Indian National Congress and Muslim (1885-1920)

Pages:115-116
Promila Kumari (T.G.T. in C.C.S., H.A.U., Campus School, Hisar, Haryana)

The birth of the Indian National Congress in 1885 was the most important political development in the country during the later half of the Nineteenth century. For more than twenty years after that it completely dominated the political life of India, it is difficult to think of any or country in which a single political institution played such a dominant role for more than fifty years in the liberation of a country from British colonial rule. The birth of the Congress crystallized for the first time the new political forces in India which till then had been localized and scattered. It created a sense of common brotherhood based on common aims and grievances, bringing together people from Calcutta to Madras and from Lahore to Bombay. The Indian National congress had a national title and a national ideology. It was as the title indicated a body of all Indians. It had nothing to do with any religious, either or social group or community. It claimed to represent all Indians irrespective of caste, creed or religion and region. Its programme included the greater association in every branch of administration which later on came to be modified at the attainment by the people of India self-government or Swaraj.