07th Aug, 2021

Important facts to remember about leaders of the session

• Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee was the president of the first session of the Indian National Congress.
• Annie Beasant was the first female President of the Indian National Congress.
• Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress.
• Badruddin Tyabji was the first Muslim President of the Indian National Congress.
• Rahimtulla Sayani was the second Muslim President of the Indian National Congress.
• George Yule was the first European President of the Indian National Congress.
• Dadhabhai Naoroji was the first Parsi President of the Indian National Congress.
• Sankaran Narayan was the first & the only Keralite President of the Indian National Congress Session.
• Hakim Ajmal Khan was the only person to be appointed as the President of INC, All India Muslim League & All India Khilafat Committee.

Important Sessions of Indian National Congress

Important Satyagraha and freedom struggle movements of Mahatma Gandhi

The Rise of Gandhi in the Indian Freedom Struggle

M K Gandhi returned from South Africa to India in 1915.

There he had led a peaceful agitation against the discrimination meted out to Indians and had emerged as a respected leader.

It was in South Africa that he developed his brand of Satyagraha. In India, he first used this tool against the British government at Champaran in Bihar.

Champaran Satyagraha (1917)

• The first civil disobedience movement by Gandhi in the freedom struggle. He is requested by Rajkumar Shukla, an indigo cultivator in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system.
• The farmers were suffering under heavy taxes and an exploitative system. They were forced to grow indigo by the British planters under the tinkathia system.
• Gandhi arrived in Champaran to investigate the matter but was not permitted by the British authorities to do so. He was asked to leave the place but he refused.
• He was able to gather support from the farmers and masses. The case against him was dropped and he was allowed to conduct the inquiry.
• After peaceful protests against the planters and landlords led by Gandhi, the government agreed to abolish the exploitative tinkathia system.
• The peasants also received a part of the money extracted from them as compensation.
• Champaran struggle is called the first experiment on Satyagraha by Gandhi. It was during this time that Gandhi was given the names ‘Bapu’ and ‘Mahatma’ by the people.

Kheda Satyagraha (1918)

• 1918 was a year of failed crops in the Kheda district of Gujarat due to droughts.
• As per law, the farmers were entitled to remission if the produce was less than a quarter of the normal output. But the government refused any remission from paying land revenue.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, under Gandhi’s guidance, led the farmers in protest against the collection of taxes in the wake of the famine.
• People from all castes and ethnicities of the district lend their support to the movement.
• The protest was peaceful and people showed remarkable courage even in the face of adversities like confiscation of personal property and arrest.
• Finally, the authorities gave in and gave some concessions to the farmers.

Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918)

• Gandhi used Satyagraha and hunger strike for the first time during an industrial dispute between the owners and workers of a cotton mill in Ahmedabad.
• The owners wanted to withdraw the plague bonus to the workers while the workers were demanding a hike of 35% in their wages. Gandhi underwent a hunger strike for the workers..
• The Ahmedabad Mill strike was successful and the workers were granted the wage hike they wanted.

Satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919)

• Rowlatt Act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities, and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
• On 13th April, 1919 the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place. Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement (18th April, 1919).

Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22)

• At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj.
• At the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.
• In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement after the Chauri-Chaura incident.

The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement

• For several years after the Non-cooperation Movement ended, Mahatma Gandhi focused on his social reform work.
• In 1930, Gandhiji declared that he would lead a march to break the salt law. According to this law, the state had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt.
• The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhi’s ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi, where they broke the government law by gathering natural salt found on the seashore, and boiling sea water to produce salt.
• This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• In 1931, Gandhi accepted a truce (the Gandhi-Irwin Pact), called off civil disobedience, and agreed to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress.
• After returning from London, Mahatma Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement. For over a year, the movement continued, but by 1934 it lost its momentum.

Quit India Movement

• With the outbreak of World War II (1939-45), the nationalist struggle in India entered its last crucial phase.
• The failure of the mission of Sir Stafford Cripps, a British cabinet minister who went to India in March 1942 with an offer that Gandhi found unacceptable.
• The British equivocation on the transfer of power to Indian hands, and the encouragement given by high British officials to conservative and communal forces promoting discord between Muslims and Hindus impelled Gandhi to demand in the summer of 1942 an immediate British withdrawal from India—what became known as the Quit India Movement.

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