Congress Sessions

No. of Session

Year Place

President

1st Session 2nd Session 3rd Session 4th Session 5th Session 6th Session 7th Session 8th Session 9th Session 10th Session 11th Session 12th Session 13th Session 14th Session 15th Session 16th Session 17th Session 18th Session 19th Session 20th Session 21st Session 22nd Session

1885 Bombay 1886 Calcutta 1887 Madras 1888 Allahabad 1889 Bombay 1890 Calcutta 1891 Nagpur 1892 Allahabad 1893 Lahore 1894 Madras 1895 Pune 1896 Calcutta 1897 Amraoti (Mah.) 1898 Madras 1899 Lucknow 1900 Lahore 1901 Calcutta 1902 Ahmedabad 1903 Madras 1904 Bombay 1905 Benaras 1906 Calcutta

Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee Dadabhai Naoroji Badruddin Tyabji George Yule Sir William Wedderburn Sir Pherozeshah Mehta P. Ananda Charlu Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee Dadabhai Naoroji Alfred Webb Surendranath Banerjee Rahimtulla M. Sayani Sir C. Sankaran Nair Ananda Mohan Bose Romesh Chander Dutta Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha Surendranath Banerjee Lal Mohan Ghosh Sir Henry Cotton Gopal Krishna Gokhale Dadabhai Naoroji Dr. Rash Behari Ghosh Dr. Rash Behari Ghosh Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya Sir William Wedderburn Pt. Bishan Narayan Dhar

Suspended Session 1907 Surat 23rd Session 24th Session 25th Session 26th Session 27th Session 1908 Madras 1909 Lahore 1910 Allahabad 1911 Calcutta

1912 Bankipore (Patna) Rao Bahadur Raghunath

Narasinha Modholkar 28th Session 29th Session 30th Session 31st Session 32nd Session 33rd Session Special Session 34th Session 35th Session Special Session 36th Session 37th Session 38th Session Special Session 39th Session 40th Session 41st Session 42nd Session 43rd Session 44th Session 45th Session 46th Session (Banned) 47th Session (Banned) 48th Session 49th Session 50th Session 51st Session 52nd Session 53rd Session 1913 Karachi 1914 Madras 1915 Bombay 1916 Lucknow 1917 Calcutta 1918 New Delhi 1918 Bombay 1919 Amritsar 1920 Nagpur 1920 Calcutta 1921 Ahmedabad 1922 Gaya (Bihar) Nawab Syed Mohammad Bahadur Bhupendra Nath Basu Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha Ambica Charan Mazumdar Dr. Annie Besant Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya Syed Hasan Imam Pandit Motilal Nehru C. Vijayaraghavachariar Lala Lajpat Rai Hakim Ajmal Khan Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das

1923 Cocanada (Andhra) Maulana Mohammad Ali 1923 New Delhi 1924 Belgaum (Karnataka) 1925 Cawnpore 1926 Gauhati 1927 Madras 1928 Calcutta 1929 Lahore 1931 Karachi 1932 New Delhi Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Mahatma Gandhi Mrs. Sarojini Naidu S. Srinivasa Iyengar Dr. M. A. Ansari Pt. Motilal Nehru Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (without President) Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya was elected as President (Mrs. Nellie Sengupta presided) 1933 Calcutta 1934 Bombay 1936 Lucknow 1937 Faizpur 1938 Haripura 1939 Tripuri 1940 Ramgarh Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya was again elected President. Dr. Rajendra Prasad Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

54th Session 55th Session 56th Session 57th Session 58th Session 59th Session 60th Session 61st Session 62nd Session 63rd Session 64th Session 65th Session 66th Session 67th Session 68th Session 69th Session 70th Session 71st Session 72nd Session 73rd Session 74th Session 75th Session 76th Session 77th Session 78th Session 79th Session 80th Session 81st Session 82nd Session 83rd Session

1946 Meerut 1948 Jaipur 1950 Nasik 1951 New Delhi 1953 Hyderabad 1954 Kalyani 1955 Avadi (Madras) 1956 Amritsar 1957 Indore 1958 Gauhati 1959 Nagpur 1960 Bangalore 1961 Bhavnagar 1962 Patna 1964 Bhubaneshwar 1965 Durgapur 1966 Jaipur 1968 Hyderabad 1969 Faridabad 1969 Bombay 1972 Calcutta 1975 Chandigarh 1978 New Delhi 1983 Calcutta 1985 Bombay 1992 Tirupati (Andhra) 1997 Calcutta 2001 Bangalore 2006 Hyderabad 2010 Delhi

