Modern history

Concepts to cover

1. A.O. Hume, Bombay session December 1885 with W.C. Bonnerjee presiding, safety-valve myth versus the reality of a national forum
2. Constitutional agitation, petitions and resolutions, demands for council reform, Indianisation of services, separation of powers, reduced military spending
3. Indian Councils Act 1892, economic critique, political education; narrow social base and faith in British justice
4. Firsts among Congress presidents: first Muslim Badruddin Tyabji 1887, first woman Annie Besant 1917, first Indian woman Sarojini Naidu 1925, first Englishman George Yule 1888
5. Lala Lajpat Rai: biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shrikrishna, years in America, Servants of the People Society 1921, Central Legislative Assembly member
6. Colonial hostility to the early Congress: official denunciations, loyalist associations and divide-and-rule