Question

The immediate forerunner of the Indian National Congress was ________
a. Indian Association of Calcutta
b. Indian National Conference
c. British India Association
d. Indian Union

Answer 1

Hint:
The Indian National Congress or the Congress Party is a major political party in India. It was founded in 1885. It was a nationalist movement and the first of its kind against the British Empire in the South Asian and African regions. The INC had a previous organization as its ancestor.

Complete solution:

Before the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885, there was a predecessor to it named Indian National Conference. The organizers of this conference were Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose. During the dates of Dec 28-30 of the year 1883, the conference was held in the city of Calcutta and the number of participants in the conference was more than 100.

Additional Information: The Indian National Conference has two sessions. One session was conducted in 1883 and the other session was conducted in 1885. The conference of 1883 was held in Calcutta and the venue of the conference was Albert Hall. This session of the conference is often depicted as the first step towards the creation of the National Indian Parliament. The second session was conducted in Calcutta as well. The Indian Association, along with two others named Mohammadan Association and the British Indian Association took part in the convening of this meeting session.


Hence, the correct answer is option B.

Note:
 As both the INC which was formed by then and the Indian National Conference had the same goals, they had a merger in 1886 in the month of December, the resultant organization retained the name of the Indian National Congress.