It is one of the founding members of the coalition Barisan Nasional, previously known as the Alliance, which was in power from when the country achieved independence in 1957 until the elections in 2018.

In 2024, MIC expressed its support to a Unity Government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

After World War II, the British had established the Malayan Union, unifying the Malay Peninsula under a single government to simplify administration.

[8] The MIC later joined the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action under Tun Tan Cheng Lock in opposition to the Federation of Malaya Agreement.

[11] Under Devaser, the MIC contested the 1952 Kuala Lumpur Municipal Elections in alliance with the Independence of Malaya Party, Dato' Onn bin Jaafar and other non-communal organisations.

In 1954 the MIC joined the United Malays National Organisation and the Malayan Chinese Association in the Alliance, securing a place for Indians in the administration.

The plantation labour system also worked against the integration of Indian workers into society and perpetuated racial and occupational differentiation.

[10] This led to a fragmentation of the Indian community, with traditionalists and the lower middle class becoming prominent in the party while upper-class professionals and the intelligentsia moved away from it.

Two paths to leadership emerged in the Indian community, via politics or via trade union activism, with very little interaction between them.

[citation needed] It was the weakest of the three main political parties, with the smallest electorate (7.4% in 1959) and had little support from the Indian community at large.

[14] Sambanthan sold approximately half of his father's 2.4 km2 rubber estate and donated part of the money to the MIC.

Sambanathan was involved in the negotiations with the British government's Reid Commission to draw up the new Malayan constitution.

Sambanathan was forced to retire in favour of V. Manickavasagam in 1973 after a rebellion by five MIC leaders including Samy Vellu.

The party sponsored the Nesa Multipurpose Cooperative and the MIC Unit Trust as part of its programme for economic ventures.

Manickavasagam appointed several new representatives to leadership positions, including Subramaniam Sathasivam, Datuk K. Pathmanaban, a Harvard MBA holder, and several others.

[17] In 2001, the MIC and MIED launched an AIMST University with the stated goal of helping Indians acquire professional training.