Sessions of the Indian National Congress: Venues and Presidents

The correct answer is B, W. C. Bonnerjee. Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, a Calcutta barrister, presided over the first session of the Congress at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay from 28 to 31 December 1885, attended by seventy-two delegates. A is wrong because Dadabhai Naoroji presided over the second session at Calcutta in 1886, and again in 1893 and 1906; he is the Grand Old Man of India but not the first president. C is wrong because Allan Octavian Hume founded the Congress and served as its general secretary for many years, yet he presided only later, in 1894 at Madras. D is wrong because Badruddin Tyabji presided over the Madras session of 1887 and is remembered as the first Muslim president of the Congress, two years after the first session.

The correct answer is B, Lahore, 1929. The Lahore session of December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, declared complete independence to be the goal of the Congress and called upon the country to observe 26 January 1930 as Independence Day; the tricolour was hoisted on the bank of the Ravi on 31 December 1929. A is wrong because the Karachi session of 1931 is remembered for the resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme and for endorsing the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. C is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1928 considered the Nehru Report, which still asked for dominion status rather than complete independence. D is wrong because the Nagpur session of 1920 adopted Non-Cooperation and rewrote the Congress constitution, defining the goal as swaraj by all legitimate and peaceful means.

The correct answer is C, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Bose was re-elected president at the Tripuri session of 1939 after defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, but the Working Committee would not serve under him; he resigned in April 1939 and Rajendra Prasad was asked to take the chair for the remainder of the year. A is wrong because Jawaharlal Nehru had presided in 1929 and 1936 and would preside again in 1937 and 1951, but he did not step in after Bose resigned. B is wrong because Pattabhi Sitaramayya was the candidate Bose had defeated in the election; he became president only in 1948, at Jaipur. D is wrong because Acharya J. B. Kripalani became president much later, at the Meerut session of 1946, the last session before independence.

The correct answer is C, Surat, 1907. At Surat the two wings of the Congress quarrelled over the choice of president and over how far the boycott and swadeshi programme should be carried; the session broke up in disorder, Rash Behari Ghosh was declared president, and the Congress stayed divided until 1916. A is wrong because the Benares session of 1905 under Gopal Krishna Gokhale only recorded a protest against the partition of Bengal, with the two groups still inside one organisation. B is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1906 under Dadabhai Naoroji was the session where swaraj was demanded for the first time, and the split was avoided by choosing a leader both sides respected. D is wrong because the Madras session of 1908, again under Rash Behari Ghosh, came after the split and was attended mainly by the moderates.

The correct answer is B, Annie Besant. She presided over the Calcutta session of 1917 and was the first woman president of the Congress, in the same years in which she was leading the Home Rule League. A is wrong because Sarojini Naidu, who presided at Kanpur in 1925, was the first Indian woman president of the Congress, which is a different distinction and the commonest confusion in this question. C is wrong because Nellie Sengupta presided over the Calcutta session of 1933 and was the third woman to hold the office. D is wrong because Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was a leading organiser of the salt satyagraha and of handicrafts and cooperatives after independence, but she never presided over a Congress session. A useful way to keep the two apart is that Besant was the first woman of any nationality to preside, while Naidu was the first Indian woman, and the Kanpur session of 1925 came eight years after Besant Calcutta session of 1917.

The correct answer is A, Belgaum, 1924. The Belgaum session in Karnataka is the only session of the Congress over which Mahatma Gandhi presided, and in his presidential year he worked chiefly for Hindu-Muslim unity, khadi and the removal of untouchability. B is wrong because the Gaya session of 1922 was presided over by C. R. Das, and it was there that the no-changers and the pro-changers divided over entering the legislatures, a quarrel that produced the Swaraj Party. C is wrong because the Kanpur session of 1925 was presided over by Sarojini Naidu, the first Indian woman to hold the office. D is wrong because the Ahmedabad session of 1921 was presided over by Hakim Ajmal Khan, who acted in place of C. R. Das while Das was in jail.

The correct answer is B, Karachi, 1931. The Karachi session, presided over by Vallabhbhai Patel, endorsed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and adopted the resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme, which promised free speech, free press, equality before law, a living wage and state ownership of key industries; the draft is attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru. A is wrong because Lahore in 1929 adopted Purna Swaraj as the goal and fixed Independence Day, not the rights programme. C is wrong because Faizpur in 1936 is remembered as the first session held in a village, where an agrarian programme was discussed. D is wrong because Haripura in 1938, presided over by Subhas Chandra Bose, is remembered for setting up the National Planning Committee under Jawaharlal Nehru.

The correct answer is B, Nagpur, 1920. The Nagpur session, presided over by C. Vijayaraghavachariar, confirmed the Non-Cooperation programme begun at the Calcutta special session of September 1920 and rewrote the organisation from top to bottom: a Working Committee of fifteen members was created, the provincial committees were reorganised on linguistic lines, the membership fee was lowered to four annas, and the goal was defined as swaraj by all legitimate and peaceful means. A is wrong because Lucknow in 1916 is the session of reunion and of the pact with the Muslim League. C is wrong because Calcutta in 1928 considered the Nehru Report on a dominion constitution for India. D is wrong because Madras in 1927 resolved on boycotting the Simon Commission and passed an independence resolution, without touching the party's own constitution.

The correct answer is C, 1911. Jana Gana Mana, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, was sung for the first time on 27 December 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Congress, and the first stanza was adopted as the national anthem by the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950. A is wrong because it was at the Calcutta session of 1896, under Rahimtulla Sayani, that Tagore sang Vande Mataram for the first time at a Congress gathering. B is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1906 under Dadabhai Naoroji is remembered for the first demand for swaraj. D is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1917 is remembered for Annie Besant becoming the first woman president of the Congress, not for the anthem. Candidates should also remember that the song was sung on the second day of that session and that the Constituent Assembly adopted Vande Mataram as the national song on the same day it adopted the anthem.

The correct answer is B, 1916. At the Lucknow session of December 1916, presided over by Ambica Charan Mazumdar, the moderates and the extremists were reunited and the Congress and the Muslim League agreed on a joint scheme of political reform, accepting separate electorates for Muslims; that agreement is the Lucknow Pact. A is wrong because 1909 is the year of the Morley-Minto reforms, which introduced separate electorates by law and are often confused with the pact that later accepted them. C is wrong because 1919 is the year of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and of the Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh, and the Congress session that year met at Amritsar. D is wrong because 1923 saw the Delhi special session under Abul Kalam Azad, held to settle the dispute over contesting the legislative elections.

The correct answer is B, Meerut. The Meerut session of November 1946, with Acharya J. B. Kripalani in the chair, was the last session of the Congress held before 15 August 1947. A is wrong because the Ramgarh session of 1940, presided over by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was the last session before the Quit India years; no session could be held between 1940 and 1946, which is why Azad remained president for so long. C is wrong because Jaipur hosted the first session of independent India, in 1948, under Pattabhi Sitaramayya. D is wrong because Tripuri hosted the session of 1939, where Subhas Chandra Bose was re-elected and from which he soon resigned. Azad therefore held the office for the longest unbroken stretch in the Congress history, from 1940 to 1946, and Kripalani was president at the moment of the transfer of power, which is why his name appears in questions on the last Congress president of British India.