MODERN INDIA – UNIT II
NATIONALISM (TRENDS UPTO 1919)
THE FOUNDATION OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
QUESTIONS –
2004 – ‘The Congress was the brain child of A.O. Hume and Lord Dufferin’. How far do you agree with
the statement?
2005 – Short Note: Safety Valve Theory in the Origin of the Congress
2007 – Do you agree with the view that the formation of the Indian National Congress was the brain
child of A.O Hume and Lord Dufferin?
2009 – Is the ‘Safety Valve Theory’ an adequate explanation for the formation of the Indian National
Congress?
INTRODUCTION –
The Indian National Congress, which played a dominant role in India’s struggle for independence, was
founded in December 1885 in Bombay. It was the first organised expression of Indian nationalism
on an all India scale. A retired civil servant, A.O. Hume was crucially involved in this process and
although he wasn’t the first person either to conceive the idea or to attempt to realize it, his authority,
energy and organizing skill accomplished the seemingly impossible.
SAFETY VALVE THEORY –
Hume’s involvement gave rise to a lot of controversy regarding the origins of the Congress. The safety
valve theory which was deduced from this fact was subscribed to by many historians including the
stalwarts of the nationalist movement. However in recent researches it has been thoroughly discredited
and has little basis in historical fact.
The safety valve theory states that –
• The INC was started by A.O. Hume and others under the official direction and guidance of no
less a person than Lord Dufferin.
• They believed that the rising discontent of the masses which was inevitably leading to a popular
and violent revolution could be dealt with by providing a safe, peaceful and constitutional outlet
or safety valve.
• It was based on the assumption that such an organization would serve to provide a mechanism
to channelize the thoughts, demands and anger of the Indians in a peaceful and well-organised
manner, without endangering the British rule or interests in India.
• The INC would serve as a safety valve by opening up a line of communication between the
rulers and the ruled thereby preventing a mass revolution.
• Thus, the Congress was in this way a creation of British rule.
ORIGINS – This theory first originated from William Wedderburn’s biography of Hume published in
1913. Wedderburn claims that Hume had come across seven volumes of secret reports which showed
that there had been growing discontent among the masses and a conspiracy to overthrow the British
rule. This discovery in 1878 led Hume to meet Lord Dufferin and they decided to establish an
organization with educated Indians that would serve as a safety valve to safeguard British interests.
Gradually these seven volumes assumed a new character and historians believed that these documents
were the official documents.
PROPAGATORS OF THE THEORY – The safety valve theory was accepted for a long time by
various schools of thought and used by them to highlight the INC in a negative light. According to
Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, this theory was believed by the earliest nationalist historians, the imperial
historians used it to discredit the Congress and the Marxist historians developed a conspiracy theory
from this.
Lala Lajpat Rai – As early as 1916, the Extremist leader Lala Lajpat Rai used the safety valve theory to
attack the Moderates in the Congress. He argued that –
• The Congress was the brainchild of Lord Dufferin
• The interests of the British Empire were primary and those of India only secondary
• The Congress was created to preserve British rule in India than to win political liberty for
India.
Therefore Lala Lajpat Rai condemned the Congress.
R.P. Dutt – R.P. Dutt’s authoritative work ‘India Today’ used this theory to criticize the INC from the
Marxist point of view and the theory became a staple of left wing opinion. Dutt believed that –
• The Congress was brought into existence through direct Governmental initiative and a plan
secretly pre arranged with the Viceroy
• the British intended to use this body as a weapon against the rising tide of anti-imperial
sentiments
• It was an attempt to defeat or rather forestall an impending revolution
R.P. Dutt holds that though in time, the INC shed its loyalist character and became a national body and
vehicle of mass movements, the original sin of its birth left a permanent mark on its politics and
character.
M.S. Gowalkar – Some of the extremist right wing leaders like M.S.Golwalkar, the RSS chief used the
safety valve theory in attacking the Congress for its secularism and anti-nationalism. He complained
that Hindu national consciousness had been attacked by those claiming to be nationalists as they pushed
the notions of democracy and the notion that the old foes of Hindu nationalism –the Muslims, had
something in common with the Hindus.
W.C. Bonnerjee – Further proof offered for the safety valve theory was based on W.C. Bonnerjee’s
statement in 1898 in ‘Indian Politics’ that –
• The Congress as it was originally started was in reality the work of Dufferin and Hume.
• He stated that Hume in 1884 had thought of bringing together leading political Indians once a
year to discuss social matters and did not desire that politics should form a part of their
discussion.
• According to Bonnerjee, Dufferin asked Hume to do the opposite and start a body to discuss
politics so that the Government could keep itself informed of Indian opinion.
