MODERN INDIA ASSIGNMENT

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?

The foundation of Indian national congress at Bombay in December 1885 by 72 political workers was
not a suddenly conducted event or a ‘historical accident’ (stated by BIPAN CHANDRA) rather it was a
result of a process of political awakening that began in post 1857 mutiny period as part of the Indian
nationalist movement where the educated middle class intellectuals or the new intelligentsia (as
opposed to the leadership of 1857 revolt) were imbued with ideas of modern nationalism and
democracy. Aided by conditions of political and economic discontent covered by the nationalist
press and literature, the climate was created for an all Indian level organization to push forth
demands for a free and progressive nation. It was in such conditions that A.O. Hume and his Indian
advisors intervened to form a nationalist body as the platform, organizer and headquarters of the
new national spirit and politics.

The whole idea of INC being the brain child of A.O. Hume and Lord Dufferin comes from the
‘safety valve theory’ which states that Hume and others started INC under the official
direction and guidance of the Viceroy Lord Dufferin to provide a safe, peaceful and a
constitutional outlet for the dissatisfaction amongst masses which was leading towards a
violent revolution. The validity of the theory comes from the seven volumes of secret
reports that Hume mentioned he read at Shimla in summer of 1878 convincing him of rising
discontent and a conspiracy among lower classes to overthrow British rule, first mentioned
in WILLIAM WEDDERBURN’S biography of Hume ( 1913 ) of an undated memorandum in
Hume’s papers which dealt with conversations between men of the lowest classes about the
hopelessness of the existing situation, thus wanting to change it through means of violence,
probably being led by educated classes who were against the government resulting in a
national revolt. Such a theory was supported by many political leaders and historians like
LALA LAJPAT RAI (in his Young India , 1916) who used it to attack the moderates in
congress, arguing that Congress was started with the object of saving British Empire from
danger rather than political liberty for India stating Hume as an ‘English Patriot’, also used
by R. PALME DUTT (in his, India Today ) as a left wing opinion stating that it was an original
sin of the manner of its birth which gave it a two-fold character as an institution created by
the government and yet turning eventually into an organization with an anti-imperialist
character and in 1939 M.S.GOLWALKAR mentioned the ‘triangular fight’ in India where
Hindus were at war with both the Muslims and the British due to their path of
‘denationalization’ originating from formation of Congress to destroy national
consciousness though overall considered a success .
However, it must be verified properly with actual Historical evidence which BIPAN
CHANDRA points out at various levels: Firstly, How could Hume being the secretary of the
Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Commerce get access to home department files or
CID reports? Secondly, they were never transferred these reports from Delhi-Shimla and
Lastly, how can 30,000 reporters come and why if congress was found with the fear of an
outbreak did the Official Government wait for 7 years. This is where Wedderburn’s work
needs to be examined properly where he mentions the ‘special source’ who supplied Hume
the information i.e. devoted leaders of quasi-religious orders or GURUS who were informed
through their disciples about the undergoing matters of the country and they thought it was
best to approach Hume who has access to government and believed in eastern religions,
further evidence from the private papers of Viceroys Ripon and Dufferin indicated that
these gurus possessed supernatural occult powers which helped them to direct men’s
thoughts and opinions But Hume couldn’t get them to verify their evidence in front of Lord
Dufferin and hence he informed him that he’ll drop all references to his friends but continue
his political work . But there are some scholars like JOHN R McLANE who suspect that
maybe Hume had a mystical experience shaped by his frustration with the pervasive
indifference to India’s poverty and suffering in terms of the volumes he claimed to have
read. Another controversy verifying
the theory was W.C.BONNERJEE’S statement (in 1898) that the congress was the real work
of Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, stating that Hume in 1884 thought of bringing together
leading political Indians once a year to discuss only social matters but Dufferin asked him to
create a body of politics so that government could keep itself informed of Indian opinion.
But contemporary evidence points out that all the discussions that Hume had with Indian
leaders regarding an annual conference were of a political nature and he even wrote a letter
to the ‘Indian Spectator’ criticizing B.M. Malabari’s proposals for social reform warning the
dangerous potential involved in it while Dufferin in his St.Andrews’ Day dinner speech
publicly criticized the Congress for taking up political matters which served narrow interests
rather than social reform that can benefit a majority . Final confirmation of Hume never
wanting a social but a political gathering comes from Lord Dufferin’s letter to Lord Reay
(governor of Bombay) after his meeting in 1885 with Hume where he mentioned ‘Hume and
his friends wanted to assemble a political convention of delegates...’ , in the same letter he
also warned Lord Reay asking him to be careful about Hume’s congress as it would be
unwise to identify with either the reformers or the reactionaries but as S.R.MEHROTRA
points out Hume’s version of the letter stated that Dufferin warmly agreed to the proposal
as long as Lord Reay was left out of it , which he assumes as other objectives of Dufferin’s
support of him being a liberal thus sympathizing with Indian political aspirations or wanting
to provide a safe channel for discharge of Indian ferment like Hume. However, as SUMIT
SARKAR AND ANIL SEAL state that later Dufferin referred to the Congress as a ‘microscopic
minority’, criticizing Bengali Baboos and Maharatta Brahmins’ for wanting to start Irish type
revolutionary agitations in India. So , the entire myth of the ‘safety valve’ emphasizing the
role of Dufferin is rejected today due to lack of historical evidence in National Archives
and also due to his actual hostile attitude to Congress found in sources mentioned above ,
nevertheless the role played by Hume though not individually , must be distinguished and
emphasized.