Acharya J. B. Kripalani Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya Purshottam Das Tandon Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru U. N. Dhebar U. N. Dhebar U. N. Dhebar U. N. Dhebar U. N. Dhebar Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy K. Kamaraj K. Kamaraj K. Kamaraj S. Nijalingappa S. Nijalingappa Babu Jagjivan Ram Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma Dev Kanta Borooah Smt. Indira Gandhi Smt. Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi P. V. Narasimha Rao Sitaram Kesri Smt. Sonia Gandhi Smt. Sonia Gandhi Smt. Sonia Gandhi

The National Flag

A flag is a necessity for all nations. Millions have died for it. It is no doubt a kind of idolatry which it would be a sin to destroy. For, a flag represents an ideal. The unfurling of the Union Jack evokes in the English breast sentiments whose strength it is difficult to measure. The Stars and Stripes mean a world to the Americans. The Star and the Crescent will call forth the best bravery in Islam. "It will be necessary for us Indians-Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis, and all others to whom India is their home-to recognize a common flag to live and to die for." - M. K. GANDHI ORIGIN The evolution of the Indian National Flag reflects the political developments in the country during the 20th century. The various political trends, communal tensions, waves of enthusiasm can all be seen in the people's attitude to the flag. The first national flag in India is said to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, in the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park) in Calcutta. The flag was composed of horizontal strips of red, yellow and green. The red strip at the top had eight white lotuses embossed on it in a row. On the yellow strip the words Vande Mataram were inscribed in deep blue in Devanagari characters. The green strip had a white sun on the left and a white crescent and star on the right. The second flag was hoisted in Paris by Madame Cama and her band of exiled revolutionaries in 1907 (according to some in I905). This was very similar to the first flag except that the top strip had only one lotus but seven stars denoting the Saptarishi. This flag was also exhibited at a socialist conference in Berlin. By the time our third flag went up in 1917, our political struggle had taken a definite turn. Dr. Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak hoisted it during the Home Rule movement. This flag had five red and four green horizontal strips arranged alternately, with seven stars in the Saptarishi configuration super-imposed on them. In the left-hand top corner (the pole end) was the Union Jack. There was also a white crescent and star in one corner. This indicated the aspirations of the time. The inclusion of the Union Jack symbolised the goal of Dominion Status. The presence of the Union Jack, however, made the flag generally unacceptable. The political compromise that it implied was not popular. The call for new leadership brought Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to the fore in 1921 and, through him, the first tricolour. During the session of the All India Congress Committee which met at Bezwada (now Vijayawada) about this time, an Andhra youth prepared a flag and took it to Gandhiji. It was made up of two colours-red and green-representing the two major communities. Gandhiji suggested the addition of a white strip to represent the remaining communities of India and the charkha to symbolise progress.

Thus was the tricolour born, but it had not yet been officially accepted by the All India Congress Committee. Gandhiji's approval, however, made it sufficiently popular to be hoisted on all Congress occasions. In 1931, when the A.I.C.C. met at Karachi, a resolution was passed stressing the need for a flag which would be officially acceptable to the Congress. There was already considerable controversy over the significance of the colours in the flag. Communal troubles had set in. The two major communities were at the parting of the ways and the stress was on communal interpretation. Meanwhile a committee of seven was appointed to elicit opinion on the choice of a flag. It suggested a plain saffron flag with a charkha in reddish brown in the extreme left-hand corner. The A.I.C.C. did not accept the suggestion. The year 1931 was a landmark in the history of the flag. A resolution was passed adopting a tricolor flag as our national flag. This flag, the forbear of the present one, was saffron, white and green. It was, however, clearly stated that it bore no communal significance and was to be interpreted thus: Saffron for courage and sacrifice White for truth and peace Green for faith and chivalry It also carried a charkha in blue on the white band. The size was three breadths by two breadths. This resolution for the first time conferred official Congress recognition on the tricolour as the National Flag. Henceforward it became our Flag and the symbol of our determination to be free. On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted it as Free India's National Flag. After the advent of Independence, the colours and their significance remained the same. Only the Dharma Charkha of Emperor Asoka was adopted in place of the charkha as the emblem on the flag. Thus, the tricolour flag of the Congress Party eventually became the tricolour flag of Independent India OUR TIRANGA.

