Sonia gifted first volume of 13-part Congress history

New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was presented the first book in a 13-volume series chronicling the party's history from its inception in 1885 to India's Independece in 1947.

The "Proceedings of the Indian National Congress Vol-1 (1885-1889)" was presented to her at her residence, 10, Janpath by National Archives of India director-general Mushirul Hasan, who is compiling the series

The series is published by Niyogi Books.

"In fact, I have not written the book. For a long time, I have been compiling the proceedings of the Congress sessions published that time. They were either being destroyed or not being easily available. Therefore, the real story behind each and every session was more or less lost," Hasan told IANS of his reason for putting together the volume.

The series was a major force in understanding the history of Indian national movement through the history of the Congress party, Hasan said.

"It is not just one histories, but the histories of the Congress," he said.

Hasan said he wrote "a substantial research-based introduction for the first volume and will continue in the subsequent volumes".

The books shed light on details of the sessions like "who spoke where, when and the names of the people", Hasan said.

The copies of the sessions were sourced from various libraries around the country. "It has been going on for quite a while -- five years," Hasan said.