The need for the formation of an all-India political organization had become an objective necessity. The pre-congress organizations were limited in scope and objectives. It was only the establishment of congress that gave new momentum to the Nationalist movement.
The reasons for the Formation of INC are:
- All the associations are headed by elites and were regional and local in nature.
- The existing organizations had served a useful purpose but they were narrow in their scope and functioning. They dealt mostly with local questions and their membership and leadership were confined to a few people belonging to a single city or province. Even the Indian Association had not succeeded in becoming an all-Indian body.
- The earliest public association in modern India was the Landholders’ Society – an association of the landlords of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, founded in 1837 with the purpose of promoting the class interests of the landlords.