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Founded in 1885 with the object of obtaining a greater share in government for educated Indians, the Indian National Congress 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 and Subhash Chandra Bose.
Gandhi is said to have held the view that the party was formed only for independence and should have been disbanded in 1947Events January January 1 British mines nationalized January 1 Nigeria gains limited autonomy January 1 The Canadian Citizenship Act went into effect January 3 Proceedings of the United States Congress are televised for the first time. January 10 United Na. But the party ruled India for much of the time after independence under Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru ( November 14, 1889 May 27, 1964), was a leader of the (moderately) socialist wing of the Indian National Congress during and after India's struggle for independence from the British Empire. He became the first Prime Minister of India at, Nehru's daughter Indira GandhiIndira Priyadarshini Gandhi ( ( November 19, 1917 October 31, 1984) was Prime Minister of India from January 19, 1966 to March 24, 1977, and from January 14, 1980 until her assassination in 1984. Early years She was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the, her son Rajiv GandhiRajiv Gandhi ( ( August 20, 1944 May 21, 1991), son of Indira Gandhi, was Prime Minister of India from his mother's death on October 31, 1984 until his resignation on December 2, 1989 following general election defeat. Initially preferring his career as a, and P. V. Narasimha RaoPamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (born June 28, 1921) was the ninth Prime Minister of the Republic of India. After starting his political career as an active freedom fighter, Rao served brief stints of cabinet and chief ministerialships for the state of, among others.
In the 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends and 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn 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.
Many consider the Congress to be responsible for inciting the 1984 riots that led to the killing of thousands of Sikhs. [1]
Its current leader is Sonia Gandhi, widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. Her foreign origin (she was born and raised in Italy) has been the source of controversy ever since she took over as President of the Indian National Congress. The controversy reached its peaks during the Congress's attempts to get her elected as the Prime Minister of India. The first attempt was in 1998 when she was apparently keen to take over the government. Her attempt failed as the Samajwadi Party refused to give her support due to her foreign origin. The Bharatiya Janata Party has been most vocal about opposing her candidacy for prime ministership over the years. During the early years of her tenure as president of the Congress, a section of the Congress also raised the issue and were thrown out of the Congress for doing so. They formed the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar which in 2004, allied with the Congress inspite of the apparent contradiction between its belief that no person of foreign origin should become the Prime Minister of India and the Congress's keenness to get Sonia Gandhi elected as the Prime Minister of India.