Birth of Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress was started in 1885 by Mr. A. O. Hume, and Englishman. At its very first session held in Bombay on 28 to 30 December 1885, presided over by W.C. Banerjee, the Congress demanded reform and expansion of the Legislative Councils. Thereafter, this demand was reiterated at every successive Congress session. It only became more and more emphatic from year to year. The Congress considered the reform of the Councils "at the root of all other reforms". Speaking on the subject at the fifth session of the Congress (1889), Surendranath Banerjee said: If you get that, you get everything else. On it depends the entire future of the country and the future of our administrative system". The resolution adopted at the 1889 session of the Congress went to the extent suggesting a skeleton scheme for the reform and reconstitution of the Governor-General's Council and Provincial Legislative Councils to be incorporated in a bill to be introduced in the British Parliament. The Scheme, inter alia, demanded enfranchisement of all male British subjects in India above 21 years of age and also voting by ballot.