Role of Press in India's Struggle for Freedom

At the time of the first war of independence, any number of papers were in operation in the country. Many of these like Bangadoot of Ram Mohan Roy, Rastiguftar of Dadabhai Naoroji and Gyaneneshunadvocated social reforms and thus helped arouse national awakening. It was in 1857 itself that Payam-e-Azadi started publication in Hindi and Urdu, calling upon the people to fight against the British. The paper was soon confiscated and anyone found with a copy of the paper was presecuted for sedition. Again, the first hindi daily, Samachar Sudhavarashan, and

two newspapers in Urdu and Persian respectively, Doorbeen and Sultan-ul-Akbar, faced trial in 1857 for having published a 'Firman' by Bahadur Shah Zafar, urging the people to drive the British out of India. This was followed by the notroius Gagging Act of Lord Canning, under which restrictions were imposed on the newspapers and periodicals. Notable Role In the struggle against the British, some newspapers played a very notable role. This included theHindi Patriot! Established in 1853, by the author and playwright, Grish Chandra Ghosh, it became popular under the editorship of Harish Chandra Mukherjee. In 1861, the paper published a play, "Neel Darpan" and launched a movement against the British, urging the people to stop cultivating the crop for the white traders. This resulted in the formation of a Neel Commission. Later, the paper was taken over by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. The paper strongly opposed the Government's excesses and demanded that Indians be appointed to top government posts. The Indian Mirror was the other contemporary of this paper which was very popular among the reading public. Yet another weekly, Amrita Bazar Patrika which was being published from Jessore, was critical of the government, with the result that its proprietors faced trial and conviction. In 1871, the Patrika moved to Calcutta and another Act was passed to supress it and other native journals. Marathi Press Mahadev Govind Rande, a leading leader of Maharashtra, used to write in Gyan Prakash as well as inIndu Prakash. Both these journals helped awaken the conscience of the downtrodden masses. Another Marathi weekly, Kesari was started by Tilak from January 1, 1881. He aIongwith Agarkar and Chiplunkar started another weekly journal, Mratha in English. The Editor of the 'Daccan Star' Nam Joshi also joined them and his paper was incorporated with Maratha. Tilak and Agarkar were convicted for writings against the British and the Diwan of Kolhapur. Tilak's Kesari became one of the leading media to propagate the message of freedom movement. It also made the antipartition movement of Bengal a national issue. In 1908, Tilak opposed the Sedition ordinace. He was later exiled from the country for six years. Hindi edition of Kesari was started from Nagpur and Banaras. Press and the First Session of Congress The Editors commanded a very high reputation at the time of the birth of the Indian National Congress. One could measure the extent of this respect from the fact that those who occupied the frontline seats in the first ever Congress session held in Bombay in December 1885 included some of the editors of Indian newspapers. The firstever resolution at this Session was proposed by the editor of The Hindu, G. Subramanya Iyer. In this resolution, it was demanded that the government should appoint a committee to enquire into the functioning of Indian administration. The second resolution was also moved by a journalist from Poona, Chiplunkar in which the Congress was urged to demand for the abolition of India Council which ruled the country from Britain. The third resolution was supported by Dadabhai Naoroji who was a noted journalist of his time. The fourth resolution was proposed by Dadabhai Naoroji.

There were many Congress Presidents who had either been the editors or had started the publication of one or the other newspapers. In this context, particular mention may be made of Ferozeshah Mehta who had started the Bombay Chronide and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya who edited daily, Hindustan. He also helped the publication of Leader from Allahabad. Moti Lal Nehru was the first Chairman of the Board of Directors of the leader. Lala Lajpat Rai inspired the publication of three journals, the Punjabi, Bandematram and the People from Lahore. During his stay in South Africa, Gandhiji had brought out Indian Opinion and after settling in India, he started the publication of Young India; Navjeevan, Harijan, Harijan Sevak and Harijan Bandhu. Subash Chandra Bose and C.R. Das were not journalists but they acquired the papers like Forward and Advance which later attained national status. Jawaharlal Nehru founded the National Herald. Revolutionary Movement and the Press So far as the revolutionary movement is concerned, it did not begin with guns and bombs but it started with the publication of newspapers. The first to be mentioned in this context is Yugantarpublication of which was started by Barindra Kumar Ghosh who edited it also. When the Ghadar party was organised in Amenca, Lala Hardayal started publication of the journal 'Ghadar'. Within one year, millions of copies of this journal were published in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and English and sent to India and to all parts of the world where Indians were residing. In the beginning the copies of the journal were concealed in parcels of foreign cloth sent to Delhi. It was also planned to smuggle the printing press into India for this purpose. But then the war broke out and it became almost impossible to import printing machinery from abroad. Lala Hardayal was arrested in America and deported to India. One of his followers Pandit Ramchandra started publishing Hindustan Ghadar in English. With the U.S. joining the war, the Ghadar party workers were arrested by the American Government. When the trail was on, one of the rivals of Pandit Ramchandra managed to obtain a gun and shoot him dead in the jail itself. The death of Ram chandra led to the closure of this paper. In 1905 Shyamji Krishna Verma started publication of a journal Indian Sociologist from London. It used to publish reports of political activities taking place at the India House in London. In 1909 two printers of this journal were convicted. Shyamji Krishna Verma left England for Paris from where he started the publication of the journal. Later on, he had to leave for Geneva. He countinued to bring out the journal from there for two or three years more. In Paris, Lala Hardayal, in collaboration with Madam Cama and Sardar Singhraoji Rana brought out Vandematram and Talwar. After Yugantar, it was Vandematram that played a significant role in the freedom struggle. This journal was established by Subodha Chandra Malik, C.R. Das and Bipin Chandra Pal on August 6, 1906. Its editor, Aurobindo Ghosh, the editor of Sandhya, B. Upadhyay and editor of Yugantar B. N. Dutt had to a face a trial for espousing the cause of freedom. So far as the Hindi papers were concerned, they looked to government for support for some time. Bhartendu Harish Chandra was the first to start a journal Kavi Vachan Sudha in 1868. Its policy was to give vent to the miseries of the people of India. When the Prince of Wales visited India, a poem was published in his honour. The British authorities were given to understand that the poem had two meanings and that one word used in the peom could also mean that the Prince of Wales should get a

