8. IMPORTANT ONE-LINERS FOR QUICK REVISION

8. IMPORTANT ONE-LINERS FOR QUICK REVISION

• INC was founded in December 1885; its first session was held in Bombay, presided over by W.C. Bonnerjee.
• A.O. Hume was the chief organiser behind INC's founding but was never its President.
• Badruddin Tyabji (1887, Madras) — first Muslim President.
• George Yule (1888, Allahabad) — first British/English President.
• "Vande Mataram" was first sung at the 1896 Calcutta session (Rahimtulla M. Sayani presiding).
• "Jana Gana Mana" was first sung at the 1911 Calcutta session (Bishan Narayan Dhar presiding).
• 1905 Benares session (Gokhale) came right after the Partition of Bengal, endorsing Swadeshi and Boycott.
• 1906 Calcutta session (Dadabhai Naoroji) — "Swaraj" declared as the Congress goal for the first time.
• 1907 Surat session (Rash Behari Ghosh) — the famous Moderate–Extremist Split.
• 1916 Lucknow session (Ambika Charan Majumdar) — Moderates and Extremists reunited; also the Congress-League Lucknow Pact, brokered significantly by Jinnah.
• 1917 Calcutta session (Annie Besant) — first woman President of INC.
• 1919 Amritsar session (Motilal Nehru) — held right after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
• 1920 Nagpur session (C. Vijayaraghavachariar) — Non-Cooperation Movement formally adopted; new Congress constitution (linguistic provincial committees, 4-anna membership).
• 1922 Gaya session (C.R. Das) — led to the birth of the Swaraj Party (1923) after Non-Cooperation was withdrawn post-Chauri Chaura.
• 1924 Belgaum session — Gandhi's only session as Congress President.
• 1925 Kanpur session (Sarojini Naidu) — first Indian woman President.
• 1927 Madras session (M.A. Ansari) — Purna Swaraj demand first raised; boycott of Simon Commission resolved.
• 1928 Calcutta session (Motilal Nehru) — presentation of the Nehru Report, one-year ultimatum to the British.
• 1929 Lahore session (Jawaharlal Nehru) — Purna Swaraj resolution adopted; 26 January fixed as Independence Day; midnight Tricolour hoisting on the Ravi.
• 1930 — no regular annual session; Congress engaged in the Civil Disobedience Movement / Dandi March.
• 1931 Karachi session (Vallabhbhai Patel) — Fundamental Rights and National Economic Policy resolution; held after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the executions of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev.
• 1937 Faizpur session (Jawaharlal Nehru) — first session in a rural/village setting.
• 1938 Haripura session (Subhas Chandra Bose) — Bose's first term as President.
• 1939 Tripuri session (Subhas Chandra Bose) — Bose defeats Gandhi's nominee Pattabhi Sitaramayya, later resigns, forms the Forward Bloc; Rajendra Prasad completes the term.
• 1940 Ramgarh session (Abul Kalam Azad) — held in the shadow of World War II; individual civil disobedience strategy period follows.
• 1946 Meerut session (J.B. Kripalani) — first post-war regular session, amid the Cabinet Mission Plan; Kripalani remained President through Independence (15 Aug 1947).
• Longest-serving Congress President in the freedom struggle era: Abul Kalam Azad (continuously ~1940–1946, due to WWII disruptions and mass arrests during Quit India).
• INC continued as a functioning political party after 1947 (e.g., Jaipur session, 1948) — but this falls outside the "freedom-struggle sessions" rote list typically tested.