Other views – The liberal C.F. Andrews and Girija Mukherji fully accepted the safety valve theory in
their work ‘The Rise and Growth of the Congress in India’. Before as well as after 1947, tens of scholars
and hundreds of popular writers have repeated some version of these points of view.
CRITIQUE – By the 1950s, serious questions began to be raised about the safety valve theory and it
was proved to be wrong.
• Firstly, these seven secret volumes have not been discovered in any archives, either in India or
Britain. Except in Wedderburn’s biography no other source mentions the existence of these
volumes. Even in this work he states that these volumes were procured from religious gurus
and not official sources. Thus, their credibility, even if they did exist is dubious.
• The structure of the British administration in the 1870s created obstacles in the acceptance of
these seven volumes. The intelligence department could not have employed more than a few
hundred people, which wasn’t enough to produce such a large volume of secret reports. Also,
Hume worked for the Revenue department and could not have had access to secret or home
department files. Bipan Chandra also argued that these reports were read by Hume in 1878 and
if the possibility of a mass rebellion was so high then why did it take the British seven years to
create the INC.
• Regarding W.C.Bonnerjee’s view, Bipan Chandra says that either his memory was failing or he
was trying to protect the INC from the imperialist reaction for contemporary evidence indicated
the opposite. All the discussions Hume had with Indian leaders regarding the holding of an
annual conference referred to a political gathering and Hume had been publicly urging Indians
to take to politics.
• According to Sumit Sarkar, the safety valve theory greatly exaggerates the personal role of
Hume. Something like a national organization had been in the air for quite some time. Hume
only took advantage of an already created atmosphere; though he was helped by the fact that he
was acceptable to Indians as he was free of regional loyalties.
Role played by Dufferin – Regarding the role of Lord Dufferin, Bipan Chandra argues that –
• The opening up of Lord Dufferin’s private papers to scholars in the 1950s cleared up all the
myth that existed around his support of the INC.
• Dufferin met Hume in Simla in 1885 but refused to take his views or predictions seriously.
Confirmation of the fact that Hume never proposed a social gathering but rather a political one
comes in Dufferin’s letter to Lord Reay, Governor of Bombay after his first meeting with Hume
in May 1885.
• He had also warned Reay to be cautious of the delegates that were meeting in Bombay later that
year leading to the creation of the INC. They were suspicious of the proposed meeting as they
believed that it could lead to the creation of another Irish Home League movement, which
would endanger the British rule more than helping it.
• Neither Dufferin and his fellow liberal Governors nor his conservative officials, were
sympathetic to the Congress. Soon after the formation of the Congress, Dufferin openly
criticized it for its dubious motives. In 1888, he said it represented a microscopic minority
which in itself exploded the safety valve theory.
Most historians today reject the existence of the seven volumes as mentioned in Wedderburn’s work
that forms the basis of the ‘safety-valve theory’. However, at the same time it would be wrong to
overlook the contribution of A.O. Hume in the formation of the INC and he played an important role.
ROLE OF A.O. HUME – The fact that A.O. Hume played a crucial role in the foundation of the
Congress remains and he is rightly regarded as the ‘Father of the Indian National Congress’.
• Hume was a political liberal who definitely had a clear idea about the growing discontent among
the Indians. Thus, he visualized an all-India organization, which would represent Indian
interests.
• Hume was considered to be a man of high ideals with whom it was no dishonor to cooperate.
After Ripon’s departure, he embarked upon a project of linking up his wide contacts among the
educated Indians in order to bring them into a national organization.
• Dadabhai Naoroji, Justice Ranade, Pherozeshah Mehta and others cooperated with Hume as
they didn’t want to arouse official hostility at an early stage of their work. They assumed that
the rulers would be less suspicious and if its chief organizer was a retired British civil servant.
Gokhale, another stalwart of the early Congress wrote that any attempt by the Indians to form
an all India organization would immediately attract the unfriendly attention of the authorities.
Otherwise they would have found some way or the other to suppress the movement.
• Thus in Bipan Chandra’s words – ‘If Hume and other English liberals hoped to use the
Congress as a safety valve, the Congress leaders hoped to use Hume as a lightning conductor’.
As later developments show, it was the Congress leaders whose hopes were fulfilled. However,
despite Hume’s efforts and role it would be wrong to credit the entire creation of the INC solely
to him or the British. There were a number of other factors that helped in the formation of the
INC.
OTHER FACTORS FOR THE FOUNDATION OF THE INDIAN
NATIONAL CONGRESS –
The foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 was not a sudden event or a historical accident
but the culmination of a process of political awakening that had its beginnings in the 2nd half of the 19th
century.
ROLE OF COLONIAL STATE AND BUREAUCRACY POST 1857 – The Queen’s proclamation of
1858 set the tone for the new era of governance in the country. The British rule witnessed the
administrative and economic unification of the country which led to the emergence of an Indian nation.
