MINTO-MORLEY REFORMS (1909)
In 1906, Lord Morley, the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs,
announced in the British parliament that his government wanted to introduce new
reforms for India, in which the locals were to be given more powers in
legislative affairs. With this, a series of correspondences started between him
and Lord Minto, the then Governor General of India. A committee was appointed
by the Government of India to propose a scheme of reforms. The committee
submitted its report, and after the approval of Lord Minto and Lord Morley, the
Act of 1909 was passed by the British parliament. The Act of 1909 is commonly
known as the Minto-Morley Reforms.
The following were the main features of the Act of 1909:
§ The number of the
members of the Legislative Council at the Center was increased from 16 to 60.
§ The number of the
members of the Provincial Legislatives was also increased. It was fixed as 50
in the provinces of Bengal, Madras and Bombay, and for the rest of the
provinces it was 30.
§ The member of the
Legislative Councils, both at the Center and in the provinces, were to be of
four categories i.e. ex-officio members (Governor General and the members of
their Executive Councils), nominated official members (those nominated by the
Governor General and were government officials), nominated non-official members
(nominated by the Governor General but were not government officials) and
elected members (elected by different categories of Indian people).
§ Right of separate
electorate was given to the Muslims.
§ At the Center,
official members were to form the majority but in provinces non-official
members would be in majority.
§ The members of the
Legislative Councils were permitted to discuss the budgets, suggest the
amendments and even to vote on them; excluding those items that were included
as non-vote items. They were also entitled to ask supplementary questions
during the legislative proceedings.
§ The Secretary of
State for India was empowered to increase the number of the Executive Councils
of Madras and Bombay from two to four.
§ Two Indians were
nominated to the Council of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs.
§ The Governor
General was empowered to nominate one Indian member to his Executive Council.
ANALYSIS
The Minto-Morley Reforms drew a gloomy
picture. Though, this act appeased some of the Indians, the majority was not
satisfied with it. The result was widespread criticism of the Government. As a
matter of fact, the Indian National Congress was divided into two factions i.e.
the “moderate,” which was led by G.K. Gokhale and the “extremist,” which was
led by B.G. Tilak. The moderate faction welcomed the Reforms. In the Imperial
Legislative Council, Gokhale said, “My Lord, I sincerely believed that you and
Lord Morley have saved the country from anarchy and chaos”. On other hand, the
extremist faction rejected the act of 1909. They were not in the favor of the
Reforms. It was because of its contradiction to Lord Morley’s dispatch dated
November 27, 1908. On the contrary, the All India Muslim League welcomed the
council act of 1909. The League passed a resolution, which offered cooperation
with the government for the success of the Reforms, in the Delhi session on
1910.
In spite of all its demerits and flaws, the
Reforms contributed and offered space for political development. The inclusion
of the Indians in Councils was a great experience for the Indians. They became
part of Legislative Councils. They could move resolutions, discuss Bills
elaborately, and approved Bills. In this context, the instances are; 24
resolutions were accepted out of 168 in the Imperial Legislative Council, and
30 non-official amendments were presented in the Indian Factories Bill and 7
were approved. Further, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, as a private member, also
presented a Bill, Waqf-alal-Aulad, which was passed by the Council. In the
constitutional evolution of India, the Act of 1909 was a decided step and
opened the door for real politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment