We all know that the Congress was established by a senior British officer A.O. Hume in 1885. It is important to know about the background and purpose of such an action by an officer of the British Raj in India before venturing into the history of the oldest political party of India. Congress evolved itself as a ‘party of petitioners’ before the then government of India which had its complete control in the hands of the Imperial British government in London. They had by then converted the huge Indian nation into a full-fledged colony of the British empire about which it was said that ‘the sun never sets in the British empire’.

In 1857, Indians of all hues contributed to the First War of Indian Independence against the East India Company which had tacit understanding with the British government and had also full support of its official wings and the army. The way the Indian revolutionaries of 1857 participated in the war against the Britishers was shocking for the British government. However, it took all measures to defeat the revolution and called it the ‘Indian mutiny of 1857’.

After the decisive battle, the British government took some important decisions to continue their empire in India. The first thing they did was to restore the so-called law and order situation in the country to their taste, take direct control of the government in India, unleash a process of punitive actions against the people participating in the independence war and also those attached with the War directly or indirectly. They started appointing ‘conniving’ Indians in different areas of governance and importantly the Indian army. It also ended the direct role of the East India company in the governance structure of India.

By the year 1858, the whole of India barring a few territories was under the British government directly including the Princely ruled states of India. In order to check any resurgence of similar nature, the British government in India kept a close vigil on the activities of the general masses throughout India. One and a half decade after the revolution of 1857, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhya wrote his famous poem ‘Vande-Mataram’ in Bangla language in 1875. It created a great impact on the minds of the activists and intellectuals in Indian society about the concept of freedom.

When Bankim Babu wrote the Bangla novel “Anand-Math” in 1882, he incorporated the song ‘Vande-Mataram’ in it. The novel and the song caught the imagination of the people and the urge for freedom resurfaced at an........

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