The Indian National Congress

27.3.6: The Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress has dominated Indian politics since leading the Indian independence movement. In the post-independence era, it has remained the most influential political party in India under the continuous leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty.

Learning Objective

List the key goals of the Indian National Congress and the reasons for its formation

Key Points

  • The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 by Indian and British members of the Theosophical Society to obtain a greater share in government for educated Indians and create a platform for civic and political dialogue between educated Indians and the British Raj.Within the next few years, the organization decided to advocate in favor of the independence movement. After internal conflicts over how to win independence, the moderate faction advocating gradual reforms won leadership over the radical faction that called for an open rebellion.
  • Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1915. With the help of the moderate group led by Ghokhale, Gandhi became president of the Congress and in the years following World War I, he remained its unofficial spiritual leader and icon. Gandhi’s ideas and strategies of non-violent civil disobedience initially appeared impractical to some Indians and congressmen. In the end, however, Gandhi’s vision brought millions of ordinary Indians into the movement, transforming it from an elitist struggle to a national one.
  • In 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress declared complete independence as the party’s goal. In 1936-37, the British government allowed provincial elections in India. The Congress gained power in eight out of 11 provinces. However, in 1939, the Viceroy Linlithgow declared India’s entrance into World War II without consulting provincial governments. In protest, the Congress asked all its elected representatives to resign from the government. The Congress also supported the actions of the Azad Hind, an Indian provisional government established in Singapore during WWII.
  • After Indian independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress became the dominant political party in the country. In 1952, in the first general election held after independence, the party swept to power in the national parliament and most state legislatures. It held power nationally until 1977, returned to power in 1980, and ruled until 1989, when it was once again defeated. It formed the government in 1991 at the head of a coalition as well as in 2004 and 2009. During this period, the Congress remained center-left in its social policies while steadily shifting from a socialist to a neoliberal economic outlook.
  • Throughout the post-independence period, Congress leadership was dominated by the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. From 1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Congress’ paramount leader under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi. After Nehru’s death, Lal Bahadur Shastri took over but his death in 1966 elevated to power Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter. Over time, Gandhi’s government grew increasingly more authoritarian and unrest among the opposition grew.
  • In 1984, Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi became nominal head of the Congress and prime minister upon her assassination. His government was accused of corruption and in 1991, Gandhi was killed by a bomb. He was succeeded as party leader by P. V. Narasimha Rao, who is often referred to as the “father of Indian economic reforms.” Rao was succeeded as president by Sitaram Kesri, the party’s first non-Brahmin leader, but in order to boost the party’s popularity, Congress leaders urged Sonia Gandhi – widow of Rajiv Gandhi – to assume the leadership of the party, which she holds until today.

Key Terms

Indian National Congress
One of two major political parties in India, founded in 1885 during the British Raj. In the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries, it became a pivotal participant in the Indian independence movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants in its opposition to British colonial rule in India.
Indian National Army trials
The British Indian trial by courts-martial of a number of officers of the Indian National Army (INA) between November 1945 and May 1946. INA was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia that fought against the British. Charges included treason, torture, murder, and abetment.
Azad Hind
An Indian provisional government established in occupied Singapore in 1943 and supported by Japan and Nazi Germany.
British Raj
The rule of the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.

 

Early Years

The Indian National Congress (INC or the Congress) was founded in 1885 by Indian and British members of the Theosophical Society. Its objective was to obtain a greater share in government for educated Indians and create a platform for civic and political dialogue between educated Indians and the British Raj. The first session was held in December 1885 and attended by 72 delegates. Representing each province of India, the Party’s delegates comprised 54 Hindus and two Muslims. The rest were of Parsi and Jain backgrounds.

Within the next few years, the demands of the Congress became more radical in the face of constant opposition from the British government. The organization decided to advocate in favor of the independence movement because it would allow a new political system in which the Congress could be a major party. In 1907, the Congress was split into two factions. The radicals, led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, advocated civil agitation and direct revolution to overthrow the British Empire and the abandonment of all things British. The moderates, led by leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, wanted reform within the framework of British rule. Tilak was backed by rising public leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai, who held the same point of view. Under them, India’s three major states, Maharashtra, Bengal, and Punjab, shaped the demand of the people and India’s nationalism. Gokhale criticized Tilak for encouraging acts of violence and disorder. But the Congress of 1906 did not have public membership and thus Tilak and his supporters were forced to leave the party.

 

Mass Movement

Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1915. With the help of the moderate group led by Ghokhale, Gandhi became president of the Congress and formed an alliance with the Khilafat Movement,  a pan-Islamic, political protest campaign launched by Muslims to influence the British government and increase Hindu Muslim unity.  In protest, a number of leaders resigned to set up the Swaraj Party. The Khilafat movement soon collapsed and in the years following World War I, the party became associated with Mahatma Gandhi, who remained its unofficial spiritual leader and icon.

Gandhi’s ideas and strategies of non-violent civil disobedience, which had to be carried out non-violently by withdrawing co-operation with the corrupt state,initially appeared impractical to some Indians and congressmen. In the end, however, Gandhi’s vision brought millions of ordinary Indians into the movement, transforming it from an elitist struggle to a national one. The nationalist cause was expanded to include the interests and industries that formed the economy of common Indians. For example, in Champaran, Bihar, Gandhi championed the plight of desperately poor sharecroppers and landless farmers who were forced to pay oppressive taxes and grow cash crops at the expense of the subsistence crops that formed their food supply. The profits from the crops they grew were insufficient to provide for their sustenance. Proposals aimed at eradicating caste differences, untouchability, poverty, and religious and ethnic divisions made the Congress a forceful group that dominated the Indian independence movement. Although its members were predominantly Hindu, it had members from other religions, economic classes, and ethnic and linguistic groups.