shoe-beating. The government aid to journals like Kavi Vachan Sudha was stopped for publishing what was objectionable from the government point of view. Bhartendu Harish Chandra resigned from his post of an honorary Magistrate. His two friends, Pratap Narain Mishra and Bal Krishna Bhatt started publication of two important political journals Pradeep from Allahabad, and Brahman from Kanpur. ThePradeep was ordered to be closed down in 1910 for espousing the cause of freedom. The Bharat-Mitra was a famous Hindi journal of Calcutta which started its publication on May 17, 1878 as a fortnighly. It contributed a lot in propagating the cause of freedom movement. The journal exposed the British conspiracy to usurp Kashmir. Several other papers published from Calcutta which played an important role in freedom struggle included Ambika Prasad Vajpayee's Swantrtmtra, Ramanand Chatterjee's Modern Review' in English, Pravasi Patra' in Bengali and Vishal Bharat in Hindi. One of the foremost Hindi journalist who has earned a name for his patriotism was Ganesh Shanker Vidyarthi. In 1913, he brought out weekly Pratap from Kanpur. He made the supreme sacrifice in 1931 in the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity. Krishna Dutt Paliwal brought out Sainik from Agra which became a staunch propagator of nationalism in Western U. P. The noted Congress leader, Swami Shradhanand, started the publication of Hindi journal Vir Arjun' and Urdu journal Tej. After the assassination of Swami Shradhanand, Vidyavachaspathi and Lala Deshbandhu Gupta continued the publication of these journals. They were themselves prominent Congress leaders. In Lahore, Mahashaya Khushal Chand brought out Milap and Mahashaya Krishna started publishing urdu journals which helped a lot in promoting the national cause. In 1881, Sardar Dayal Singh Majitha on the advice of Surendra Nath Bannerjee brought out Tribune under the editorship of Sheetala Kant Chatterjee. Bipin Chandra Pal also edited this paper for sometime. Later in 1917, Kalinath Rai joined the paper as its editor. There is not a single privince in India which did not produce a journal or newspaper to uphold the cause of freedom struggle. A. G. Horniman made the Bombay Chronicle' a powerful instrument to promote militant nationalism. He himself took part in the meetings where Satyagraha used to be planned. He published vivid accounts of Jallianwala Bagh carnage for which one correspondent of his paper, Goverdhan Das, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a military court. Horniman too was arrested and deported to London even though he was ill at that time. Amritlal Shet brought out the Gujarati journal Janmabhumi which was an organ of the people of the princely states of Kathiawad, but it became a mouthpiece of national struggle. Similarly another Gujarati journalSaanjvartman played a prominent role under the editorship of Sanwal Das Gandhi, who played a very significant role in the Quit India Movement in 1942. It was soon after independent formed a parallel Government in Junagarh and forced the Nawab of Junagarh to leave the country. The three editors of the Sindhi journal Hindi Jairam Das Daulatram, Dr. choithram Gidwani and Hiranand karamchand, were arrested, their press closed and the property of the paper confiscated. In Bihar the tradition of national newspapers was carried forward by Sachidanand Sinha, who had started the publication of Searchlight under the editorship of Murtimanohar Sinha. Dev Brat Shastri started publication of 'Nav Shakti and Rashtra Vani'. The weekly yogi and the Hunkar' also

contributed very much to the general awakening