ALLAN OCTAVIAN HUME came to India before the Mutiny of 1857, with a bias in favour of
the natives which he inherited from his father. Even after the revolt, unlike many others, we
see him showing ‘moderation’ but he never forgot the lessons of the revolt so he always
feared that the colonial government will eventually be destroyed which can be reiterated
through his many statements like to Northbrook (1872) that, “You are driving a coach, that
however grand it looks, its utterly top heavy, that the slightest jolt, a single stone under a
single wheel will probably upset [it]”. His official career was specialized by giving unsolicited
advice to the Viceroys so from a specialist in agriculture he came to think of himself as the
great authority on Indian opinion, proven by his statement to Viceroy in 1872, ‘but I have
lived much among the natives, and know more of their language, habits of thought, and
feelings, than most officials’ which was his way of reminding the Viceroys of the fatal defects
in the Empire. However, as ANIL SEAL states, he found the educated and politically minded
Indians as helpful and not a sign of catastrophe because for him education meant
reconciling Indians with the British in a way that they can appreciate the measures of the
government. So, his role as the spokesman of the educated Indians is what made him
somewhat believe in a revolt like situation that can be calmed down through an all Indian
constitutional platform.
Though by 1880’s the idea of a national representative body was already being discussed in
every Presidency of India with many failed attempts at bringing it into being, as SUMIT
SARKAR argues that the whole safety valve theory greatly exaggerates the personal role of
Hume as he only took advantage of an ‘already created atmosphere’ probably because of
his potential influence in the official circles and also as he was free of regional loyalties, so
the idea of a Congress was one of many attempts that finally came into being with the help
of educated men who formed regional organisations in Bombay, Poona, Madras and
Calcutta.

