Councils of India Act, 1909

Background

Indian Council Act of 1909 is additionally referr to as Morley-Monto Reform. It was institute to placate the Moderates (Congress) and introduces separate electorates on the idea of faith. Therefore Lord Minto came to be referr to as Father of Communal Electorate in India.

In this act, the membership of the central and provincial legislative councils was enlarge. However, the number of elected members in these councils was but half their total membership. It may also be remembered that the elected members were not elected by the people but by landlords, organizations or traders and industrialists, universities, and local bodies. The British also introduced communal electorates as a neighborhood of those reforms. This was meant to create disunity between Hindus and Muslims. Some seats within the councils were reserved for Muslims to be elect by Muslim voters.

By this British hoped to chop off Muslims from the state alist movement by treating them as aside from the remainder of the nation. They told the Muslims that their interests broke away from those of other Indians. To weaken the nationalist movement, the British began to consistently follow a policy of promoting communalism in India. The growth of communalism had serious consequences for the unity of the Indian people and therefore the struggle for freedom. The congress at its 1909 session welcomed the reforms but strongly opposed the reforms of the creation of separate electorates on the idea of faith.

The Morley-Minto reforms didn’t introduce any significant change within the powers of the councils. They didn’t mark and advance towards the establishments of a representative government, much less swaraj. The Secretary of state frankly declared that he had no intention of introducing a Parliamentary sort of Government.

The only change was that the govt start appointing some Indians of its option to certain high positions. Satyendra Prasad Sinha, who later became Lord Sinha, was the primary Indian to be a member of the Governor-General’s council. Later he was made a governor of a province; the sole Indian to occupy such a high office during the whole period of British rule. Two important announcements were on the occasion. One was the annulment of the partition of Bengal; which had been affect in 1905. The other was the shifting of the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi.

Features of the Act

1. It considerably increased the dimensions of the legislative councils, both Central and provincial. The number of members within the Central legislature was raise from 16 to 60. The number of members within the provincial legislative councils wasn’t uniform.
2.  It retained the official majority within the Central legislature but allowed the provincial legislative councils to possess a non-official majority.
3. It enlarged the deliberative functions of the legislative councils at both the levels.
4. Also it provided (for the primary time) for the association of Indians with the chief Councils of the Viceroy and Governors. Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the primary Indian to hitch the Viceroy’s council. He was appoint as the law member.
5. It introduced a system of communal representation for Muslims by accepting the concept of ‘separate electorate’. Under this, the Muslim members were to be elect only by Muslim voters. Thus, the Act ‘ legalize communalism’ and Lord Minto came to be referr to as the father of Communal Electorate.
6. It also provided for the separate representation of presidency corporations, chambers of commerce, universities, and zamindars.