Movement For Social Justice

Formation of Political Organisations
The British government was little interested in the Indians’ welfare.

The Indians felt that their voice was not being heard by the British government. Thus, the need for an organisation was felt which could raise their voice. So, political organisations came to be formed from the middle of the nineteenth century. In the beginning, some regional organisations were formed. The first national-level organisation was founded by Surendranath Bannerjee in 1883. It was named the Indian National Conference.

Indian National Congress
The British wanted to avoid another uprising like the 1857 revolt and sought to create an Indian organization to gauge Indian sentiments. In 1885, A.O. Hume, a retired British civil servant, helped establish the Indian National Congress, also known as the Congress.

The Congress initially tried to draw the British government’s attention to the difficulties faced by Indians through petitions and appeals. The first session of the Congress was held in 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, 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.

   

Subramaniam iyer

The appeals and petitions submitted by the ome 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.