RAS question
Who was the first Muslim president of the Indian National Congress?
Correct answer: (D) Badruddin Tyabji.
Badruddin Tyabji was the first Muslim president of the Indian National Congress, presiding over its third session at Madras in 1887.
Explanation
Badruddin Tyabji is the right answer because the key identifier is the Congress session, not just later prominence in nationalist politics. He presided over the third session of the Indian National Congress at Madras in 1887 and thereby became the first Muslim president of the INC. The official Indian National Congress profile supports the session detail: it records that Tyabji missed the second session because of ill health but was unanimously elected President of the third session in Madras in 1887. That sequence separates him from later Muslim Congress presidents and from leaders who were important nationally but did not hold this specific first.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was a Congress president in 1923 and is remembered as the youngest to hold that office, but Tyabji had already presided in 1887.
- (B) M.A. Jinnah cannot be the answer because he was never president of the Indian National Congress.
- (C) Hakim Ajmal Khan presided over the Congress in 1921, but that came decades after Tyabji's Madras session in 1887.
Concept
This tests early Indian National Congress leadership, especially the chronology of its annual sessions and presidents. RAS repeatedly uses such questions to check whether candidates can place major nationalist figures in the correct institutional sequence.