O. Hume and Congress Formation

Allan Octavian Hume (1829–1912) was a retired British civil servant of the Imperial Civil Service who played a central role in unifying regional political associations across British India. The son of Joseph Hume, a prominent British radical politician, A. O. Hume joined the East India Company’s civil service in 1849 and served as the District Magistrate of Etawah during the Revolt of 1857.

Civil Service Career and Ideological Orientation

Hume held a keen interest in administrative reform, agriculture, and ornithology. During his tenure as Secretary to the Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce under the Government of India (1871–1879), he advocated for free primary education, agricultural reform, and local self-governance. His outspoken criticism of imperial policies led to his removal from the central secretariat by Lord Lytton’s administration in 1879. He retired from civil service in 1882 and settled in Shimla, devoting his time to social work and Indian national politics.

Genesis of the Indian National Congress

Following his retirement, Hume established contact with educated Indian intellectuals, lawyers, and public figures across major urban centers.

From Indian National Union to Congress

• Open Letter to Calcutta Graduates (1883): On March 1, 1883, Hume addressed an open letter to the graduates of Calcutta University. He appealed for fifty young volunteers to form an association dedicated to national moral, social, and political regeneration.
• Formation of Indian National Union (1884): In late 1884, Hume met with regional leaders in Adyar, Madras, following an annual convention of the Theosophical Society. This meeting led to the establishment of the Indian National Union, an organization designed to coordinate regional political efforts across provinces.
• Consultation with British Leadership: In late 1885, Hume traveled to England to consult with British statesmen, including Lord Ripon, John Bright, and William Ewart Gladstone, securing sympathetic parliamentary attention for Indian political reforms.
• Renaming to Indian National Congress: At the suggestion of Dadabhai Naoroji during the inaugural gathering in December 1885, the Indian National Union changed its name to the Indian National Congress.

The First Session at Bombay (1885)

The Indian National Union initially selected Poona (Pune) as the venue for the first national gathering in December 1885. An outbreak of cholera in Poona forced the organizing committee to shift the venue to Bombay. The conference met at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay from December 28 to December 31, 1885. Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee presided over the session, which brought together 72 political delegates representing various presidencies and provinces. Hume served as the General Secretary of the organization, a position he held from 1885 until 1906.

Debates and Theories on Hume’s Role

Historians analyze Hume’s involvement in founding the Congress through two main perspectives.

Safety Valve Theory vs. Lightning Conductor Theory

• Safety Valve Theory: Promoted by early nationalist leaders like William Wedderburn (Hume’s biographer) and later expanded by Lala Lajpat Rai in Young India (1916). This theory claims Viceroy Lord Dufferin encouraged Hume to establish a peaceful political platform to channel rising public discontent away from an armed popular revolt.
• Marxist Interpretation: Historian R. Palme Dutt in India Today argued that the colonial administration created the Congress to contain revolutionary peasant energy and safeguard imperial interests.
• Lightning Conductor Theory: Advanced by modern historians like Bipan Chandra. This view holds that Indian political leaders used Hume as a protective shield (“lightning conductor”) to assemble an all-India political organization without facing immediate colonial suppression. Archives show Lord Dufferin viewed Hume with deep suspicion and opposed early Congress political demands.

Key Associations and Legacy

Hume worked to build a institutional presence for the Indian National Congress in Great Britain. In 1889, he established the British Committee of the Indian National Congress in London alongside William Wedderburn and William Digby. In 1890, the committee launched India, a monthly journal that published facts about Indian economic distress and administrative grievances to inform the British electorate. Hume left India in 1894 and spent his final years in South London working on botanical research. He died on July 31, 1912. Upon his death, the Indian National Congress passed a resolution declaring him the “Father and Founder of the Indian National Congress.”

Key Facts for Quick Revision

Hume was an internationally recognized ornithologist who collected over 60,000 bird specimens and 16,000 eggs across South Asia. He gifted his vast collection to the Natural History Museum in London in 1885. While serving as District Magistrate of Etawah in 1857, Hume started an Urdu newsweekly called Lokhimitra (Friend of the People) to inform citizens about local administration and health initiatives. Sir William Wedderburn wrote the first official biography titled Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.: Father of the Indian National Congress in 1913. In December 1888, Viceroy Lord Dufferin officially attacked the Congress during a speech at the St. Andrew’s Day dinner in Calcutta, describing the organization as representing a “microscopic minority” of the Indian population. Hume founded the journal Stray Feathers in 1872, serving as its primary editor to publish scientific papers on Indian ornithology. The 1889 session of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, managed by Hume and Wedderburn, became known as the “Fifth Congress” and was attended by British Member of Parliament Charles Bradlaugh.