In 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress declared complete independence as the party’s goal. In the winter of 1936-37, the British government allowed provincial elections in India that were held in eleven provinces. The Congress gained power in eight of the provinces. However, in 1939, the Viceroy Linlithgow declared India’s entrance into World War II without consulting provincial governments. In protest, the Congress asked all elected representatives to resign from the government. In 1943 Azad Hind, an Indian provisional government, was established in Singapore and supported by Japan. In 1946, Indian soldiers who had fought alongside the Japanese during World War II were tried by the British in the Indian National Army trials. In response, the Congress helped to form the INA Defense Committee, which assembled a legal team to defend the case of the soldiers of the Azad Hind government. The team included several famous lawyers, including Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali, and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Gandhi and Nehru in 1942

Nehru emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic.

Post-Independence Congress

After Indian independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress became the dominant political party in the country. In 1952, in the first general election held after independence, the party swept to power in the national parliament and most state legislatures. It held power nationally until 1977. It returned to power in 1980 and ruled until 1989, when it was once again defeated. It formed the government in 1991 at the head of a coalition as well as in 2004 and 2009, when it led the United Progressive Alliance. During this period, the Congress remained center-left in its social policies while steadily shifting from a socialist to a neoliberal economic outlook. The Party’s rivals at state level have been national parties the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), and various regional parties.

From 1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Congress’s paramount leader under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi. During his tenure, Nehru implemented policies based on import substitution industrialization and advocated a mixed economy, where the government-controlled public sector co-existed with the private sector. He believed the establishment of basic and heavy industries was fundamental to the development and modernization of the Indian economy. The Nehru government directed investment primarily into key public sector industries – steel, iron, coal, and power – promoting their development with subsidies and protectionist policies. Nehru embraced secularism, socialistic economic practices based on state-driven industrialization, and a non-aligned and non-confrontational foreign policy that became typical of the modern Congress Party. The policy of non-alignment during the Cold War meant Nehru received financial and technical support from both the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc to build India’s industrial base.

After Nehru’s death, no leader except Lal Bahadur Shastri had his popular appeal. Shastri retained many members of Nehru’s Council of Ministers and appointed Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter and former Congress President, Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Shastri died in 1966, reportedly of a heart attack but the circumstances of his death remain mysterious. After Shastri’s death, the Congress elected Indira Gandhi as leader.

In the parliamentary elections held in 1971, the Gandhi-led Congress won a landslide victory on a platform of progressive policies such as the elimination of poverty. However, from 1975, Gandhi’s government grew increasingly more authoritarian and unrest among the opposition grew. In 1975, the High Court of Allahabad declared Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, void on the grounds of electoral malpractice. Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. She moved to restore order by ordering the arrest of most of the opposition participating in the unrest. In response to increasing disorder, Gandhi’s cabinet and government recommended that President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declare a state of emergency. During the 19-month emergency, widespread oppression and abuse of power by Gandhi’s unelected younger son and political heir Sanjay Gandhi and his close associates occurred. This period of political oppression ended in 1977, when Gandhi released all political prisoners and called fresh elections to the Lok Sabha. The opposition Janata Party won a landslide victory over the Congress.

Indira Gandhi, second-longest-serving Prime Minister of India and the only woman to hold the office

Gandhi served as her father’s personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as prime minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected Congress President in 1959. Upon her father’s death in 1964, Gandhi refused to enter the Congress party leadership contest and instead chose to become a cabinet minister in the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri. In the Congress Party’s parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966, upon the death of Shastri, she succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India.

 In 1978, Ghandi and her followers seceded and formed a new opposition party, popularly called Congress (I)—the I signifying Indira. During the next year, her new party attracted enough members of the legislature to become the official opposition. In the same year, Gandhi regained a parliamentary seat. In 1980, following a landslide victory for the Congress (I), she was again elected prime minister. The national election commission declared Congress (I) to be the real Indian National Congress for 1984 general election and the designation I was dropped. As prime minister, Gandhi became known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralization of power. In 1984, two of Gandhi’s bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, shot her with their service weapons in the garden of the prime minister’s residence.

In 1984, Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi became nominal head of the Congress and became prime minister upon her assassination, leading the Congress to a landslide victory. His administration took measures to reform the government bureaucracy and liberalize the country’s economy. After his government became embroiled in several financial scandals, however, his leadership became increasingly ineffectual, although Gandhi was regarded as a non-abrasive person who consulted other party members and refrained from hasty decisions. In 1991, Gandhi was killed by a bomb concealed in a basket of flowers carried by a woman associated with the Tamil Tigers.

Rajiv Gandhi was succeeded as party leader by P. V. Narasimha Rao, who was elected prime minister in 1991. His administration oversaw a major economic change and several home incidents that affected India’s national security. Rao, who held the Industries portfolio, is often referred to as the “father of Indian economic reforms.” By 1996, the party’s image was suffering from allegations of corruption and in elections that year the Congress was reduced to 140 seats, its lowest number in the Lok Sabha to that point, becoming parliament’s second largest party. Rao later resigned as prime minister and as party president. He was succeeded as president by Sitaram Kesri, the party’s first non-Brahmin leader.

 

Congress Today

In the 1998 general election, the Congress did not regain its leading position. To boost its popularity and improve its performance in the forthcoming election, Congress leaders urged Sonia Gandhi – widow of Rajiv Gandhi – to assume the leadership of the party. She had previously declined offers to become actively involved in party affairs and stayed away from politics. After her election as party leader, a section of the party that objected to the choice because of her Italian origins broke away and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Sharad Pawar. Sonia Gandhi remains the leader of the Congress, highlighting the long Indian tradition of politics as a dynastic affair.

Attributions