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Who was the first President of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)?
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Answer: Option B — Lala Lajpat Rai
Detailed Solution
The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded on 31 October 1920 in Bombay. It is the oldest trade union federation in India. Lala Lajpat Rai, the famous nationalist leader from Punjab, was elected its first President, and Joseph Baptista was its first Vice-President. N.M. Joshi, Dewan Chaman Lall and others were among its founders.
The AITUC was formed partly because India had to send a workers' representative to the newly formed International Labour Organization (ILO), set up in 1919 after the First World War. The government needed a central body of workers to nominate this representative. The growing number of strikes after the war and the rise of nationalism also encouraged workers to organise.
In his presidential address, Lajpat Rai linked the labour movement with the national movement and said that capitalism and imperialism were closely connected. Many nationalist leaders, including C.R. Das, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and V.V. Giri, later served as its presidents.
In 1926, the Trade Unions Act was passed, which gave legal recognition to registered trade unions. Over time, the AITUC came under communist influence, and splits led to the formation of other federations, such as the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in 1947, linked with the Congress party. Today the AITUC is linked with the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928) was known as "Punjab Kesari" (Lion of Punjab). He was one of the "Lal-Bal-Pal" trio of extremist leaders, founded the Punjab National Bank (1894) and the Servants of the People Society (1921), and wrote "Unhappy India". He died after being injured in a police lathi charge during a protest against the Simon Commission in Lahore in 1928.
Why not the other options?
N.M. Joshi was a founder and general secretary of the AITUC, not its first President.
V.V. Giri, later President of India, was a trade union leader and AITUC president later.
Jawaharlal Nehru served as AITUC President in 1929.
Quick tip
Remember: AITUC = founded 31 October 1920 in Bombay, first President Lala Lajpat Rai ("Punjab Kesari"); INTUC = 1947; Trade Unions Act = 1926.
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Indian National Congress & Its Sessions — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Indian National Congress & Its Sessions, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 by A. O. Hume, and its first session was held in Bombay under W. C. Bonnerjee. This topic covers the important Congress sessions and their presidents, the moderate and extremist phases, the Surat split, and the founding and role of the Muslim League. Questions commonly ask who presided over a session, where a session was held, or what was decided there. For example, the 1929 Lahore session under Jawaharlal Nehru adopted the goal of Purna Swaraj, and the 1931 Karachi session passed the resolution on Fundamental Rights. The first woman president of the Congress was Annie Besant (Calcutta, 1917). Practise the Indian National Congress questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.