The period following India’s First War of Independence was an important period in the Indian independence movement. Many leaders emerged at the national and provincial levels, and the Indians became more aware of their rights. Social movements also helped in shaping people’s outlook, tried for social changes, and tried to remove bad social practices and evils like illiteracy and caste system. During this period, many social and religious leaders worked to inspire the Indian society. They included men like Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sri Aurobindo, Subramanya Bharathy, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Rabindranath Tagore and Dadabhai Naoroji.
They spread the message of self-confidence, removing of social evils, and making India free from domination of foreign power. Lokmanya Tilak was one such leader who was not very modest in his views. The British arrested him. In the court he declared: “Swaraj (independence) is my birthright”. This concept of Swaraj later became a main policy and philosophy of India’s independence movement in the following decades until India became independent.
In 1885, at the suggestion of Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British civil servant, seventy-three Indian delegates met in Bombay. They founded the Indian National Congress. The delegates represented educated Indians in professions such as law, teaching, and journalism. A few years before, Dadabhai Naoroji had already formed the Indian National Association. It merged with the Indian National Congress to make form a bigger party.
To begin with, the Indian National Congress was not a very active political party. It met annually and gave some suggestions to the rulers of the British Raj. The suggestions generally related to civil rights and opportunities for Indians in the government jobs. Despite its claim to represent all Indians, it represented only the educated and higher class of the society. But, it failed to attract all Muslims. Many Muslims had become distrustful of Hindu reformers who raised their voice against matters like religious conversion and killing of cows for their meat. For Hindus, the cow is a sacred animal not to be killed. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan launched a separate movement for Muslims, and founded in 1875 a college in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh state, India. Later, this college became Aligarh University in 1921. The objective of the college was to give modern education to India’s Muslims. By 1900, the Indian National Congress had become a national party, but did not represent all groups of Indian society, particularly the Muslims.