‘Father of Indian Economics andPolitics’. Badruddin Tyabji was the first Indian barrister atBombay High Court. He was the first Muslim presidentof INC. He became the third president of INCin Madras session in 1887. Pherozeshah Mehta founded the Bombaychronicle in 1913. S.N. Banarjee founded the Indian Association in1876. He was the first President of Indian NationalLiberal Federation (1918). Gopalakrishna Gokhale founded the ‘Servants ofIndia Society in 1905. Jawaharlal Nehru observed the Early Congress

to be ‘‘an English knowing upper class affair’’. George Yule was the first foreigner to become thePresident of INC. (1888, Allahabad). Gopala Krishna Gokhale was populary known asthe ‘Socrates of Maharahstra’. M.G. Ranade wasthe political guru of Gokhale. Gokhale is considered as the political guru ofGandhiji. Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman to becomethe president of Indian National Congress(1925 Kanpur session) Nellin Sengupta became the third woman Presidentof INC, 1933 at the Calcutta Session. The word Swaraj was first used in the Calcuttasession in1906. First joint session of Congress and Muslim Leaguewas held at Lucknow 1916. Only session presided over by Gandhi - Belgaum(1924)The year 1888 became birth year of Sarveppalli.S. Radhakrishnan, the philosopher and secondpresident of India; C.V. Raman, the Nobel Prizewinner in Physics, Abdul Kalam Azad, thefreedom fighter; Romesh Chandra Majumdar, therenowned historian and Acharya J.B. Kripalini,the renowned freedom fighter.