Answer:
- The formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 was not a sudden event but the outcome of nearly six decades of political activity carried out by a series of associations from the 1820s onward. These bodies, though moderate in method and limited in social base, carried out the essential preparatory work of political education and the gradual construction of an all-India political consciousness on which the Congress was built.
Major political organizations and their contributions:
1. Bangabhasha Prakasika Sabha and Zamindari Association:
- The Bangabhasha Prakasika Sabha, founded at Calcutta in 1836, and the Zamindari Association, also called the Landholders' Society, established in 1838 under Dwarkanath Tagore, were among the earliest bodies to discuss public grievances and pioneered the technique of petitioning the government on questions of land revenue and administration.
2. Bengal British India Society and British Indian Association:
- The Bengal British India Society, formed in 1843, and the British Indian Association, created in 1851 through its merger with the Landholders' Society under the leadership of Raja Radhakanta Deb, became the first prominent all-Bengal body and regularly submitted petitions to the British Parliament on taxation and administrative questions.
3. Madras Native Association and Bombay Association:
- The Madras Native Association, founded in 1852, and the Bombay Association, also established in 1852 under Jagannath Shankarseth, extended organised petitioning and the drawing up of memoranda on local grievances to the Madras and Bombay presidencies, though their politics remained regional and confined to the landed and educated upper classes.
4. East India Association:
- Founded by Dadabhai Naoroji in London in 1866, it worked to influence British public opinion and Parliament in favour of Indian interests and provided the platform on which Naoroji developed his early critique of colonial economic policy that later matured into the Drain of Wealth theory.
5. Poona Sarvajanik Sabha:
- Established in 1870 under Mahadev Govind Ranade, it functioned as a bridge between the government and the people on questions of famine relief, taxation, and forest policy, and trained a generation of future Congress leaders in Western India.
6. Indian League and Indian Association:
- The Indian League, founded by Sisir Kumar Ghosh in 1875, and the Indian Association, established by Surendranath Banerjea and Anandamohan Bose in 1876, united the educated middle class on a common platform, organised the all-India campaign of 1878 against the reduction of the Civil Service age limit, and convened the Indian National Conference in 1883 and 1885, a direct precursor to the Congress.
7. Madras Mahajan Sabha and Bombay Presidency Association:
- The Madras Mahajan Sabha, formed in 1884 by M. Viraraghavachari and P. Ananda Charlu, and the Bombay Presidency Association, founded in 1885 by Pherozeshah Mehta, K.T. Telang, and Badruddin Tyabji, extended organised political activity to the south and the west on the very eve of the formation of the Congress.
8. Cumulative contribution of these associations:
- Taken together, these associations trained a generation of leaders in petitioning, public meetings, and the use of the press, widened politics from a narrow landed elite to the educated middle class, built communication among workers of different provinces, and, through their regional isolation and dependence on petitioning without mass support, exposed the very limitations that the founders of the Congress sought to overcome through a unified all-India platform.
Conclusion:
⇒Thus, these associations were not separate, unconnected efforts but successive steps of one continuing process. Each one taught Indians to organise, raise grievances, and think beyond their own locality or community. By training leaders, widening participation, and connecting workers across provinces, they built the foundation on which the Congress was formed in 1885. In this sense, the Congress was not a sudden beginning but the natural outcome of this earlier movement toward Indian nationalism.