Indian National Congress: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Indian National Congress (which later became the Congress Party) is the oldest surviving political organisation in India, and is also one of its largest political parties. In the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004), it was the second largest party with 109 members. It played a major role in the Indian independence movement and was the ruling party in most of independent India's governments. Following the 2004 elections, the Congress Party is again the ruling party.

It was founded in 1885 with the object of obtaining a greater share in government for educated Indians, and was initially not opposed to British rule. Indeed, it was a Scotsman, Allan Octavian Hume, who brought about its first meeting in Bombay, with the approval of Lord Dufferin, the then-Viceroy. Later, however, its demands became more radical in the face of constant opposition from the government, and the party became very active in the independence movement. During this period there were two camps in the Congress: the Garam Dal, or Extremists (literally "hot faction"), and the Naram Dal, or Moderates (literally "soft faction");depending on their attitude towards the British. Its leaders before Indian independence included Mohandas Gandhi (aka Mahatma Gandhi) and Subhash Chandra Bose (also known as Netaji S. C. Bose).

Gandhi is said to have held the view that the party was formed only for independence and should have been disbanded in 1947. But the party ruled India for much of the time after independence under Jawaharlal Nehru, Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv Gandhi, and P. V. Narasimha Rao, among others.

In the 1980s and 1990s it was also known as Congress-I, where the I stood for Indira (initially to distinguish it from Congress-O, led by Kamaraj, and other organisations). Slowly, many groups broke away from the Congress and there are now scores of parties each derived from the Congress and hence having Congress somewhere in their party names, thus decreasing somewhat the strength of the Congress from the 1940s to the 60s, when it used to regularly get a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Until recently, the Congress Party was the main opposition party at the Center (i.e., the central or federal government) and has also formed the government in a majority of Indian states. In 2004, it again became the ruling party of India.

Its current leader is Sonia Gandhi, widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. There was some controversy about the foreign (Italian) origin of Sonia Gandhi, which raised doubts about the appropriateness of her becoming the Prime Minister, when the party returned to power in 2004. In the election of 2004, the Congress won an upset victory over the Bharatiya Janata Party of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Shortly thereafter Sonia Gandhi was nominated by the 19 Congress allies to be the next Prime Minister of India. But in what was described as dropping of a political bombshell, Sonia Gandhi refused to take the position based on her "inner voice". Eminent economist, former Union Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Dr. Manmohan Singh was backed by her for the post of Prime Minister. The swearing in ceremony took place on 2004 22 May.

Leaders

• Mohandas K. Gandhi (Popular head of freedom movement; party president 1924–1925)
• Vallabhbhai Patel (Prominent freedom fighter; party president 1931–1932)
• Subhash Chandra Bose (Prominent freedom fighter; party president 1938–1939)
• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Prominent freedom fighter; party president 1940–1946)
• Rajendra Prasad (First President of India 1950–1962; party president 1934–1936)
• Jawaharlal Nehru (First Prime Minister of India 1947–1964; party president 1929–1931, 1936–1938, 1946, 1951–1955)
• Lal Bahadur Shastri (Prime Minister of India 1964–1966)
• Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister of India 1966–1977, 1980–1984; party president 1960–1961, 1978–1984)
• Rajiv Gandhi (Prime Minister of India 1984–1987; party president 1984–1991)
• P.V. Narasimha Rao (Prime Minister of India 1991–1996; party president 1991–1996)
• Sitaram Kesri (party president 1996–1998)
• Sonia Gandhi (party president 1998–present)