CORE Key Points at a Glance

  1. 1

    Indian National Congress (INC) Founded

    • Founded 28 December 1885 in Bombay by A.O. Hume (retired ICS officer)
    • W.C. Bonnerjee was its first president; 72 delegates attended the first session
    • Followed a moderate, petition-based approach — known as the "Three Ps"
    • Three Ps: Prayers, Petitions, Protests
  2. 2

    Moderate Phase (1885–1905)

    • Dominated by English-educated lawyers and professionals
    • Dadabhai Naoroji: Drain of Wealth theory; first Indian elected to British Parliament (1892); three-time INC president
    • Gopal Krishna Gokhale: Gandhi's political guru; founded Servants of India Society (1905)
    • Surendranath Banerjee and Pherozeshah Mehta also led; all believed in constitutional methods and British justice
  3. 3

    Extremist Phase (1905–1920) — Bal-Pal-Lal

    • Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Maharashtra): "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it"; Ganapati Festival (1893), Shivaji Festival (1895); editor of Kesari
    • Bipin Chandra Pal (Bengal): pioneer of "passive resistance"
    • Lala Lajpat Rai (Punjab): "Punjab Kesari"; died from lathi blows after Simon Commission protest, 30 October 1928
  4. 4

    Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22)

    • Gandhi's first mass movement — Indians returned British titles, students left government schools
    • Lawyers boycotted courts; people boycotted elections
    • Called off by Gandhi after the Chauri Chaura incident (4 February 1922, Gorakhpur) — 22 policemen killed when a police station was burnt
  5. 5

    Civil Disobedience Movement (1930–34)

    • Began with Gandhi's Dandi March (12 March–5 April 1930): 240-mile march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi (Gujarat coast) to defy the Salt Law
    • Gandhi arrested on 5 May 1930; movement spread nationwide
    • Suspended by the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (5 March 1931); relaunched January 1932 after Round Table Conference failed
  6. 6

    Quit India Movement (1942)

    • Launched 8 August 1942 at the Bombay session of the Congress — Gandhi's "Do or Die" (Karo Ya Maro) call
    • Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the Congress flag at Gowalia Tank Maidan when leaders were arrested — earned the title "Heroine of the 1942 Movement"
    • Bharat Ratna awarded posthumously (1997)
    • British arrested nearly 1 lakh people within weeks
  7. 7

    Revolutionary Stream

    • Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru executed 23 March 1931 for assassination of British officer Saunders — avenging Lala Lajpat Rai's death
    • Chandrashekhar Azad died 27 February 1931 at Alfred Park, Allahabad — shot himself rather than surrender
    • Subhas Chandra Bose founded the Indian National Army (INA/Azad Hind Fauj) in 1943 with slogans "Jai Hind" and "Delhi Chalo"
  8. 8

    Women in the National Movement

    • Sarojini Naidu: first Indian woman INC president (1925); "Nightingale of India"
    • Kasturba Gandhi: led satyagrahas in Gandhi's absence; died in detention (22 February 1944)
    • Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit: first woman to preside over UN General Assembly (1953)
    • Annie Besant: founded Home Rule League (1916); INC president 1917 — first woman president
  9. 9

    Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945)

    • Two-time INC President: Haripura (1938) and Tripuri (1939); resigned after conflict with Gandhi
    • Formed Forward Bloc (1939); escaped house arrest, reached Germany (1941), then Japan (1943)
    • Revived INA; launched "Azad Hind" government in Singapore (21 October 1943)
    • Died in a plane crash in Taiwan (18 August 1945)
  10. 10

    Partition and Independence

    • Indian Independence Act passed by British Parliament on 18 July 1947
    • India became independent on 15 August 1947 with Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister
    • Pakistan (West Pakistan + East Pakistan) came into being simultaneously
    • Partition caused one of history's largest migrations — approximately 14–17 million displaced and an estimated 1–2 million deaths
  11. 11

    Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (13 April 1919)

    • Brigadier General Dyer ordered firing on an unarmed gathering at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar — without warning
    • Official figures: 379 killed, 1,200 wounded; INC estimate: 1,000+ killed
    • Tagore returned his knighthood in protest; Gandhi committed fully to non-cooperation
    • Turning point that brought Gandhi to the forefront of the national movement
  12. 12

    Khilafat Movement (1919–24)

    • Led by Ali Brothers — Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali — to protest British interference with the Ottoman Caliphate
    • Indian Muslims revered the Ottoman Khalifa as the spiritual head of Islam
    • Gandhi merged the Khilafat issue with the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920) to achieve unprecedented Hindu-Muslim unity
    • One of the few moments of genuine communal solidarity in the independence movement

PREDICTED Predicted RAS Questions

Based on PYQ trends and 2026 syllabus analysis

1 5M What was Aruna Asaf Ali's contribution to the Quit India Movement? 5 marks · 50 words

Model Answer

Aruna Asaf Ali (1909–1996) was a pivotal figure in the Quit India Movement (1942). After the entire Congress leadership was arrested on 9 August 1942, she appeared at Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay, and hoisted the Congress flag, symbolising continued resistance. She remained underground for three years, coordinating activities nationwide. She earned the title "Heroine of the 1942 Movement" and received the Bharat Ratna (posthumously, 1997).

~50 words • 5 marks

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