Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee 

(or Umesh Chandra Banerjee by current English

orthography of Bengali names) (29 December 1844 – 21 July 1906) was
an Indian barrister and was the first president of Indian National Congress.

He presided over the first session of the Indian National Congress held at Bombay in

1885[2] from 28 December to 31 December and attended by 72 members.[4] In the
1886 session held at Calcutta, under the presidency of Dadabhai Naoroji, he
proposed the formation of standing committees of the Congress in each province for
the better co-ordination of its work and it was on this occasion that he advocated that
the Congress should confine its activities to political matters only, leaving the
question of social reforms to other organisations. He was the president of the Indian
National Congress again in the 1892 session in Allahabad[2] where he denounced the
position that India had to prove her worthiness for political freedom.[5] He moved to
Britain and practiced before the Privy Council.[2] He financed the British Committee of
Congress and its journals in London.[2] In 1865 Dadabhai Naoroji founded the
London Indian society and Bonnerjee was made its general secretary. In December
1866, Naoroji dissolved the society and formed East Indian Association.[6] When
Bonnerjee became the Congress president Naoroji along with him, Eardley Norton
and William Digby opened The Congress Political Agency, a branch of Congress in
London.[6] He lived in Croydon and named his residence after his birthplace
Khidirpur.[6]The Liberal party made him his candidate for the Barrow-in-Furness seat
in 1892. Bonnerjee was defeated by Charles Cayzer, a Tory candidate. In the same
elections Naoroji won the Finsbury Central constituency and defeated his nearest
rival by a narrow margin of only 5 votes. Naoroji became the first Indian member of
the British Parliament. In 1893, Naoriji, Bonnerjee and Badruddin Tyabji founded the
Indian Parliamentary Committee in England.[6]
Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) also known as the "Grand Old Man
of India" and "Unofficial Ambassador of India" was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton
trader, and an early Indian political and social leader. He was a Liberal Party member of
Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 and 1895, and
the first Indian to be a British MP,[1][2]notwithstanding the Anglo-Indian MP David
Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who was disenfranchised for corruption.
Naoroji is also credited with the founding of the Indian National Congress, along
with A.O. Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in
India[2] brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain. He was also a member
of the Second International along with Kautsky and Plekhanov .
In 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg inaugurated the Dadabhai Naoroji Awards for
services to UK-India relations.[3]
India Post dedicated stamps to Naoroji in 1963, 1997 and 2017.[4][5]

Dadabhai Naoroji is regarded as one of the most important Indians during the independence
movement. In his writings, he considered that the foreign intervention into India was clearly
not favourable for the country.
Further development was checked by the frequent invasions of India by, and the subsequent
continuous rule of, foreigners of entirely different character and genius, who, not having any
sympathy with the indigenous literature – on the contrary, having much fanatical antipathy to
the religion of the Hindus – prevented its further growth. Priest-hood, first for power and
afterwards from ignorance, completed the mischief, as has happened in all other countries.[22]
Naoroji is remembered as the "Grand Old Man of Indian Nationalism"
Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Naoroji in a letter of 1894 that "The Indians look up to you as
children to the father. Such is really the feeling here."[23]
Bal Gangadhar Tilak admired him; he said:
If we twenty eight crore of Indians were entitled to send only one member to the British
parliament, there is no doubt that we would have elected Dadabhai Naoroji unanimously to
grace that post.[24]
Here are the significant extracts taken from his speech delivered before the East India
Association on 2 May 1867 regarding what educated Indians expect from their British rulers.
Sir Surendranath Banerjee (Bengali: সুরেন্দ্রনাথ বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়) (10 November 1848 – 6
August 1925) was one of the earliest Indian political leaders during the British Raj.
He founded the Indian National Association, through which he led two sessions of
the Indian National Conference in 1883 and 1885, along with Anandamohan Bose.
Banerjee later became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress.
Surendranath welcomed Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms, unlike congress, and with
many liberal leaders he left congress and founded a new organisation named Indian
National Liberation Federation in 1919. When the Montagu report of 1918 was
made public, there was a divide in the Congress over it. The moderates welcomed it
while the extremists opposed it. This led to a schism in the Congress with moderate
leaders forming the "National Liberal Federation of India" in 1919. He was also
known by the sobriquetRashtraguru(রাষ্ট্রগুরু). He was editor of "The Bengali"
newspaper.

