Thus various factors contributed to the rise of nationalism and the formation of the Indian National Congress.

Early Political Associations

1. The British Indian Association – 1851 Bengal

2. The Bombay Association — 1852 Dadabhai Naoroji

3. East India Association 1856 London

4. Madras Native Association 1852

5. Poona Sarvojanik Sabha—1870

6. The Madras Mahajana Sabha—1884

The Indian National Congress (1885)

Allan Octavian Hume, a retired civil servant in the British Government took the initiative to form an all-India organization. Thus, the Indian National Congress was founded and its first session was held at Bombay in 1885. W.C. Banerjee was its first president. It was attended by 72 delegates from all over India. Persons attending the session belonged to different religious faiths. They discussed the problems of all the Indians irrespective of their religion, caste, language and regions. Thus Indian National Congress from the start was an all-India secular movement embracing every section of Indian society. The second session was held in Calcutta in 1886 and the third in Madras in 1887.

The history of the Indian National Movement can be studied in three important phases:

(i) The phase of moderate nationalism (1885-1905) when the Congress continued to be loyal to the British crown.

(ii) The years 1906-1916 witnessed- Swadeshi Movement, rise of militant nationalism and the Home Rule Movement.

(iii) The period from 1917 to1947 is known as the Gandhian era.