Indian Council Act, 1909/ Morley Minto Reforms

Reforms may not save the Raj, but if they don’t, nothing else will- Lord Morley

The reforms of 1909 afforded no answer, and could afford no answer to Indian problems- Montford Report.

Political barrier was created round them, isolating them from the rest of India and reversing the unifying and amalgamating process which had been going on for centuries….The barrier was a small one at first, for the electorates were very limited, but with every extension of franchise it grew and affected the whole structure of political and social life like some canker which corrupted the entire system- Jawaharlal Nehru.

Indian Councils Act or Morley Minto reforms were Constitutional reforms drafted on the basis of the recommendations of a committee set up by Morley and Minto, Secretary of state for India and Governor General of India respectively.

Background to the reforms-

• • Swadeshi Movement which had resulted in the intensification of nationalism. It had exerted higher pressure on the British to satisfy nationalist aspirations.
• • Promises of liberal reforms to the moderates had to be fulfilled. They had withdrawn from the Swadeshi movement on the promise of Constitutional reforms.
• • New opportunities had emerged for the British to divide and rule Indians. All India Muslim League with its demands of separate electorates had provided the chance to British.
• • A longstanding demand of the Indian Nationalists had been responsible self-rule. Although British were not serious about it but they had to create such an impression.
• • The British desired to create the appearance of introducing responsible government while expanding the apparatus of constitutional autonomy.

Important Provisions

• • Size of the Imperial Legislative Councils and Provincial Legislative Councils was increased.
  • ◦ The Imperial Legislative Council was to retain an official majority.
  • ◦ Provincial Legislative Councils were to have non-official non-elected majority.
• • Power to discuss budget but could not vote upon it.
  • ◦ Legislators could only suggest amendments
  • ◦ They could demand additional grants for local self-governing bodies
• • Legislators had the power to ask supplementary questions on matters of public importance.
• • Elected members were to be elected indirectly by the local self-governing bodies in case of Provincial Legislative councils and provincial legislatures in case of the Imperial Legislative Council.
• • One Indian was to be elected to Governor General of India’s Executive Council. (First such member was Satyendra Prasad Sinha.
• • Two Indians were to be elected to Secretary of State for India’s India Council (KC Gupta and SH Bilgrami).
• • Franchise was limited in nature based on property and educational qualifications.
• • Separate electorates were granted to-
  • ◦ Zamindars
  • ◦ Chambers of Commerce, Bombay
  • ◦ Chambers of Commerce, Calcutta
  • ◦ Indian Musalmans.

Critical Evaluation

The Morley-Minto reforms filed to satisfy Indian nationalism due to its following limitations-

• • The Indian demand of responsible self-rule had been completely overlooked.
• • The Principle of Collective Responsibility which is the bedrock of a popular democracy was completely absent-
  • ◦ The legislatures had majority of official or appointed members
  • ◦ They lacked financial or legislative control over the government.
• • The existence of voting qualifications also weakened the notion of popular sovereignty.
• • The Governors and Governor General of India continued to exercise a wide array of discretionary powers such as
  • ◦ Power to issue ordinances
  • ◦ Veto power
  • ◦ Power to certify bills etc.
• • The Act also failed to satisfy the demands of Indianizing the Civil Service reducing military and administrative expenditure.
• • It also failed to reduce the burden of taxation on peasants and to provide protection to Indian industries.
• • It also failed to address the issue of home charges. In fact, even the demand of separating the expenditure of the Secretary of State for India and his council from the Indian budget was ignored.
• • The introduction of Separate Electorates which was the basis for minority representation ‘institutionalised Communalism’ in the words of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru.
  • ◦ Separate electorates emerged as the sticking point between the Muslim League and Congress.
  • ◦ Other groups also began demanding separate electorates, causing further divisions in the Indian body politic.
  • ◦ Separate electorates had the effect of disenfranchising vast majority of the electorate, thus causing conflict, anger and ill will. Gradually, this feeling fuelled the ideas of criticism, two-nation theory, the Pakistan demand ultimately resulting in a series of communal riots and partition.
  • ◦ In fact, even post-independence, the generational trauma of these separate electorates continues to affect the present day society which has still not been able to completely able to overcome communalism.
  • ◦ It was due to this that Morley later commented with regard to the separate electorates that “we have sown dragon’s teeth and the harvest is bound to be bitter.”
• • The Act had a few redeeming features such as-
  • ◦ Larger legislature
  • ◦ Right to discuss the budget and suggest amendments
  • ◦ Right to ask supplementary questions
  • ◦ Introduction of elections, atleast indirect, for the first time.
• • However, these reforms were insignificant when viewed in the context of failures of the Act. Further, they reflect the lack of sincerity on the part of the British to introduce meaningful change.
  • ◦ In fact, they reveal a sinister motive namely the disguising of autocratic changes as liberal reforms. Perhaps this is why the Morley Minto reforms remained the shortest lived Constitutional mechanism introduced by the British in India.

