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| AO Hume promoted British interests by dabbling into Indian politics | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 18: Congress is busy these days in celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Indian National Congress (INC). Its stated objective is to use this opportunity to emphasize the need for the country's unity and integrity and promote communal amity and brotherhood.
The JKPCC organized one function in this regard on Saturday at Anantnag. It was addressed, among others, by a senior Congress leader, who is also a minister in the Omar Abdullah government. Commenting on the role of the Congress in the Indian Freedom struggle, he hailed the contribution of the various Congress leaders and said that it was because of their role that India attained freedom from the British imperialists. He was right when he gave credit to the Congress party. The people of India did stand solidly behind the Congress during the freedom struggle days and made supreme sacrificing for the national cause.
However, the said minister committed a faux pas when he hailed AO Hume. He described Hume as a symbol of "sacrifice and vision". He sought to convey an impression that Hume founded the Congress for achieving the country's political redemption. It is a fact that Hume founded the Congress in 1885 and he founded it in collaboration with the British Government. But to say that he founded it for the welfare of India would to murder history. Hume was a Briton and his objective in founding the Congress was not only check the anti-British activities in India indulged in by those who wanted independence for the country but also to promote the British interests, political and otherwise, and help enrich the British economy at the cost of the suffering Indians.
It should be noted that Hume was a civil servant and had worked in India for decades. He possessed deep knowledge because of his official association with Indian administration. He knew what had been going on India beneath the surface. He also knew that "the existing government administration by foreign officials on autocratic lines was dangerously out of touch with the people" and that the people of India could rise in revolt against the British anytime. "From well-wishers in different parts of the country", Hume had "received warnings of danger to the Government…He intimately knew that millions of Indians were distressfully starving… He had the opportunity to read secret police reports and he could know the inside story and discern the wave of popular discontentment and the underground conspiratorial activity which had become a potential danger after the famine of 1877". The whole objective of Hume was to avert the possibility of the impending disaster.
It is widely held that the INC was the "child of the British Raj and that it was organized by ex-civilian officials, including A O Hume, of the Government of India in their bid to save the British Empire from another revolutionary revolt". They wanted to use the Congress as a "safety valve". Their objective was to enlist the support of Indian leaders to "checkmate the designs" of those who wanted the British rule to go lock, stock and barrel.
Several Indian leaders, who had supported the Hume initiative, had soon realized his intentions. That was the reason the Congress leaders like Tilak, Aurbindo Ghose, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lajpat Rai and scores of others sought to give a radical orientation to the Congress policy and that was also the reason the Governor-Generals of India like Lord Dufferin dismissed the Congress party as a formation comprising a handful of Indians who, according to the British imperialists, only represented "a microscopic minority of Indians". Thus, Hume was not a well-wisher of India. He was a British stooge who played a very significant role in protecting and advancing further the British interests.
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