OVERVIEW
The Indian National Congress (INC, often called Congress) is a broad-based political party in India. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants. Congress led India to independence from Great Britain, and powerfully influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire. Read more
HISTORY
From its foundation on 28 December 1885 by A.O Hume, a retired British officer, until the time of independence of India on 15 August 1947, the Indian National Congress was considered to be the largest and most prominent Indian public organization, and central and defining influence of the Indian Independence Movement. After independence of India in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi asked the leaders to dissolve Indian National Congress and form new organisation to govern the nation. Read more
LEADERSHIP
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Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was elected as the president of the Indian National Congress in 1921. He immediately introduced a number of reforms within the party ranks. The first responsibility that Gandhi undertook as the president of the Indian National Congress was to increase the reach of the party among the masses who reside in the remote corners in order to eradicate its elitist status. Gandhi famously stated that rural India was the very backbone of the country, both in economic and in logistical terms. Therefore no movement can be truly successful unless whole-heartedly supported by the inhabitants of the Indian villages. The first step that he took was to considerably reduce the membership fee of the party. Then he restructured the entire party hierarchy, and opened new party branches at various provinces and princely states of India. Soon congress took a national dimension with membership multiplied manifold. Gandhi became the new guiding star of Indian politics, operating under the umbrella of the Indian National Congress. Read more
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic. He was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community while many Indian children knew him as Chacha Nehru (Hindi, lit., "Uncle Nehru"). Read more
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian stateswoman and central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi belonged to the Nehru–Gandhi family and was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father. Read more
Dr Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is an Indian economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014. The first Sikh in office, Singh was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. Born in Gah (now in Punjab, Pakistan), Singh's family migrated to India during its partition in 1947. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from Oxford, Singh worked for the United Nations during 1966–69. He subsequently began his bureaucratic career when Lalit Narayan Mishra hired him as an advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Over the 70s and 80s, Singh held several key posts in the Government of India, such as Chief Economic Advisor (1972–76), Reserve Bank governor (1982–85) and Planning Commission head (1985–87). Read more
Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi About this sound pronunciation is an Indian politician. He is the President of the Indian National Congress and a member of the 16th Lok Sabha from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. In addition to that, Gandhi serves as the Chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. Born to Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi of the Nehru–Gandhi family, Rahul shifted school in his youth because of security concerns. He studied abroad under a pseudonym, his identity being known only to a select few including university officials and security agencies. After obtaining degrees in International Relations and Development Studies at the universities of Rollins and Cambridge, Gandhi worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm in London, before establishing the Mumbai-based technology outsourcing firm, Backops Services Private Ltd. Gandhi entered politics in 2004, having stayed away from public sphere prior to that. Read more