In 1879, he founded the newspaper, The Bengalee[3] In 1883, when Banerjee was

arrested for publishing remarks in his paper, in contempt of court, protests
and hartals erupted across Bengal, and in Indian cities such
as Agra, Faizabad, Amritsar, Lahore and Pune.[citation needed] The INA expanded
considerably, and hundreds of delegates from across India came to attend its annual
conference in Calcutta. After the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885
in Bombay, Banerjee merged his organization with it owing to their common
objectives and memberships in 1886. He was elected the Congress President in
1895 at Poona and in 1902 at Ahmedabad.[9]
Surendranath was one of the most important public leaders who protested the
partition of the Bengal province in 1905.[3] Banerjee was in the forefront of the
movement and organized protests, petitions and extensive public support across
Bengal and India, which finally compelled the British to reverse the bifurcation of
Bengal in 1912. Banerjee became the patron of rising Indian leaders like Gopal
Krishna Gokhale and Sarojini Naidu. Banerjee was also one of the senior-most
leaders of the moderate Congress — those who favoured accommodation and
dialogue with the British — after the "extremists" – those who advocated revolution
and political independence — led by [Bal Gangadhar Tilak]left the party in 1906.
[3]
 Banerjee was an important figure in the [Swadeshi movement] – advocating goods
manufactured in India against foreign products — and his popularity at its apex made
him, in words of admirers, the uncrowned king of Bengal.{Citation needed|date=April
2017}
Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903[1] – 2 October 1975[2]), was a leader of
the INC, widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian politics during the 1960s.
He served as INC president for two terms i.e. four years between 1964–1967 and
was responsible for the elevation of Lal Bahadur Shastri to the position of Prime
Minister of India after Nehru's death and Indira Gandhi after Shastri's death. Kamaraj
was the 3rd Chief Minister of Madras State (Tamil Nadu) during 1954–1963 and
a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabhaduring 1952–1954 and 1969–1975. He was
known for his simplicity and integrity. He played a major role in developing the
infrastructure of the Madras state and worked to improve the quality of life of the
needy and the disadvantaged.[1][3]
He was involved in the Indian independence movement.[4] As the president of the
INC, he was instrumental in navigating the party after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru.
As the chief minister of Madras, he was responsible for bringing free education to the
disadvantaged and introduced the free Midday Meal Scheme while he himself did
not complete schooling. He was awarded with India's highest civilian honour,
the Bharat Ratna, posthumously in 1976.[5]
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: [ˈɪndɪraː ˈɡaːndʱiː] ( listen); née Nehru; 19 November
1917 – 31 October 1984), was an Indianpolitician, stateswoman and a central figure of
the Indian National Congress.[1] She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime
Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime
minister of India. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again
from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-
serving Indian Prime Minister, after her father.[2]
Gandhi served as her father's personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as Prime
Minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected President of the Indian National
Congress in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of
the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's
cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.[3] In the Congress Party's parliamentary
leadership election held in early 1966 (upon the death of Shastri), she defeated her
rival Morarji Desai to become leader, and thus succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India.
As Prime Minister, Gandhi was known for her political intransigency and
unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to war with Pakistan in support of
the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in
an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to
the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia. Citing fissiparous tendencies
and in response to a call for revolution, Gandhi instituted a state of emergency from 1975 to
1977 where basic civil liberties were suspended and the press was censored. Widespread
atrocities were carried out during the emergency. In 1980, she returned to power after free
and fair elections. After Operation Blue Star, she was assassinated by her own bodyguards
and Sikh nationalists on 31 October 1984. The assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh,
were both shot by other security guards. Satwant Singh recovered from his injuries and was
executed after being convicted of murder.
In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by
the BBC.[4]