List of Indian National Congress Sessions & Presidents (1885-1947)

List of Indian National Congress Sessions: The Indian National Congress (INC) was founded in 1885, and by the time India was on its way toward independence, it had become one of the most influential political organizations in the country. In the year 1885, the first ever session of the Indian National Congress took place. For the IAS exam, it is essential to have a working knowledge of the dates of the sessions of the Indian National Congress as well as the presidents who presided over those sessions.

It began as an organization that was made up of India’s educated elite only, but with time it evolved into a party made up of commoners and included notable leaders such as Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadar Tilak, Gandhi, Nehru, Bose, etc. among its ranks.

List of Indian National Congress Sessions

The Founding Years (1885-1900)

Date	Place	President	Session
28-30 December 1885	Bombay	Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	1st
27-30 December 1886	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	2nd
27-30 December 1887	Madras	Badruddin Tyyabji (fist Muslim President)	3rd
26-29 December 1888	Allahabad	George Yule (first English President)	4th
26-28 December 1889	Bombay	Sir William Wedderburn	5th
26-30 December 1890	Calcutta	Pherozeshah Mehta	6th
28-30 December 1891	Nagpur	P. Ananda Charlu	7th
28-30 December 1892	Allahabad	Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	8th
27-30 December 1893	Lahore	Dadabhai Naoroji	9th
26-29 December 1894	Madras	Alfred Webb	10th
27-30 December 1895	Pune	Surendranath Banerjee	11th
28-31 December 1896	Calcutta	Rahimatullah M. Sayani	12th
27-29 December 1897	Amraoti	C. Sankaran Nair	13th
29-31 December 1898	Madras	Ananda Mohan Bose	14th
27-29 December 1899	Lucknow	Romesh Chunder Dutt	15th
27-29 December 1900	Lahore	N.G. Chandavarkar

The Pre Independece Era (1900-1947)

Date	Place	President	Session
26-28 December 1901	Calcutta	Dinshaw Eduljee Wacha	17th
28-30 December 1902	Ahmedabad	Surendranath Banerjee	18th
28-30 December 1903	Madras	Lal Mohan Ghosh	19th
26-28 December 1904	Bombay	Sir Henry Cotton	20th
27-30 December 1905	Banaras	Gopal Krishna Gokhale	21st
26-29 December 1906	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	22nd
26-27 December 1907	Surat	Rash Behari Ghosh	23rd (Session Suspended)
28-30 December 1908	Madras	Rash Behari Ghosh	23rd
27-29 December 1909	Lahore	Madan Mohan Malviya	24th
26-29 December 1910	Allahabad	Sir William Wedderburn	25th
26-28 December 1911	Calcutta	Bishan Narayan Dar	26th
26-28 December 1912	Bankipore	Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar	27th
26-28 December 1913	Karachi	Nawab Syed Mohammed Bahadur	28th
14-15 April 1914	Madras	Bhupendra Nath Bose	29th
27-29 December 1915	Bombay	Satyendra Prasanna Sinha	30th
26-30 December 1916	Lucknow	Ambica Charan Mazumdar	31st
26-29 December 1917	Calcutta	Annie Besant	32nd
26-30 December 1918	Delhi	Madan Mohan Malviya	33rd
29 August – 1 September 1918	Bombay	Romesh Chunder Dutt	Special Session
26-30 December 1919	Amritsar	Motilal Nehru	34th
26-30 December 1920	Nagpur	C. Vijayaraghavachariar	35th
27-28 December 1921	Ahmadabad	Hakim Ajmal Khan (Acting President for C.R. Das)	36th
26-31 December 1922	Gaya	Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das	37th
4-8 September 1923	Delhi	Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad	Special session
26-27 December 1924	Belgaum	M.K. Gandhi	39th
15-17 April 1925	Cawnpore	Mrs. Sarojini Naidu	40th
26-28 December 1926	Gawahati	S. Srinivasa Iyengar	41th
26-28 December 1927	Madras	M. A. Ansari	42nd
29 December 1928 – 1 January 1929	Calcutta	Motilal Nehru	43rd
16-18 April 1929	Lahore	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru	44th
21-31 March 1931	Karachi	Vallabhbhai J. Patel	45th
12-14 September 1933	Calcutta	Mrs. Nellie Sengupta	47th
24-28 October 1934	Bombay	Dr. Rajendra Prasad	48th
18-20 June 1936	Lucknow	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru	49th
12-14 July 1937	Faizpur	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru	50th
19-21 February 1938	Haripura	Subhash Chandra Bose	51st
10-12 March 1939	Tripura	Subhash Chandra Bose	52nd
19-20 March 1940	Ramgarh	Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad	53rd
23-24 November 1946	Meerut	J.B. Kriplani	54th

Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha were the individuals who initially established the Indian National Congress. On December 28th, 1885, the Indian National Congress was established as a political organization. The subject matter is significant for the UPSC Mains examination as well.

Questions posed by the UPSC in relation to the sessions of the Indian National Congress

What is the primary goal of the Indian National Congress ?

The Indian National Congress aimed to accomplish the following primary goals during its time in power:

• To encourage the process of nation-building in India in order to foster a sense of belonging to the Indian nation as a whole among the population and to further efforts toward strengthening national unity.
• The goal of this project is to establish an all-India political platform that will enable political workers from different parts of the country to educate and mobilize the general populace as part of a single all-India political organization.
• The objective is to first cultivate a sense of political consciousness and political awakening among the educated members of society, and then to expand this goal to include all aspects of social life.
• In order to foster other things within the nation, such as political liberal democracy, democratic culture, and anti-colonial ideology among the populace, we need to work toward this goal.

Who was the Indian National Congress’s first general secretary, and when did they assume that position?

Answer: Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee, a resident of Calcutta, was chosen to serve as President during the inaugural session, while A.O. Hume was appointed to the role of General Secretary.

Who served as the first president of the Indian National Congress and oversaw the organization of its inaugural meeting?

To answer your question, Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee was the first President of the Indian National Congress.

The Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress in 1909 was presided over by which of the following?

It was Madan Mohan Malaviya who served as the presiding officer at the Lahore Session of 1909.

Who was the Viceroy of British India when the first session of the Congress was held, and when did it take place?

When the inaugural meeting of the INC took place, Lord Dufferin was serving as Viceroy of Canada at the time. In the article that you have linked to, you will find a list of all governors-general and viceroys.

During which session did the Indian National Congress break into two parts—the Moderates and the Extremists?

The answer is that the moderates and the extremists became ideologically distinct during the Surat session in 1907. (In order to go through the concept again—Extremists and Moderates)