Formation of Indian National Congress
Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British civil servant, founded the Indian National Congress in Bombay in 1885 with 72 delegates, initially as a moderate platform for educated Indians to petition the British government. It evolved into the primary vehicle for India's independence movement.
Preceding Causes
Growing English-educated Indian elite frustrated by exclusion from governance, rising resentment of economic exploitation, and the organizational opportunity created by the spread of English education and railways connecting Indian intellectuals across the subcontinent.
Historical Consequences
Became the mass movement that won Indian independence under Gandhi and Nehru. Its internal divisions — between Gandhi's mass mobilization, Bose's militant approach, and the Muslim League's demand for a separate state — shaped the trajectory toward both independence and Partition. Governed India as the dominant party for its first several decades of independence.
Salt March
On March 12, 1930, Gandhi led 78 followers on a 240-mile (385 km) march from Sabarmati Ashram to the coastal village of Dandi to make salt from seawater, defying the British salt tax. The march swelled to tens of thousands and ignited the wider Civil Disobedience Movement across India.
Quit India Movement
On August 8, 1942, Gandhi called for immediate British withdrawal with his "Do or Die" speech at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay. Within hours the entire Congress leadership was arrested, but leaderless underground resistance, strikes, and sabotage paralyzed parts of British India in the most serious challenge to colonial rule since 1857.
Non-Cooperation Movement
Gandhi's first nationwide mass resistance campaign called on Indians to boycott British institutions, goods, titles, and courts. Millions participated — surrendering British honors, withdrawing from government schools, and boycotting foreign cloth — paralyzing colonial administration.