Who among the following was the President of the Belgaum Session of the Indian National Congress held in 1924?

Correct — B. Mahatma Gandhi presided over the Belgaum session of the Indian National Congress in December 1924, the one occasion on which he held the Congress presidency.

He had been released from jail on health grounds earlier that year, and the session met while the Congress was still absorbing the suspension of Non-Cooperation and the rise of the Swarajists. Option (b) is the name attached to Belgaum.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Vallabhbhai Patel — Vallabhbhai Patel presided over the Karachi session of 1931, the session that adopted the resolutions on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme.
• (c)
  Subhas Chandra Bose — Subhas Chandra Bose presided at Haripura in 1938 and again at Tripuri in 1939, more than a decade after Belgaum.
• (d)
  Jawaharlal Nehru — Jawaharlal Nehru presided over the Lahore session of 1929, which passed the Purna Swaraj resolution. That was his first turn in the chair.

Belgaum, December 1924, is remembered for one thing: it is the single session of the Indian National Congress that Mahatma Gandhi presided over across his whole political career in India.

His authority in the Congress never depended on holding office. He set the organisation's programme from outside the president's chair, which is exactly what makes Belgaum a memorable exception.

The session also sat at a low point. Non-Cooperation had been called off after Chauri Chaura in 1922, Gandhi had been jailed and then released, and the Swarajists were pressing to enter the legislatures rather than boycott them.

Key facts

• Mahatma Gandhi presided over the Belgaum session of the Indian National Congress in 1924.
• Belgaum was the only Congress session Gandhi ever presided over.
• Jawaharlal Nehru presided over the Lahore session of 1929, which adopted the Purna Swaraj resolution.
• Vallabhbhai Patel presided over the Karachi session of 1931, and Subhas Chandra Bose over Haripura in 1938 and Tripuri in 1939.

Common traps

• Assuming Gandhi presided often because he led the movement. He held the office once, at Belgaum.
• Attaching Nehru to 1924. His first presidency came five years later, at Lahore.

No directly related past PYQ was found.