The celebration of the centenary of the Indian National Congress prompted a scholarly re-examination of that organization in the midst of an active international discussion about the nature of Indian society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Any group of historians who come together to give fresh consideration to the Congress – its organization, leadership, ideology and support – also join in the wider debate going on in Indian history. This volume, first published in 1991, reflects such an engagement with the full range of contemporary discussion, representing not just scholarship in five different countries but also quite distinct historiographical traditions. It surveys the origins and development of the Congress from its inception to its development up to Independence.