The following changes took place –
Administrative –
• A Council of India was set up as an advisory body to the Viceroy. The Viceroy was replaced the
Governor General was the personal representative of the Crown in India and power was now
directly transferred to the British Crown.
• The Indian Council Act of 1861 strengthened the position of the Viceroy and the India Office in
London came to be known as The Government of India.
• At the Imperial Durbar of 1877, Queen Victoria assumed the title of the Empress of India.
Economic –
• The introduction of modern trade and industries on an all-India scale led to the destruction of
the rural and self-sufficient economy and made India’s economic life a single whole interlinking
the economic fate of people in different parts of the country.
• The telegraph and the railways played one of the most significant roles in this unification
process that led to a communication revolution in India.
POLICIES OF THE VICEROYS – The three important Viceroys were – Lord Lytton, Lord Ripon
and Lord Dufferin. The British policies helped in creating an environment that was favorable to the
growth of anti imperial sentiments.
Lord Lytton –
• In the 1860s and 70s various parts of India were facing natural calamities and famines, when
the Government imposed an income tax and excluded Indians from the civil services which
became reason enough for the Indians to start agitating for reforms. Although, they were
initially success this was quickly reversed. In 1870, another colonial policy that incensed the
educated Indians was the proposal to cut back funding for English education in Bengal.
• In 1876, the maximum age for sitting the Indian Civil Service Examination was lowered from
21 to 19 to the disadvantage of the Indians. Their older demand for a simultaneous examination
still remained unfulfilled.
• However, it was the policies adopted in 1878 that caused the most uproar among the educated
Indians. In order to curb the freedom of press Lytton passed the Vernacular Press Act. The act
lead to immediate resentment was intensified by the passing of the Arms Act that prohibited
Indians from carrying firearms but excluded Europeans from under its purview. In 1880, Lytton
was recalled and Lord Ripon was appointed as the new Viceroy.
Lord Ripon –
• He tried to reverse the age limit for civil services and increasing the number of elected members
on the Legislative Council but failed. In 1882 the Vernacular Press Act was repealed and the
Arms Act was modified to eliminate the racial exemptions. Ripon also proposed to introduce
local self-government in India.
• The act that provided the final spark leading to the creation of the INC was the Ilbert Bill in
1883. It proposed to give Indian district magistrates the power to try European offenders but
was bitterly opposed by the Europeans. This made it clear to the Indians that the colonial
regime was not willing to provide any form of racial equality.
• The withdrawal of the bill in January 1884, made the educated Indians aware of their
subordinate position and the counter agitations initiated by them laid the foundation for a new
era of political activity in India.
ROLE OF THE PRESS –A large number of nationalist newspapers made their appearance criticizing
official policies and promoted ideas of democracy, self-governance and freedom – the leading ideals of
the Indian national movement. Three categories of newspapers and periodicals were published between
1860-1900.
• The English language newspapers run by Britishers defended the views and actions of the
British government in India. These included the Times of India, The Pioneer and The
Statesman.
• English dailies and weeklies including the Amrita Bazar Patrika, the Hindu, and the Indian
Mirror promoted the views of Indian liberals and nationalists.
• The vernacular newspapers played an important role in shaping public opinion and they didn’t
confine themselves to parochial matters.
Importance of the Press –
• The press provided a potent means of constitutional agitation and became an important mean of
propaganda. It was able to break down the internal barriers encouraging inter-regional
solidarity and enabled people in one part of the country to become aware about the aspirations
and grievances of people living in another part of the country.
• It also helped in the growth of the nationalist sentiments as newspapers were used by the early
nationalist leaders to spread their word and this medium helped people like Dadabhai Naoroji,
Surendranath Banerjee, Syed Ahmed Khan become well known national public figures.
POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS – While the INC was the first nation-wide organization, it was not the
first political structure to have existed. A number of associations had come up before which were local in
character in terms of their programs, political activities and social base. Bipan Chandra said that a major
change in the political life of India took place between 1875 and 1885 as new associations were
established which adopted a national outlook and were dominated by younger more radical nationalist
intellectuals. While they may have been confined to a particular region their demands reflected the
spirit of Indianness that was emerging all over the country.
• The young nationalists of Bengal, led by Surendranath Banerjea and Anand Mohan Bose
founded the Indian Association in 1876 replacing the British Indian Association. It aimed at
creating strong public opinion in the country on political questions and the unification of the
Indian people on a common political program.
• In Bombay, the more militant intellectuals like Pherozeshah Mehta, K.T. Telang and Baddrudin
Tyabji broke away from the older leaders and formed the Bombay Presidency Association in
1885 for the promotion of the public interests of the country.
• In South India, Madras Mahajan Sabha was established in 1884 by the younger men of Madras
– M. Viraghavachari, G Subramania Aiyar and P. Ananda Charlu.
• Among the older associations only the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha which was established in 1870
carried on as before. This is because it was already in the hands of nationalist intellectuals like
Justice Ranade and had a large support base.
• Outside the presidencies, new associations came up such as the Lahore Indian Association in
Punjab and the Allahabad People’s Association in the United Provinces.
Protests and Agitations – At the time, the educated Indians who established the new associations
fought for civil liberties and organised countrywide agitations on national issues. According to Bipan
Chandra, they gained experience as well as confidence from the large number of agitations –
• 1875 – Continuous campaign around cotton import duties
• 1877-88 – Massive campaign around the demand for Indianisation of civil services and against
Lord Lytton’s expensive Afghanistan campaign
• The Indian press and associations also launched a campaign against the notorious Vernacular
Press Act
• 1881-82 – Organised a protest against Plantation Labour and Inland Emigration Act, which
condemned the plantation laborers to serfdom.
• 1883 – A major nationwide agitation was launched in favour of the Ilbert Bill
• July 1883 – A massive all India effort was made to raise a National Fund which would be used
to promote political agitation in India as well as England.
• 1885 – Indians fought for the right to join the volunteer corps restricted to Europeans and
organised an appeal to British voters to vote for those candidates who were friendly towards
India.
All these demands raised by the associations remained unfulfilled and this all the more convinced the
regional leaders about the need for an all India organization. While these associations may have been
fighting for limited reforms, they reflected a new public awareness, a nationalist outlook and a demand
for Indians to be treated on par with the British. They may not have been extremely successful in their
intended aims and objectives but they along with their young leaders provided the base for the creation
of a much larger and more effective organization that was to take over the reign of the national
movement – the INC.
CONCLUSION – It thus becomes clear that the foundation of the Congress was the natural
culmination of the political work of the previous years. By 1885, a stage had been reached in the political
development of India when certain basic tasks or objectives had to be laid down and struggled for.
These objectives could only be fulfilled by the coming together of political workers in a single
organization formed on an all India basis.
THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS –
The first session of the Indian National Congress was held in Bombay on 28th December 1885 in the hall
of the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College by 72 delegates. The nucleus of the Congress leadership
consisted of educated middle class professionals such as Pherozeshah Mehta, W.C. Bonnerjee,
Baddrudin Tyabji, P. Ananda Charlu among others. On the proposal of A.O. Hume and unanimously
carried out, W.C. Bonnerjee was elected President of the Congress. According to S.K. Mehrotra, it also
established a healthy precedent, namely that the President of the Congress should be chosen from a
province other than the one in which the Congress was being held.
Objectives – Bipan Chandra held that the first Congress declared its basic objectives to be as follows –
• To promote the process of becoming a nation and laying the foundations of a secular and
democratic national movement and thus the development and consolidation of national unity.
• To create a common political platform or program around which political workers in different
parts of the country could gather and conduct their political activities, educating and mobilizing
people on an all India basis.
• To politically educate the people which involved the arousal, training, organization and
consolidation of public opinion.
• To create a common all India national political leadership
• To develop and propagate an anti colonial nationalist ideology
Composition of the INC – The composition of the delegates at the first Congress reflected almost
accurately the changing patterns of organised political life in India.
• The first meeting was attended by 72 non official representatives and included people not only
from all parts of India but also most classes.
• The delegates were people from all walks of life and included barristers, merchants, bankers,
landowners, journalists, educationalists, religious teachers and reformers.
• With regard to their regional distribution, Mehrotra said that 38 belonged to the Western
presidency and came from six different centers. The southern presidency sent 21 representatives
while Bengal only had 3 representatives. Apart from the presidencies, 7 representatives came
from the four principle towns of the North West Frontier Provinces and Awadh, while the three
towns of Punjab had 1 representative each at the Congress.
• In their social composition, the members of the early Congress belonged predominantly to the
high caste Hindu communities although according to Mehrotra there were Mahomedans and
Christians, but far fewer than expected.
The limitation of participation did not fluster the members of the Congress as they claimed to represent
the whole nation but it obviously put some constraints on their programmes.
CONCLUSION –
To conclude, one can say that it is true that the very conditions of the British rule assisted in the growth
of national sentiment among the Indian people and it was the direct and indirect consequences of this
rule that provided the material, moral and intellectual conditions for the development of a national
movement in India. However, this was not a sudden event but the culmination of a process that had
started in the middle of the 19th century. Thus, the formation of the INC should be seen as a process
rather than the deliberate policy of the British to safeguard their own interests. Even if A.O. Hume or
the ‘safety-valve theory’ had played a major role in the creation of the INC, the conditions of the 1870s
and 1880s India were such that the creation of an organization like the INC was inevitable and it would
have come about even without this push by the British.