Page 105 - SST Class 05

formed by which they could know the Indians’ sentiments. In 1885, A.O. Hume , a
retired British civil servant, played a role in the formation of the Indian National
Congress, popularly called the Congress.

In the beginning, the Congress submitted petitions and appeals to draw the attention
of the British government towards the problems and difficulties faced by the Indians.
The first session of the Congress was held at Bombay (now Mumbai) in December
1885. It was chaired by W.C. Banerjee . It was attended by 72 leaders from all over
India. The important leaders to attend this session included Dadabhai Naoroji ,
,
,
Pherozeshah Mehta , M.G. Ranade Gopal Krishna Gokhale S. Subramaniam Iyer etc.
The Congress sessions began to be held annually. As the sessions were held at different
places, more and more people came to know about this. It became a platform for
people to raise their voices. The Congress started to grow in strength.

A.O. Hume W.C. Dadabhai Pherozeshah M.G. Ranade Gopal Krishna
Banerjee Naoroji Mehta Gokhale

The appeals and petitions submitted by the Congress were completely ignored by the
British. They never felt threatened by them. This phase is better known as the
moderate phase . Gradually, people felt that the British were not according any
importance to the Congress, so some of them became aggressive. With this, started the
extremist phase.

Extremist Phase

When the British ignored all demands, people felt that they must demand their rights
forcefully. The leaders who thought thus were called extremist leaders. They felt that
the government will listen only when it was forced. These leaders had a great faith in
self-reliance, self-confidence and self-respect of the Indian people. They were ready to
make sacrifices and clash with the government.

These leaders started agitation in the form of hartals, rallies, processions and picketing.
‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Boycott’ became the two main principles of this phase. Swadeshi meant
the use of Indian goods while Boycott
meant not to use the British goods. Know It!
Thus, they were like two sides of the v Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra
Pal were together known as Lal-Bal-Pal .
same coin.

Struggle for Freedom 105