There are two main political parties in India: the Indian National Congress and the other one. It controlled much of the early political landscape of the republic and played a significant role in the 20th-century Indian independence movement.

In 1885, 72 delegates from throughout the nation convened in Bombay to form the Indian National Congress. Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, W. C. Banerjee, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar,[1] S. Subramania Iyer, and Romesh Chunder Dutt were among the notable delegates. One of the original members of the Indian National Congress was the Englishman Allan Octavian Hume, a former civil worker for the British government.

The Indian National Congress was established by retired British Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer Allan Octavian Hume to provide a forum for polite and political discourse among educated Indians. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British Empire seized control of India from the East India Company. English-educated Indians, who tended to be more accustomed to and accepting of British culture and political ideas, assisted British-controlled India, also known as the British Raj, or simply the Raj, in its attempts to defend and legitimize its rule over the country. 

With the viceroy's consent, Hume established the "Indian National Union" in May 1885, a government-affiliated organization that would serve as a forum for the expression of Indian popular opinion. Together with a group of educated Indians, Hume released "An Appeal from the People of India to the Electors of Great Britain and Ireland" on October 12, 1885, urging British voters to back candidates who shared their views on Indian issues in the upcoming general election. Among these were resistance to taxing India in order to fund British military operations in Afghanistan and support for Indian legislative reform.

The Congress Party is an organization with a clear hierarchy. An annual national conference is attended by delegates from state and district parties, where the All India Congress Committee and a president are elected. But the Congress Working Committee, which has 20 members and is mostly appointed by the party president (chosen by the prime minister when the party is in power), has great power. The party also publishes a daily newspaper, the National Herald, and is divided into a number of committees and divisions, such as women's and youth clubs. The party's membership fell from around 40 million in the mid-1990s to less than 20 million at the start of the 21st century, reflecting the party's deteriorating prospects.