Before the formation of the Congress in 1885, Hume had started travelling a year before to
prominent cities where attempts were already made by certain Indian educated elite to
form a nationalistic organisation. Starting in December 1884, he arrived at Bombay to
discuss the programme of political action to be adopted by educated India with the
prominent leaders present there like Dadabhai Naoroji, M.G. Ranade, Mehta and Telang
{founders of ‘BOMBAY PRESIDENCY ASSOCIATION’ (1885) which was intended to be a truly
national and leading political association of India to discuss public interests of the country,
though it remained regional}. He wanted to make this province the centre of political
activity in India as its public life was less influenced by factionalism, its leaders had broader
views on national matters and its Anglo Indians betters behaved. Even though Hume
regarded the ‘Poona Sarvajanik Sabha’ as the leading association of India as it had more
active leaders like G.V.JOSHI and S.H.CHIPLONKAR and also was based more on enterprise
than money which let it keep down official hostility. Among the issues discussed in Bombay,
the most important ones were the holding of an annual conference of representatives of
men from all parts of India, organization of a national association to direct political activity,
preparation of a ‘charter of India’ to be presented to the Parliament and establishment of a
telegraphic agency to dispatch news to the British press giving India’s point of view. Hume
then travelled to Madras by March 1885 where he met a bunch of patriotic and dedicated
men like G.Subramania Iyer and P.Rangaiah Naidu (president- ‘MADRAS MAHAJANA
SABHA’ (1884) which was constituted to represent wishes of the people). More importantly,
Madras was the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society since 1882, so it felt its impact.
In fact, Raghunath Rao even advised in the 1884 convention that it should deal with political
and social issues as well, however since unanimity on latter wasn’t easy only political issues
were discussed upon. N.M. Sen (editor of Calcutta India Mirror ) who was also present at
the 1884 meeting soon wrote a no of articles urging desirability of a national organisation in
India on the lines agreed to in Madras. The Indian Spectator of Bombay even made the
remark that, ‘it is curious to note that how the idea of a national organisation had occurred
almost at the same time to friends in different parts’. That is why, as soon as the Congress
was formed the theosophists started claiming it as ‘its child’. As Olcott commented in 1886,
’The Theosophical society was the parent of INC for it had first shown the possibility of
bringing men from different parts of the country together into a friendly relation never seen
before’. Rao and Sen, by 1889, even accused Hume of stealing their thunder. Both asserted
that INC’s origin needs to be traced back to the Madras meeting of 1884. However as
S.R.MEHROTRA states that their claims were over exaggerated as he says the idea of a
national organisation had been floating around even before the formation of the
Theosophical society (1879), the deliberation of the 1884 madras meeting were not
followed by practical actions and that the organization of INC itself was very different from
the society. In fact, during his stay in Madras, Hume discussed with the local leaders
privately on the political programme he envisioned assuring himself that the southern
presidency would send a sufficient no. of delegates to the planned December 1885
conference of Indian National union. He even tried to reorganize the Theosophical society
but it wasn’t appreciated by them. By May 1885, Hume arrived in Calcutta where by March
1884 a broad based organisation was formed, which had Maharaja of Darbhanga as its
President and W.C.Bonnerjee as its secretary, intended as an ‘Indian Defence Association;
representing the whole nation and acting in concert with public bodies in India, but it failed
to prosper because of the differences within it. Hume stayed with Manmohan Ghose,
meeting many local leaders to discuss the telegraphic union matter, he also visited places in
the north western provinces and Punjab where newspapers and organisations existed like
Tribune in Lahore (1881) and Indian Union at Allahabad (1885). Other organizations like
Prajahita Vardhak Sabha (in Surat), Sind Sabha (Karachi) and Mahajana Sabha were also
active since the 1880s. As BIPAN CHANDRA says Indian educated elite cooperated with
Hume because they didn’t want to arouse official hostility as GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE
further argues that if any of the initiatives was led by an Indian, the distrust of authorities
during that time was so high that the movement would have been suppressed. So as Bipan
Chandra states, ‘If Hume and other English leaders hope to use Congress as safety valve,
The Indian leaders used Hume as a lightning conductor’, later on it was the latter’s wishes
that were fulfilled.

