Sessions of Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress (INC) was established in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha and it grew to become one of the most important political parties in pre-independence India. The first Indian National Congress session was held in 1885. Knowing the dates of Indian National Congress sessions and their presidents or the purpose or something special that happened in that session is important for preliminary exam.

Year	Location	President	Importance
1885	Bombay	W C Bannerji	First session attended by 72 delegates Objectives of the Congress outlined.
1886	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	Merger of National Congress and National Conference.
1887	Madras	Badruddin Tyabji	First Muslim President
1888	Allahabad	George Yule	First English president.
1889	Bombay	Sir William Wedderburn	Congress represented all areas of British India.
1890	Calcutta	Sir Pherozeshah Mehta	Decision taken to organize session of congress in London
1891	Nagpur	P Ananda Charlu
1892	Allahabad	W C Bonnerji
1893	Lahore	Dadabhai Naoroji
1894	Madras	Alfred Webb
1895	Poona	Surendranath Banerjee	Demand of a representative body only for educated class
1896	Calcutta	Rahimtullah M. Sayani	National song ‘Vande Mataram’ sung for the first time by Rabindranath Tagore
1897	Amravati	C Sankaran Nair
1898	Madras	Ananda Mohan Bose	Social reform was set as the main goal.
1899	Lucknow	Romesh Chunder Dutt	Demand for permanent fixation of Land revenue
1900	Lahore	N G Chandavarkar
1901	Calcutta	Dinshaw Wacha	First time Gandhiji appeared on the Congress platform
1902	Ahmedabad	Surendranath Banerjee
1903	Madras	Lal Mohan Ghosh
1904	Bombay	Sir Henry Cotton
1905	Benares	Gopal Krishna Gokhale	Formal proclamation of Swadeshi movement against government
1906	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	The word ‘Swaraj’ mentioned for the first time. Adopted four resolutions on: Swaraj (Self Government), Boycott Movement, Swadeshi & National Education
1907	Surat	Surat Rash Behari Ghosh	Party splits into extremists and moderates Moderates, led by Gokhale and the other consisting of Extremists, led by Tilak. Adjournment of Session.
1908	Madras	Rash Behari Ghosh	Constitution for the Congress formed.
1909	Lahore	Madan Mohan Malaviya	Expressed disapproval over formation of separate electorates on the basis of religion (of the Indian Councils Act,1909).
1910	Allahabad	Sir William Wedderburn	M.A Jinnah decried the separate electorate system introduced by act of 1909
1911	Calcutta	Bishan Narayan Das	Jana Gana Mana sung for the first time
1912	Bankipore (Patna)	Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar
1913	Karachi	Syed Mohammed Bahadur
1914	Madras	Bhupendra Nath Basu
1915	Bombay	Satyendra Prasanna Sinha	Constitution of the Congress was altered to admit the delegates from the extremist section
1916	Lucknow	Ambica Charan Mazumdar	Unity between two factions-Moderates and Extremists of Congress. Lucknow Pact – Joint session with the Muslim League and reunion of congress.
1917	Calcutta	Annie Besant	First woman president of the INC
1918	Bombay and Delhi	Syed Hasan Imam (Bombay) and Madan Mohan Malaviya (Delhi)	Special Session to deliberate the contentious Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms Scheme. Two sessions held. First in Bombay in August/September. Second in Delhi in December.
1919	Amritsar	Motilal Nehru	Congress extended support to Khilafat Movement
1920	Nagpur	Lala Lajpat Rai and C Vijayaraghavachariar	Mahatma Gandhi moved the Non cooperation resolution (Under LLR special meet). Reconstitution of Working committees of Congress on Linguistic basis and MA Jinnah left the Indian National Congress (Under CV meet).
1921	Ahmedabad	Hakim Ajmal Khan (Acting President for C R Das)	Harsat Mohani demanded for complete independence
1922	Gaya	C R Das	CR Das and other leaders broke away from INC and formed Swaraj Party
1923	Delhi	Abul Kalam Azad	Special session. Azad was the youngest president
1924	Belgaum	M K Gandhi	Only Session presided over by Mahatma Gandhi
1925	Kanpur	Sarojini Naidu	First Indian woman president
1926	Guwahati	S Srinivasa Iyengar
1927	Madras	Dr. M A Ansari	Passed a resolution against the use of Indian troops in China, Iran and Mesopotamia and Adoption of resolution on Purna Swaraj. Nehru and S.C. Bose moved resolution for independence and it was passed for the 1st time.
1928	Calcutta	Motilal Nehru	All India Youth Congress formed
1929	Lahore	Jawaharlal Nehru	Resolution for Poorna Swaraj. Civil disobedience movement for complete independence to be launched. 26 January to be observed as ‘Independence Day’.
1930	No session
1931	Karachi	Vallabhbhai Patel	Resolution on fundamental rights and national economic progress. Gandhi-Irwin Pact endorsed. Gandhi was nominated to represent INC in the Second Round Table Conference
1932	Delhi	R Amritlal	Congress banned
1933	Calcutta	Malaviya was elected but Mrs. Nellie Sengupta presided.	Congress banned
1934	Bombay	Rajendra Prasad	Amendment in the Constitution of Congress
1936	Lucknow	Jawaharlal Nehru	Push towards socialist ideas by Jawahar Lal Nehru
1937	Faizpur	Jawaharlal Nehru	First session to be held in a village
1938	Haripura	Subhas Chandra Bose	National Planning Committee set up under Nehru. Haripura Resolution passed, which demanded Poorna Swaraj, including the princely states as well.
1939	Tripuri	Subhas Chandra Bose	Bose was elected but had to resign since Gandhi supported Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Instead Rajendra Prasad was appointed and Subhash Chandra Bose formed Forward Bloc.
1940	Ramgarh	Abul Kalam Azad	He was the longest serving President of INC during British Rule. Quit India Movement started in 1942.
1941 - 1945			This period is marked by events i.e. Quit India movement, RIN Mutiny & INA trials hence during this phase no congress session was held.
1946	Meerut	Acharya Kripalani	Last session before independence
1948	Jaipur	Pattabhi Sitaramayya	First session after independence