First session of congress:
The first session of the Congress was to meet at Poona but owing to an outbreak of cholera the venue was shifted to Bombay and the session began on the 28th December 1885, in Gokaldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, with W. C. Banerjee, the doyen of the Calcutta Bar as the first President.
It was attended by 100 men of whom 72 were non-officials and were recognized as members. Delegates came from different parts of the country and most important among them were Dadabhai Naoroji, Ranade, Pherozeshah Mehta, K.T. Telang, Dinshaw Wacha etc. The meeting was truly a national gathering consisting of leading men from all parts of India.
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Aims and Objectives :
The initial aims and objectives of the congress, were
1. To flourish solidarity and friendship amongst the people of India.
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2. To eradicate all the prevailing cast, creed, race or province related prejudices from the country.
3. To strengthen the feelings of National unity.
4. Consideration of the opinions of educated classes on the issues related to the problems of society.
5. To formulate guidelines for future plan of action in the public interest.
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Moreover, the President thanked the British for their support and assured that the educated Indians were thoroughly loyal and consistent well wishers of the Government.
He stated that the main purpose of the Congress was to represent the views of the Indians to the ruling authorities. The demands of the organization were passed in the form of four resolutions.
It included:
1. Demand for the appointment of a Royal Commission for dealing in Indian affairs, in which Indians would have their representation.
2. A resolution on the foreign policy which condemned the annexation of Upper Burma was also moved,
3. Demand for the abolition of the Indian Council of the Secretary of State of India was made. It was based on the belief that British were just and fair, so they demanded that the Secretary of State should be responsible directly to the British Parliament.
4. Another resolution was also moved appointment of Indians to higher posts. A demand to hold the Civil Service Examination, simultaneously, in Britain and India was made and so was the need for reduction of expenditure on the army highlighted.
Although, the early sessions of the Congress, by and large, limited its activities only to debates, but the Government that initially patronized this organization, found it to have outgrow their plans and the patronage was soon withdrawn.
It came to be called as the ‘factory of sedition’ in a few years and later Lord Dufferin himself tried to term it as a body representing ‘microscopic minority’ of India’s population.