The first session of the Indian National Congress in December 1885 was held at which venue?
- A.Town Hall, Calcutta
- B.Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay
- C.Senate House, Madras
- D.Albert Hall, Allahabad
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay, where the first session of the Indian National Congress met on 28 December 1885 with seventy-two delegates and Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee in the chair. The session had originally been planned for Poona, but an outbreak of cholera there led to the change of venue to Bombay. The retired civil servant Allan Octavian Hume was the general secretary and the moving spirit behind the gathering. A, the Town Hall in Calcutta was a familiar meeting place of the Bengal associations but not the venue of the first session. C, the Senate House in Madras hosted a later Congress session, not the first. D names a venue in Allahabad that was not connected with the first session. Remember also that the second Congress session met at Calcutta in 1886 under Dadabhai Naoroji, and that the number of delegates rose sharply from seventy-two to over four hundred.
Read the full article: Political Associations before the Congress: Years and Founders
Practice Questions
View allWhich organisation is generally regarded as the first political association founded in India?
- A.Landholders' Society
- B.Bangabhasha Prakasika Sabha
- C.British Indian Association
- D.Indian Association
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It discussed questions of public interest and sent representations to the government, and because it came before every other body of its kind it is counted as the first political association in India.
Read the full explanation →The British Indian Association of 1851 was formed by the merger of which two bodies?
- A.Bombay Association and Madras Native Association
- B.Landholders' Society and Bengal British India Society
- C.Indian League and Indian Association
- D.East India Association and London Indian Society
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The Landholders' Society of 1838 spoke for the zamindars of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, while the Bengal British India Society of 1843 was set up with the help of George Thompson to collect and publish information on the condition of the people.
Read the full explanation →The East India Association was founded in London in 1866 by whom?
- A.Dadabhai Naoroji
- B.Surendranath Banerjee
- C.Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee
- D.Mahadev Govind Ranade
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He had already formed the London Indian Society in 1865, and in 1866 he founded the East India Association in London, with branches later opened in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.
Read the full explanation →The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha was founded in 1870 by
- A.Bal Gangadhar Tilak and G. G. Agarkar
- B.Mahadev Govind Ranade and Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi
- C.Jyotirao Phule and Gopal Hari Deshmukh
- D.Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta
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The Sabha was set up in Poona in 1870 to act as a bridge between the government and the people, and its members held written authority from the villages around Poona to speak on their behalf, which gave it a representative character unusual for the time.
Read the full explanation →The Indian Association, founded in Calcutta in 1876, was established by
- A.Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh
- B.Surendranath Banerjee and Anand Mohan Bose
- C.Debendranath Tagore and Radhakanta Deb
- D.Badruddin Tyabji and K. T. Telang
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It aimed to create a strong body of public opinion, to unify Indians on common political questions, to promote Hindu and Muslim friendship and to draw the masses into public movements, and it kept the membership fee low so that poorer people could join.
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