Government Of India Act 1919
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The Government of India Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. 101) was an Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the
Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...
,
Edwin Montagu Edwin Samuel Montagu PC (6 February 1879 – 15 November 1924) was a British Liberal politician who served as Secretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922. Montagu was a "radical" Liberal and the third practising Jew (after Sir Herbe ...
, and the
Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...
, Chelmsford. The Act covered ten years, from 1919 to 1929. This Act represented the end of
benevolent despotism Enlightened absolutism (also called enlightened despotism) refers to the conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, espousing them to enhanc ...
(the act of authorities enhancing themselves) and began the genesis of responsible government in India. It was set to be reviewed by the Simon Commission in 10 years. The Act received royal assent on 23 December 1919. On the same day the King-Emperor issued a proclamation which reviewed the course of parliamentary legislation for India and the intent of the act:
"The Acts of 1773 and 1784 were designed to establish a regular system of administration and justice under the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
. The Act of 1833 opened the door for Indians to public office and employment. The Act of 1858 transferred the administration from the Company to the Crown and laid the foundations of public life which exist in India today. The Act of 1861 sowed the seed of representative institutions, and the seed was quickened into life by the Act of 1909. The Act which has now become law entrusts the elected representative of the people with a definite share in the Government and points the way to full responsible Government hereafter".
The Act provided a dual form of government (a "
diarchy Diarchy (from ancient Greek, Greek , ''di-'', "double", and , ''-arkhía'', "ruled"),Occasionally misspelled ''dyarchy'', as in the ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' article on the colonial British institution duarchy, or duumvirate (from Latin ', ...
") for the major provinces. In each such province, control of some areas of government, the "transferred list", were given to a
Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
of ministers answerable to the Provincial Council. The 'transferred list ' included agriculture, supervision of local government, health, and education. The Provincial Councils were enlarged. At the same time, all other areas of government (the 'reserved list') remained under the control of the Viceroy. The 'reserved list' included defence (the military), foreign affairs, and communications. The
Imperial Legislative Council The Imperial Legislative Council (ILC) was the legislature of the British Raj from 1861 to 1947. It was established under the Charter Act of 1853 by providing for the addition of 6 additional members to the Governor General Council for legislativ ...
was enlarged and reformed. It became a bicameral legislature for all India. The lower house was the Legislative Assembly of 145 members, of which 104 were elected and 41 were nominated, with a tenure of three years. The upper house was the
Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...
, consisting of 34 elected and 26 nominated members, with a tenure of five years.


Essential characteristics

Salient features of the Act were as follows: # This Act had a separate Preamble which declared that the objective of the British Government was the gradual introduction of responsible government in India. #Diarchy was introduced at the Provincial Level. Diarchy means a dual set of governments; one is accountable, the other is not accountable. Subjects of the provincial government were divided into two groups. One group was reserved, and the other group was transferred. The reserved subjects were controlled by the British Governor of the province; the transferred subjects were given to the Indian ministers of the province.Government of India Act 1919
/ref> #The Government of India Act of 1919, made a provision for classification of the central and provincial subjects. The Act kept the Income Tax as a source of revenue to the Central Government. However, for Bengal and Bombay, to meet their objections, a provision to assign them 25% of the income tax was made. #No bill of the legislature could be deemed to have been passed unless assented to by the Viceroy. The latter could, however, enact a bill without the assent of the legislature. #This Act made the central legislature bicameral. The lower house was the Legislative Assembly, with 145 members serving three-year terms (the model for today's ''
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
''); the upper house was the Council of States with 60 members serving five-year terms (the model for today's ''
Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
'') #The Act provided for the establishment of a Public Service Commission in India for the first time. #This act also made a provision that a statutory commission would be set up at the end of 10 years after the act was passed which shall inquire into the working system of the government. The Simon commission of 1927 was an outcome of this provision. #The communal representation was extended and Sikhs, Europeans and
Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford English ...
s were included. The Franchise (Right of voting) was granted to the limited number of only those who paid a certain minimum "Tax" to the government. #The seats were distributed among the provinces not upon the basis of the population but upon the basis of their importance in the eyes of the government, on the basis of communities, and the property was one of the main basis to determine a franchisee. Those people who had property, taxable income & paid land revenue of Rs. 3000 were entitled to vote. #The financial powers of the central legislature were also very much limited. The budget was to be divided into two categories, votable and non-votable. The votable items covered only one-third of the total expenditure. Even in this sphere, the Governor-General was empowered to restore any grant refused or reduced by the legislature if in his opinion the demand was essential for the discharge of his responsibilities. Thus the Government of India Act provided for partial transfer of power to the electorate through the system of diarchy. It also prepared the ground for Indian federalism, as it identified the provinces as units of fiscal and general administration. The
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
rejected the Act, however some leaders such as Annie Besant,
G. S. Khaparde Ganesh Srikrishna Khaparde (also known as Dadasaheb Khaparde) (27 August 1854 – 1 July 1938) was an Indian lawyer, scholar, political activist and a noted devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba and saint Gajanan Maharaj. Born in a Deshastha Brahmin ...
,
Bipin Chandra Pal Bipin Chandra Pal ( bn, বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল ; 7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was an Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “ ...
,
Surendranath Banerjee Sir Surendranath Banerjee often known as Rashtraguru ( bn, Rāṣṭraguru, Teacher of the Nation; 10 November 18486 August 1925) was Indian nationalist leader during the British Rule. He founded a nationalist organization called the Indian Nat ...
, and
Tej Bahadur Sapru Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru (8 December 1875 20 January 1949) was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, and politician. He was a key figure in India's struggle for independence, helping draft the Indian Constitution. He was the leader of the Liberal pa ...
accepted the Act and were ready to cooperate with the government. They left the Congress. Surendranath Banerjee and Tej Bahadur Sapru formed Indian Liberal Federation and were normally referred as "Liberals".
Madan Mohan Malaviya Madan Mohan Malaviya ( (25 December 1861 — 12 November 1946) was an Indian scholar, educational reformer and politician notable for his role in the Indian independence movement. He was president of the Indian National Congress four times and ...
supported the reforms and Muhammad Ali Jinnah resigned from Indian National Congress.


See also

*
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
*
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
*
History of Bangladesh Civilisational history of Bangladesh previously known as East Bengal, dates back over four millennia, to the Chalcolithic. The country's early documented history featured successions of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms and empires, vying for region ...
*
History of India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
* History of Pakistan *
Governor-General of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...
*
Government of India Act (disambiguation) The term Government of India Act refers to any one of a series of Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to regulate the government of British India, in particular: *Government of India Act 1833 or Saint Helena Act, created the post of ...
* India Office *
Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms The Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms or more briefly known as the Mont–Ford Reforms, were introduced by the colonial government to introduce self-governing institutions gradually in British India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Montagu, th ...
*
Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...


References


External links

* * {{UK legislation British Empire 1919 in law United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1919 1919 in India Imperial Legislative Council of India 1919 in international relations Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning India December 1919 events