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External WebsitesAlso known as: All-India Congress Party, Congress (I) Party, Congress Party, Indian National Congress-Indira
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Sep 3, 2024 • Article History Table of Contents
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Top Questions What is the Indian National Congress?The Indian National Congress is one of two major political parties in India. It was influential in the 20th-century Indian independence movement and dominated much of the republic’s early political scene.
When was the Indian National Congress founded?The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885, initially with the goal of pursuing moderate reform under the British raj in India. Its roots are in the early Indian nationalist movement that arose from the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
What role did the Indian National Congress play in the Indian independence movement?The Indian National Congress was initially focused on moderate reform under the British raj in India. However, some early 20th-century activists began to boycott British imports and promote Indian goods, garnering the support of a wide swath of social classes. In the 1920s and ’30s party leader Mahatma Gandhi supported nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. Although tensions between the Congress Party and the raj escalated during World War II, by 1947 these tactics had secured independence for India.
What policies have historically been supported by the Indian National Congress?Prior to Indian independence, the Indian National Congress was a champion of moderate reform, although during the 1920s and ’30s it transitioned to a focus on independence through nonviolent civil disobedience. Since independence, the party has traditionally supported socialist economic policies within a mixed economy, although in the 1990s it supported more conservative economic reforms. Its social policies have included secular government and equal rights, irrespective of caste.
Is the Indian National Congress’s Gandhi family related to Mahatma Gandhi?The Indian National Congress’s prominent Gandhi family is not related to Mahatma Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, who both served as prime minister of India, were close associates of the Mahatma. However, Indira’s surname came from her husband, Feroze Gandhi. Feroze and the Mahatma were not related.
Indian National Congress, broadly based political party of India. Formed in 1885, the Indian National Congress dominated the Indian movement for independence from Great Britain. It subsequently formed most of India’s governments from the time of independence and often had a strong presence in many state governments.
The Indian National Congress first convened in December 1885, though the idea of an Indian nationalist movement opposed to British rule dated from the 1850s. During its first several decades, the Congress Party passed fairly moderate reform resolutions, though many within the organization were becoming radicalized by the increased poverty that accompanied British imperialism. In the early 20th century, elements within the party began to endorse a policy of swadeshi (“of our own country”), which called on Indians to boycott of imported British goods and promoted Indian-made goods. By 1917 the group’s “extremist” Home Rule wing, which was formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant the previous year, had begun to exert significant influence by appealing to India’s diverse social classes.
In the 1920s and ’30s the Congress Party, led by Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, began advocating nonviolent noncooperation. The new change in tactics was precipitated by the protest over the perceived feebleness of the constitutional reforms enacted in early 1919 (Rowlatt Acts) and Britain’s manner of carrying them out, as well as by the widespread outrage among Indians in response to the massacre of civilians in Amritsar (Punjab) that April. Many of the acts of civil disobedience that followed were implemented through the All India Congress Committee, formed in 1929, which advocated avoiding taxes as a protest against British rule. Notable in that regard was the Salt March in 1930 led by Gandhi. Another wing of the Congress Party, which believed in working within the existing system, contested general elections in 1923 and 1937 as the Swaraj (Home Rule) Party, with particular success in the latter year, winning 7 out of 11 provinces.
When World War II began in 1939, Britain made India a belligerent without consulting Indian elected councils. That action angered Indian officials and prompted the Congress Party to declare that India would not support the war effort until it had been granted complete independence. In 1942 the organization sponsored mass civil disobedience, called the Quit India Movement, to support the demand that the British leave India. British authorities responded by imprisoning the entire Congress Party leadership, including Gandhi, and many remained in jail until 1945. After the war the British government of Clement Attlee passed an independence bill in July 1947, and independence was achieved the following month. In January 1950 India’s constitution as an independent state took effect.
From 1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru dominated the Congress Party, which won overwhelming victories in the elections of 1951–52, 1957, and 1962. The party united in 1964 to elect Lal Bahadur Shastri and in 1966 Indira Gandhi (Nehru’s daughter) to the posts of party leader and thus prime minister. In 1967, however, Indira Gandhi faced open revolt within the party, and in 1969 she was expelled from the party by a group called the “Syndicate.” Nevertheless, her New Congress Party scored a landslide victory in the 1971 elections, and for a period it was unclear which party was the true rightful heir of the Indian National Congress label.
