Question

What is the importance of surat session 1907 of the congress?

Answer 1

The Indian National Congress(INC) which was established in 1885 was divided into two groups(in the year 1907) mainly by extremists and moderates at the Surat Session of the Congress.The period 1885-1905 was known as the period of the moderates as moderates dominated the INC. These Moderates used petition, prayers, meetings, leaflets and pamphlets memorandum and delegations to present their demands. Moderates were not able to achieve notable goals other than the expansion of the legislative council by the Indian Council Act of 1892. This created dis-satisfaction among the people. In 1907 the INC meeting was to be held in Pune and the extremists wanted Lala Lajpat Rai or Bal Gangadhar Tilak as president. But moderates wanted Rash Behari Ghosh to be president. Gopal Krishna Gokhalechanged the meeting place from Pune to Surat fearing that if Pune was to be held as meeting place then Bal Gangadhar Tilak would become President. The partition of Bengal became the rise of extremism in INC.

As Surat was not hometown of Bal Gangadhar Tilakhe could not preside over the meeting. Hence it was decided that Ghosh would be president. Extremists protested in the INC meeting as Bal Gangadhar Tilakwas not given permission even to speak by pandit Madanmohan Malviya extremists then reacted by throwing eggs, footwear etc and wanted the meeting to be cancelled. Moderates then held a secret meeting and decided to abdicate extremists.