List of Sessions of Indian National Congress before Independence (1885-1947)

Indian National Congress:

The very first session of the Indian National Congress was managed to hold in 1885. It began as an entity composed only of India’s intellectual elite before evolving into a party of common folk with influential members such as Lajpat Rai, Gandhi, Nehru, and others as representatives.

In 1885, Allan Octavian Hume, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha, and Dadabhai Nairobi together led to the establishment of INC. The Indian National Congress. The first meeting of INC managed to hold in Bombay from December 28 to 30, 1885, and it was presided over by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee. Every session of the INC (Indian national congress) is held in the gap of one year.

Objective of Indian national congress:

The Indian National Congress, according to W.C. Banerjee, has mainly three aims:

To help in promoting and strengthen the sense of national solidarity
Formalizing prevalent requirement and presenting them to the Govt
To introduce around each other representatives from across the nation
to educate and start organizing the country’s international perception

Indian national congress meeting sessions:

For the year 1885-1900

Date	Place	President	Session
28-30 December 1885	Bombay	Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	1st
27-30 December 1886	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	2nd
27-30 December 1887	Madras	Badruddin Tyyabji (fist Muslim President)	3rd
26-29 December 1888	Allahabad	George Yule (first English President)	4th
26-28 December 1889	Bombay	Sir William Wedderburn	5th
26-30 December 1890	Calcutta	Pherozeshah Mehta	6th
28-30 December 1891	Nagpur	P. Ananda Charlu	7th
28-30 December 1892	Allahabad	Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	8th
27-30 December 1893	Lahore	Dadabhai Naoroji	9th
26-29 December 1894	Madras	Alfred Webb	10th
27-30 December 1895	Pune	Surendranath Banerjee	11th
28-31 December 1896	Calcutta	Rahimatullah M. Sayani	12th
27-29 December 1897	Amraoti	C. Sankaran Nair	13th
29-31 December 1898	Madras	Ananda Mohan Bose	14th
27-29 December 1899	Lucknow	Romesh Chunder Dutt	15th
27-29 December 1900	Lahore	N.G. Chandavarkar	16th

For the era of pre-independence

Date	Place	President	Session
26-28 December 1901	Calcutta	Dinshaw Eduljee Wacha	17th
28-30 December 1902	Ahmedabad	Surendranath Banerjee	18th
28-30 December 1903	Madras	Lal Mohan Ghosh	19th
26-28 December 1904	Bombay	Sir Henry Cotton	20th
27-30 December 1905	Banaras	Gopal Krishna Gokhale	21st
26-29 December 1906	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	22nd
26-27 December 1907	Surat	Rash Behari Ghosh	23rd (Session Suspended)
28-30 December 1908	Madras	Rash Behari Ghosh	23rd
27-29 December 1909	Lahore	Madan Mohan Malviya	24th
26-29 December 1910	Allahabad	Sir William Wedderburn	25th
26-28 December 1911	Calcutta	Bishan Narayan Dar	26th
26-28 December 1912	Bankipore	Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar	27th
26-28 December 1913	Karachi	Nawab Syed Mohammed Bahadur	28th
14-15 April 1914	Madras	Bhupendra Nath Bose	29th
27-29 December 1915	Bombay	Satyendra Prasanna Sinha	30th
26-30 December 1916	Lucknow	Ambica Charan Mazumdar	31st
26-29 December 1917	Calcutta	Annie Besant	32nd
26-30 December 1918	Delhi	Madan Mohan Malviya	33rd
29 August – 1 September 1918	Bombay	Romesh Chunder Dutt	Special Session
26-30 December 1919	Amritsar	Motilal Nehru	34th
26-30 December 1920	Nagpur	C. Vijayaraghavachariar	35th
27-28 December 1921	Ahmadabad	Hakim Ajmal Khan (Acting President for C.R. Das)	36th
26-31 December 1922	Gaya	Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das	37th
4-8 September 1923	Delhi	Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad	Special session
26-27 December 1924	Belgaum	M.K. Gandhi	39th
15-17 April 1925	Cawnpore	Mrs. Sarojini Naidu	40th
26-28 December 1926	Gawahati	S. Srinivasa Iyengar	41th
26-28 December 1927	Madras	M. A. Ansari	42nd
29 December 1928 – 1 January 1929	Calcutta	Motilal Nehru	43rd
16-18 April 1929	Lahore	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru	44th
21-31 March 1931	Karachi	Vallabhbhai J. Patel	45th
12-14 September 1933	Calcutta	Mrs. Nellie Sengupta	47th
24-28 October 1934	Bombay	Dr. Rajendra Prasad	48th
18-20 June 1936	Lucknow	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru	49th
12-14 July 1937	Faizpur	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru	50th
19-21 February 1938	Haripura	Subhash Chandra Bose	51st
10-12 March 1939	Tripura	Subhash Chandra Bose	52nd
19-20 March 1940	Ramgarh	Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad	53rd
23-24 November 1946	Meerut	J.B. Kriplani	54th

Frequently Asked Questions

Get answers to the most common queries related to the General Awareness.

When was the last meeting of the INC held prior to Indian independence?

Answer: The last meeting of the INC until Indian independence was retained in Meerut on November 23-24, 1946, they a...Read full

State all the primary goals of the Indian National Congress?

Answer: The Indian National Congress’s primary objectives were as follow...Read full

Who was appointed as the inaugural General Secretary of the Indian National Congress?

Answer: Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee of Calcutta has been elected President for the First Meeting, and A.O Hume served ...Read full

Who presided over the first meeting of the Indian National Congress?

Answer: Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee was indeed chosen as the INC’s first President.

Who headed over the 1909 session of the Indian National Congress in Lahore?

Answer: The Lahore Session of 1909 was presided over by Madan Mohan Malaviya.

During the inaugural Congress, who served as the Governor-general of British India?

Answer: During the first INC session, Lord Dufferin served as Viceroy.

State the name of the founder of the Indian national congress.

Answer: The INC (Indian national congress) was founded by the 3 members namely dadabhai naoroji, DInshaw edulji Wach...Read full