Therefore on his return to Shimla in May 1885, after travelling all over, Hume saw Dufferin
and acquainted him with the project of a conference of representative men from all parts of
India to be held in Poona in coming December. As we have already seen Dufferin’s role,
what can be said is that he was definitely consulted and on his suggestion only British
officials like Lord Reay were not associated with the Congress. After his meeting with
Dufferin, Hume confirmed with the inner circle of the Nationalist Party that A conference of
Indian National Union will be held at Poona from 25th-31st December 1885 composed of
delegates from Bengal, Bombay and Madras presidencies to enable all the earnest labourers
for the national cause to become personally known to each other and to discuss political
operations to be undertaken the following year. If properly conducted, it could actually be a
befitting reply to the assumption that Indians lacked in any form of representative
institutions. Hume also went to London in July 1885 to inform the liberal leaders there of
this particular project, even declaring himself by September as the representative and
delegate of Indian National Union, which included great majority of foremost members of
native community in all parts of India. But because S.N.BANERJEA ( secretary of Indian
Association ) wasn’t informed of any of this, he decided in November 1885 to hold a
national conference in Calcutta during Christmas vacations to discuss national issues , this
confused the other leaders and Hume so the they decide to call their forthcoming
conference in Poona as ‘Congress’ ( but due to outbreak of cholera in Poona during 3 rd
week of December the venue was shifted to Bombay ) and to postpone their meeting from
25th to 28th December 1885, a day after Calcutta Conference was over , this is how Indian
National Congress came into being. In fact, the entire month of December 1885 was
marked by unusual political activity that S.N.BANERJEA remarked with exaggeration that ‘All
India seemed at the present moment to have met in solemn conclave to think out the great
problem of national advancement. However, newspapers like Indian Mirror remarked that
while the proposed conferences at Calcutta, Allahabad and Madras would be of provincial
characters, The Poona Congress will be nationalistic in its composition and objectives to
fulfil ‘the long cherished dreams of an Indian patriot’. As S.R.MEHROTRA states A.O. Hume,
as the solitary Briton was rightly regarded as the father of Indian National Congress not
because he was the first to come up with the idea of a national organization or make
attempts for it but as he had the authority, energy and organizing skill to have accomplished
it. Moreover as he was the honorary general secretary of INC from 1885-1906 and virtually
its executive head so the Congress owed its inception to Hume and as JOHN R McLANE says
the early congress lacked well defined procedures and thus needed a leader with a clear
vision and forceful personality as the autocracy of an Englishman was more palatable than
that of leaders like W.C.Bonnerjee and P.Mehta. So, even if it wasn’t entirely a single effort
on Hume’s part, he played a majority role in forming and leading it in the initial years.

Many other factors that created an environment for the formation of INC must
be taken into account as well. The post 1858 era of British governance,
administratively and economically took such steps which led to the
emergence of an Indian nation.
 Economically, 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 unbearable. The telegraph and the railways also played
one of the most significant roles in this unification process leading to a
communication revolution in India. Moreover, the administrative policies of
different Viceroys further created anti imperialistic sentiments like during Lord
Lytton’s time, in the 1860s& 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 was enough for the Indians to
start agitating for reforms. By 1870, the proposal to cut back funding for
English education in Bengal enraged the educated elite as well. However, it
was the policies of 1878 that caused the most uproar among the educated
Indians. In order to curb the freedom of press, Lytton passed the Vernacular
Press Act leading to immediate resentment intensified by the passing of the
Arms Act (prohibited Indians from carrying firearms but excluded Europeans
under it). So by 1880, Lord Ripon was appointed as the new Viceroy and 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. But the act that provided the final spark leading to the
creation of the INC was the Ilbert Bill (1883) which proposed to give Indian
district magistrates the power to try European offenders but was bitterly
opposed by the Europeans which made it clear that racial equality was never
their intention. The withdrawal of the bill in January 1884, made 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. The
educated Indians thus fought for civil liberties and organised countrywide
agitations on these issues. According to Bipan Chandra, they gained
experience as well as confidence from the large number of agitations, to cite a
few, the campaign - cotton import duties (1875), the demand for Indianisation
of civil services and against Lord Lytton’s expensive Afghanistan campaign
(1877-1888), The Indian press and associations also launched a campaign
against the notorious Vernacular Press Act, Organised protest against
Plantation Labour and Inland Emigration Act also took place, which condemned
the plantation labourers to serfdom, nationwide agitation was launched in
favour of the Ilbert Bill (1883). The same year 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. By 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.
Since all these demands remained unfulfilled, it 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 nationalist outlook and a
demand for Indians to be treated as equals to British. Though not successful,
they 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 i.e. the
Indian National Congress.

