1. Background — Why Congress Sessions Matter

1. Background — Why Congress Sessions Matter

The Indian National Congress (INC) was founded in December 1885 and, for decades, functioned primarily as an annual deliberative body — a session held once a year (usually during the winter, around December–January) where delegates from across British India gathered to pass resolutions, elect a president for that session, and set the political agenda for the coming year. Because the President of a session (not a permanent office-holder, but elected fresh for each session until the AICC/Working Committee system evolved) changed every year, and because major turning points in the freedom struggle are anchored to specific sessions (the 1907 Surat Split, the 1916 Lucknow Pact, the 1929 Purna Swaraj resolution, etc.), the sessions are treated in NCERT/Spectrum ("A Brief History of Modern India" by Rajiv Ahir) as a structured chronological table that examiners draw from directly.

Important terminology clarification for exams:

• The person who presides over a session is called the "President of the Indian National Congress" for that year — this is a session-specific title, not a fixed multi-year post (unlike, say, a party president in later decades).
• A session is usually named by its venue (city), not by a session number, though session numbers are also sometimes used (e.g., "the 22nd session" = 1907 Surat). Exams overwhelmingly ask by year + place + president, so master that triad first.
• Occasionally more than one session was held in a calendar year (e.g., 1918 had a regular session at Delhi and a special session at Bombay; 1923 had a regular session at Kakinada and a special session at Delhi). Some years had no session at all (e.g., 1930, due to the Civil Disobedience Movement and mass arrests; 1935 also had no full annual session in the usual sense — the Bombay special situation is discussed below).