Practice Question

Q. Discuss the factors responsible for the introduction of the Morley-Minto reforms. Is it true that they constitutionalized Communalism in India?

Morley-Minto reforms were necessitated by the nationalist upsurge in the first decade of the twentieth century. British manipulated the whole scenario by creating an impression of Constitutional reforms but in the end it proved worthy of none.

Factors responsible for the introduction of the Morley-Minto reforms-

• • Swadeshi Movement which had resulted in the intensification of nationalism. It had exerted higher pressure on the British to satisfy nationalist aspirations.
• • Promises of liberal reforms to the moderates had to be fulfilled. They had withdrawn from the Swadeshi movement on the promise of Constitutional reforms.
• • New opportunities had emerged for the British to divide and rule Indians. All India Muslim League with its demands of separate electorates had provided the chance to British.
• • A longstanding demand of the Indian Nationalists had been responsible self-rule. Although British were not serious about it but they had to create such an impression.
• • The British desired to create the appearance of introducing responsible government while expanding the apparatus of constitutional autonomy.

It constitutionalized the Communalism in India through the provision of Separate Electorates for Muslims.

• • It emerged as the sticking point between the Muslim League and Congress.
• • Gradually, other groups also began demanding separate electorates.
• • It disenfranchised a vast majority of the electorate ultimately causing conflict, anger and ill will. This gradually paved the way for communalism.
• • The issue has not been completely solved even till now and the issue of communalism keeps engulfing the whole India subcontinent.

Neither could the Act prove worthy of any party but it also created communalism as the perpetual problem for the whole subcontinent. This was precisely why the Morley-Minto reforms remained to be the shortest living Act in India.

Q. We have sown the dragon’s teeth and the harvest is bound to be bitter. Discuss.

With regard to the provision of Separate Electorate in the Indian Councils Act of 1909, Lord Morley commented the above statement owing to its detrimental effect on Indian society, politics and British reputation.

It was a dragon’s teeth because-

• • The Act constitutionalized the provision of separate electorate through which only Muslims franchise could elect the Muslim candidate from a legislative council.
• • Other groups also began demanding separate electorates, causing further divisions in the Indian body politic.

Its harvest proved to be bitter because-

• • Gradually it led to frustration, anger and tensions leading to communalism.
• • Increasing communal riots ultimately led to partition of India.
• • Moreover, the problem of partition has become perpetual in whole Indian subcontinent with riots taking place often till the very present day.
• • This has led intellectuals and scholars to make British policies stand scrutiny of the day and has brought them disrepute.

However, the role of Indian society in general and extremist leaders in particular should also be analyzed vis-à-vis use of religious symbols and accepting religious diversity as religious differences.

Thus, this dragon’s teeth are a challenge for the present times which now needs to be rooted out to reverse an ugly episode of Indian history.