The Viceroy's Executive Council, formerly known as Council of Four and officially known as the Council of the Governor-General of India (since 1858), was an advisory body and cabinet of the

Governor-General of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 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 in their capacity as the emperor o ...

, also known as Viceroy. It existed from 1773 to 1947 in some form or the other. It was established by the Regulating Act 1773 ( 13 Geo. 3. c. 63), with four members it was then known as the Council of Four. The Indian Councils Act 1861 ( 24 & 25 Vict. c. 67) transformed it from an advisory council into a cabinet with

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

system. Each member was assigned specific portfolios such as revenue, military, law, finance, and home. In 1874, a sixth member was added to be in charge of public works.

History

Company rule

The Regulating Act 1773 ( 13 Geo. 3. c. 63) provided for the appointment of a governor-general of Fort William in

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

(or Governor-General of Bengal) with supervisory powers over the presidencies of Madras and Bombay and the formation of a council of four members. The governor-general was given a

casting vote A casting vote is a vote that someone may exercise to resolve a tied vote in a deliberative body. A casting vote is typically by the presiding officer of a council, legislative body, committee, etc., and may only be exercised to break a deadlock ...

in the council but no authority to

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...

any decision of the council. The council was then known as the Council of Four. In 1784, the council was reduced to three members; the Governor-General continued to have both an ordinary vote and a casting vote. In 1786, the power of the Governor-General was increased even further, as Council decisions ceased to be binding. The Charter Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 85) made further changes to the structure of the council. The act was the first law to distinguish between the executive and legislative responsibilities of the Governor-General. As provided under the act, there were to be four members of the Council elected by the Court of Directors. The first three members were permitted to participate on all occasions, but the fourth member was only allowed to sit and vote when legislation was being debated.

Crown rule

The Government of India Act 1858 ( 21 & 22 Vict. c. 106) transferred the power of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

to the

British Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

which was empowered to appoint a Viceroy and Governor-General of India to head the government in India. The advisory council of the Governor-General was based in the capital

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

and consisted of four members, three of which were appointed by 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 ...

and one by the Sovereign. The Indian Councils Act 1861 9( 24 & 25 Vict. c. 67) transformed the Viceroy of India's advisory council into a cabinet run on the portfolio system and increased the number of members by one. Three members were to be appointed by the Secretary of State for India, and two by the Sovereign. The five ordinary members took charge of a separate department: home, revenue, military, law and finance. The military Commander-in-Chief sat in with the council as an extraordinary member. The Viceroy was allowed, under the provisions of the act, to overrule the council on affairs if he deemed it necessary. In 1869, the power to appoint all five members was passed to the Crown and in 1874, a new member was added to be in charge of public works. The Indian Councils Act 1909 ( 9 Edw. 7. c. 4) empowered the Governor General to nominate one Indian member to the Executive Council leading to the appointment of Satyendra Prasanna Sinha as the first Indian member. The

Government of India Act 1919 The Government of India Act 1919 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 101) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India. The act embodied the reforms recommended in the report ...

( 9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 101) increased the number of Indians in the council to three.

Indians in the Council (1909–1940)

* Law Members: Satyendra Prasad Sinha (1909–1914), P. S. Sivaswami Iyer (1912–1917), Syed Ali Imam,

Muhammad Shafi Muhammad Shafi (24 January 1897 – 6 October 1976), often referred to as Mufti Muhammad Shafi, was a Pakistani Sunni Islamic scholar of the Deobandi school, a Hanafi jurist and mufti, he was also an authority on shari'ah, hadith, Qur'anic ...

(1924–1928), Tej Bahadur Sapru (1920–1923), Satish Ranjan Das, Brojendra Mitter (1931–1934), Nripendra Nath Sircar (1934–1939), Bepin Behari Ghose (1933), Nalini Ranjan Chatterjee * C. Sankaran Nair (1915–1919): Education *

: Education (1919–1924) * B. N. Sarma (1920–1925): Revenue and Agriculture * Bhupendra Nath Mitra: Industries and Labour * Muhammad Habibullah (1925–1930): Education, Health and Lands * Fazl-i-Hussain (1930–1935) * C. P. Ramaswami Iyer: Law (1931–1932), Commerce (1932), Information (1942) * Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu (1934–1937) * Muhammad Zafarullah Khan (1935–1941): Commerce (–1939), Law (1939–), Railway, Industries and Labour, and War Supply * Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar: Commerce and Labour (1939–1941), Supply (1943) *Kunwar Sir Jagdish Prasad: Health, Education and Lands * Girija Shankar Bajpai (1940): Health, Education *Attaullah Tarar (1931–1941 ?)

Expansion in 1941 and 1942

On 8 August 1940, the Viceroy Lord Linlithgow made a proposal called the

August Offer The August Offer was an offer made by Viceroy Lord Linlithgow in 1940 promising the expansion of the Viceroy's Executive Council to include more Indians, the establishment of an advisory war council, the giving of full weight to minority opinio ...

which expanded the Executive Council to include more Indians. These proposals were rejected by the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslims, Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim L ...

and

Hindu Mahasabha Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (), simply known as Hindu Mahasabha, is a Hindu nationalism, Hindu nationalist political party in India. Founded in 1915 by Madan Mohan Malviya, the Mahasabha functioned mainly as a pressure group advocating th ...

. However they were revived the next year by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru of the Liberal Party, and accepted by Viceroy who on the 22nd of July 1941 announced a reconstituted Executive Council where for the first time Indians outnumbered Britons. In addition he announced a 30-member National Defence Council intended to coordinate the war effort between the central government, provincial governments (four of which had elected governments) and the princely states. An attempt was made to maintain communal balance, but Jinnah as part of his effort to establish his position as the sole spokesman of the Indian Muslim community ordered all AIML members to resign from the Viceroy's Executive and National Defence councils as the Viceroy had not accepted his demand for 50% Muslim representation, nor consulted Jinnah on the selection of Muslim members. On 2 July 1942 the Viceroy’s Council was again enlarged from 12 to 15. Sir Malik Feroz Khan Noon (ICS officer and High Commissioner in London) appointed Defence member, the first Indian to hold the post (key Congress demand). Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar, a Tamil politician and Maharaja Jam Saheb Sri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji of Jamnagar were appointed to newly elevated positions as representatives of the Government of India to the Imperial War Cabinet in London and to Pacific War Council in Washington DC. The council now consisted of:

Interim Government

As per the mid-June 1946 Cabinet Mission Plan, the Executive Council was expanded to consist of only Indian members except the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief intended to form the Interim Government of India until the transfer of power. The Viceroy, Viscount Wavell extended invitations for 14 members. The Interim Government began to function from 2 September 1946 once the Indian National Congress members took their seats. However, the All-India Muslim League refused to participate until 26 October 1946. The Interim Government served until transfer of power to the

Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India, * * was an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations existing between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950. Until its Indian independence movement, independence, India had be ...

and the

Dominion of Pakistan The Dominion of Pakistan, officially Pakistan, was an independent federal dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations, which existed from 14 August 1947 to Pakistan Day, 23 March 1956. It was created by the passing of the Indian Independence ...

on 15 August 1947.

Members of Interim Government

References

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