Although the chief instrument through which Indian nationalists spread the
message of patriotism and modern economic, social and political ideas of
change was through the medium of ‘PRESS’. By the second half of 19thce, large
no. of nationalist newspapers were published like Amrit Bazaar Patrika, The
Times of India, The Hindu etc. In their columns, official policies of the colonial
government were criticized and the effort to bring an all Indian consciousness
was formed by ideas of self-governance, democracy, industrialization etc. It
also enabled nationalist workers to exchange ideas not only in the form of just
newspapers but novels, essays and patriotic poetry of Bankim Chandra
Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore etc were helpful in breaking the inter
regional barriers to strengthen she solidarity of the nation .

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGES – As JOHN R MCLANE explains, Hume’s

leadership as the general secretary contributed to the nationalist
understanding of the inadequacies of the early congress movement in 2 ways –

1) Hume’s vision of congress goals was more comprehensive and was

drawn from a more advanced stage of historical evolution than that of
his fellow leaders. While he tried to expand the social bases of the
Congress to include all sections of the Indian Nation by making a special
effort to win muslim and peasant support in the late 1880’s, his fellow
Congress leaders tended to concentrate on gaining increased
government employment and representation in consultative bodies –
which would only benefit their own socio-religious community . It was
 partly due to his activities, thus, a growing number of men outside the
leadership came to see Congress as insuffieciently selfless.
In the first few years, he helped achieve Congress harmonious
beginnings by persuading delegates to avoid discussion of issues such as
tenant rights and concentrate on issues that would unite them against
the administration, which they did for their racially exclusionary policies
in matters such as jury trials, military volunteering and civil service
employment for the their refusal to conduct Parliamentary enquiry into
Indian affairs. However, apart from the Reception and Subject
Committees, which were selected each year to plan and run the annual
meeting, organization as a whole was skeletal with only the President,
General Secretary and Congress Standing Committees in major cities. As
a result the Congress was less an Organization than an annual meeting
with a groups of demans directed towards the British.
Soon after Hume sae that the English speaking Nationalists were
becoming acquainted with each other through the Congress sessions, he
turned to the task of bringing Muslims into the movement. Even though
he and Bonnerjee thought that the Presence of Prominent Muslims such
as Tyabji and Nawab Sayyid Muhammad of Madras would overcome the
misgivings of educated muslims throughout India, but it did invite more
hostility among them as the Congress goal of a more open and
competitive society would be favouring educated Hindus rather than
them. Nevertheless, Hume with Tyabji’s help initiated a minority rule in
1887 and also conducted the 1888 session of Congress in Allahabad,
which fared poorly. Even though the short term objective of winning
widespread Muslim support had failed, there was little opposition to
Congress among Muslims outside Aligarh and in almost every province
some muslims were active in Congress and the Hindu and Parsi leaders
did not despair over the future relations with the Muslims.

2) Ironically, however, Hume’s attempts to implement his progressive

vision were so highhanded, his treatment of his fellow Congress
supporters so imperious and condescending that his period of leadership
persuaded Congress members that the congress ought to be run by
Indian Members. Especially, evident in his decision to distribute
 pamphlets in the villages in 1887 aimed at expanding social base of the
Congress, in view of the government’s autocracy and unresponsiveness
to educated Indians and the belief in a ‘peasant revolt’, but his failure to
get a consent from the Congress leadership and for which Dufferin
remarked it reflecting a very questionable spirit and hatred of the
government towards Hume, led to his unpopularity. He soon came to be
regarded as a dangerous troublemaker rather than a man whom
viceroys consulted with profit on Indian attitudes and under his direction
the response of Muslims to the congress has been mostly negative and
of educated hindus half-hearted. So, he left in India in 1892 confined
most of his Congress activities to London.

As CONCLUSION, what can be said is that, the imperialistic tendencies,

especially post 1858, created consequences at an intellectual and moral level
due to economic, social and political difficulties thus contributing to a rising
national movement. So, 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 had played a major role in the creation of the INC, the
conditions of the 1870s and 1880s India were such that the formation of a
nationwide organization was inevitable, with or without the interference of the
British administration.