The Indian National Congress was established in the year 28 December, 1885. It was founded by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. Initially, the party was an organisation for the educated elite in India. Later, it became an organisation of commoners with leaders like Lajpat Rai, Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru etc as its members. Let us take a look at the list of Indian National Congress Sessions.
List of Indian National Congress Sessions
Year |
Location |
President |
Importance |
| 1885 | Bombay | Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee | First session attended by 72 delegates |
| 1886 | Calcutta | Dadabhai Naoroji | National Congress and National Conference |
| 1887 | Madras | Syed Badruddin Tyabji | First Muslim President. Appeal made to Muslims to join hands with other national leaders |
| 1888 | Allahabad | George Yule | First English president |
| 1889 | Bombay | Sir William Wedderburn | – |
| 1890 | Calcutta | Feroz Shah Mehta | – |
| 1891 | Nagpur | P. Ananda Charlu | – |
| 1892 | Allahabad | Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee | – |
| 1893 | Lahore | Dadabhai Naoroji | – |
| 1894 | Madras | Alfred Webb | – |
| 1895 | Poona | Surendranath Banerjee | – |
| 1896 | Calcutta | Rahimtullah M. Sayani | National song ‘Vande Mataram’ sung for the first time |
| 1897 | Amravati | C. Sankaran Nair | – |
| 1898 | Madras | Ananda Mohan Bose | – |
| 1899 | Lucknow | Romesh Chandra Dutt | – |
| 1900 | Lahore | N G Chandavarkar | – |
| 1901 | Calcutta | Dinshaw E. Wacha | – |
| 1902 | Ahmedabad | Surendranath Banerjee | – |
| 1903 | Madras | Lal Mohan Ghosh | – |
| 1904 | Bombay | Sir Henry Cotton | – |
| 1905 | Benares | Gopal Krishna Gokhale | Expressed resentment against the partition of Bengal |
| 1906 | Calcutta | Dadabhai Naoroji | The word ‘Swaraj’ was mentioned for the first time |
| 1907 | Surat | Rash Behari Ghosh | Party splits into extremists and moderates |
| 1908 | Madras | Rash Behari Ghosh | Previous session continued |
| 1909 | Lahore | Madan Mohan Malaviya | Indian Councils Act, 1909 |
| 1910 | Allahabad | Sir William Wedderburn | – |
| 1911 | Calcutta | Bishan Narayan Dar | ‘Jana Gana Mana’ sung for the first time |
| 1912 | Bankipore (Patna) | Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar | – |
| 1913 | Karachi | Syed Mohammed Bahadur | – |
| 1914 | Madras | Bhupendra Nath Basu | – |
| 1915 | Bombay | Satyendra Prasanna Sinha | – |
| 1916 | Lucknow | Ambica Charan Mazumdar | Reunion of the Congress. Lucknow Pact – joint session with the Muslim League |
| 1917 | Calcutta | Annie Besant | First woman president of the INC |
| 1918 | Bombay And Delhi | Syed Hasan Imam (Bombay) And Madan Mohan Malaviya (Delhi) | Two sessions were held. First in Bombay in August/September Second in Delhi in December |
| 1919 | Amritsar | Motilal Nehru | – |
| 1920 | Nagpur | C Vijayaraghavachariar | – |
| 1921 | Ahmedabad | Hakim Ajmal Khan (acting President For C R Das) | – |
| 1922 | Gaya | C R Das | – |
| 1923 | Kakinada | Maulana Mohammad Ali | – |
| 1924 | Belgaum | M K Gandhi | – |
| 1925 | Kanpur | Sarojini Naidu | First Indian woman president |
| 1926 | Guwahati | S Srinivasa Iyengar | – |
| 1927 | Madras | M A Ansari | – |
| 1928 | Calcutta | Motilal Nehru | All India Youth Congress formed |
| 1929 | Lahore | Jawaharlal Nehru | Resolution for ‘Poorna Swaraj.’ Civil Disobedience movement for complete independence to be launched, 26 January to be observed as ‘Independence Day’ |
| 1931 | Karachi | Vallabhbhai Patel | Resolution on fundamental rights and national economic progress. Gandhi-Irwin pact endorsed. Gandhi nominated to represent INC in the second-round table conference |
| 1932 | Delhi | Amrit Ranchhorddas Seth | – |
| 1933 | Calcutta | Malaviya was elected but Mrs Nellie Sengupta Presided | – |
| 1934 | Bombay | Rajendra Prasad | – |
| 1936 | Lucknow | Jawaharlal Nehru | – |
| 1937 | Faizpur | Jawaharlal Nehru | First session to be held in a village |
| 1938 | Haripura | Subhas Chandra Bose | National planning committee set up under Nehru |
| 1939 | Tripuri | Subhas Chandra Bose | Bose was elected but had to resign since Gandhi supported Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Instead, Rajendra Prasad was appointed |
| 1940 | Ramgarh | Abul Kalam Azad | – |
| 1941-45 | – | – | No session because of arrest |
| 1946 | Meerut | Acharya J B Kripalani | Last session before independence |
| 1948 | Jaipur | Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya | First session after independence |
| 1950 | Nashik | Purushottam Das Tandon | – |
| 1951 | Delhi | Jawaharlal Nehru | – |
| 1953 | Hyderabad | Jawaharlal Nehru | – |
| 1954 | Kalyani | Jawaharlal Nehru | – |
| 1955 | Avadi(madras) | U. N. Dhebar | – |
| 1956 | Amritsar | U. N. Dhebar | – |
| 1958 | Gauhati | U. N. Dhebar | – |
| 1959 | Nagpur | Indira Gandhi | – |
| 1960 | Bangalore | Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy | – |
| 1961 | Bhavnagar | Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy | – |
| 1962 | Bhubaneshwar | Damodaran Sanjvayya | – |
| 1963 | Patna | Damodaran Sanjvayya | – |
| 1964 | Bhubaneshwar | K. Kamaraj | – |
| 1965 | Durgapur | K. Kamaraj | – |
Objectives of Indian National Congress
The main objective of the Indian National Congress when it was formed was to:
- promote the nation-building process in India in order to create a national identity of being an Indian among the people and to promote National Unity,
- provide for an all India political platform which will allow political workers from all over the country to educate and mobilize masses under a common all India political organization.
- promote political consciousness and political awakening among the educated citizens and then to all the sections of the society.
- promote other things in the country like-political liberal democracy, democratic culture, anti-colonial ideology among the people.
Conclusion
This article talked about the list of Indian National Congress sessions held over the years and the name of the President of the session along with the importance of the session. This is a very important topic in most of the exams including UPSC. Prepare well with Entri and score well. Good luck.
