Modern Indian History for UPSC Flashcards

Indian National Congress sessions and British Governors-General and Viceroys.

First session of INC (1885)

Bombay, 1885.
President: W.C. Bonnerjee; 72 delegates.
Founded by A.O. Hume.

First Muslim president of INC

Badruddin Tyabji – Madras session, 1887.

First English president of INC

George Yule – Allahabad session, 1888.

1906 Calcutta session

President: Dadabhai Naoroji.
'Swaraj' adopted as the goal of Congress.

1907 Surat session

Split between Moderates and Extremists.
President: Rash Behari Ghosh.

First woman president of INC

Annie Besant – Calcutta session, 1917.

First Indian woman president of INC

Sarojini Naidu – Kanpur session, 1925.

Only INC session presided over by Gandhi

Belgaum, 1924.

1929 Lahore session

President: Jawaharlal Nehru.
Purna Swaraj resolution; 26 January 1930 celebrated as Independence Day.

1931 Karachi session

President: Vallabhbhai Patel.
Resolution on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme.

1938 Haripura session

President: Subhas Chandra Bose.

1939 Tripuri session

Subhas Chandra Bose re-elected, defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya; he later resigned.

First Governor-General of Bengal

Warren Hastings (under the Regulating Act, 1773).

Lord Cornwallis

Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 1793.

Lord Wellesley

Subsidiary Alliance system (1798).

First Governor-General of India

Lord William Bentinck (Charter Act, 1833).
Abolished Sati in 1829.

Lord Dalhousie

Doctrine of Lapse; first railway line (1853) and telegraph in India.

Last Governor-General and first Viceroy

Lord Canning (1858, after the Government of India Act).

Lord Lytton

Vernacular Press Act, 1878; Delhi Durbar, 1877.

Lord Ripon

Resolution on Local Self-Government (1882) – 'Father of Local Self-Government'; Ilbert Bill.

Lord Curzon

Partition of Bengal, 1905.

Lord Hardinge II

Capital shifted from Calcutta to Delhi (announced 1911); partition of Bengal annulled.

Lord Chelmsford

Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919).

Lord Irwin

Simon Commission (1928) and Gandhi–Irwin Pact (1931).

Last Viceroy of India

Lord Mountbatten – announced the 3 June Plan, 1947.

Only Indian Governor-General

C. Rajagopalachari (1948–1950).