Revision Notes: The Montague Chelmsford Reforms- 1 - Notes | Study History for UPSC CSE - UPSC

• The Morley-Minto Reforms failed to satisfy the aspirations of the nationalists. The then Secretary of the State for India E.S. Montague and the Governor General Lord Chelmsford came with a new package. It found legal shape in the Act of 1919. Factors due to which the Act was brought can be summed up as:
• Policy of repression failed to contain political unrest. Increased terrorist activities were a manifestation of rising Indian unrest.
• World War I raised Indian hopes for securing right of self-determination.
• Formation of Home Rule Leagues, arrest of Mrs. Besant and judicial proceedings against Tilak had embittered political atmosphere.
• Muslims alienation with British Government over Turco/Italian war (1911) and Balkan war (1912) drove them closer to the Congress and in 1916 there was the Congress-Muslim League agreement (Lucknow Pact).

Major provisions can be summed up as:

• Secretary of State to be henceforth paid salary out of the British Exchequer.
• India Council’s importance and strength reduced. Secretary of State not obliged to consult India Council except (i) in financial matters and (ii) matters concerning I.C.S.
• Secretary of State retained control over Indian administration except over transferred bloc of subjects in the provinces.
• Devolution Rules: Demarcation of two lists of subjects: Central List and Provincial List.
• Number of Indian members in the Governor General’s Executive Council raised from 1 to 3 out of a total of 8 members.
• Increase in Governor General’s powers. He could restore cuts in grants, certify bills rejected by the General Legislature and issue ordinances.
• Central Legislature made bicameral.
• Term of Council of State 5 years, that of Legislative Assembly 3 years.
• System of communal and class electorates was further extended to Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans.
• Powers of Central Legislature enlarged but 75% of budget still not votable.
• The main features of the system introduced by the government of India Act, 1919, were as follows.

Dyarchy in the Provinces

• Responsible Government in the Provinces was sought to be introduced, without impairing the responsibility of the Governor (through the Governor-General), for the administration of the Province, by resorting to a device known as ‘Dyarchy’ or dual government. The subjects of administration were to be divided (by rules made under the Act) into two categories—Central and Provincial. The central subjects were those which were exclusively kept under the control of the Central Government.The Provincial subjects were sub-divided into ‘transferred’ and ‘reserved’ subjects.
• Of the matters assigned to the Provinces, the ‘transferred subjects’ were to be administered by the Governor with the aid of Ministers responsible to the Legislative Council in which the proportion of elected members was raised to 70 per cent. The foundation of responsible government was thus laid down in the narrow sphere of ‘transferred’ subjects.
• The ‘reserved subjects’, on the other hand, were to be administered by the Governor and his executive council without any responsibility to the Legislature.

Relaxation of Central Control over the Provinces

• The Rules made under the Government of India Act, 1919, known as the Devolution Rules, made a separation of the subjects of administration into two categories—Central and Provincial. Broadly speaking, subjects of all-India importance were brought under the category ‘Central’, while matters primarily relating to the administration of the provinces were classified as ‘Provincial’. This meant a relaxation of the previous Central control over the provinces not only in administrative but also in legislative and financial matters. Even the sources of revenue were divided into two categories so that the Provinces could run the administration with the aid of revenue raised by the Provinces themselves and for this purpose, the provincial budgets were separated from the Government of India and the Provincial Legislature was empowered to present its own budget and levy its own taxes relating to the provincial sources of revenue.
• At the same time, this devolution of power to the Provinces should not be mistaken for a federal distribution of powers. Under the Act of 1919, the Provinces got power by way of delegation from the Centre. The Central Legislature, therefore, retained power to legislate for the whole of India, relating to any subject, and it was subject to such paramount power of the Central Legislature that the Provincial Legislature got the power “to make laws for the peace and good government of the territories for the time being constituting that province”.
• The control of the Governor-General over Provincial legislation was also retained by laying down that a Provincial Bill, even though assented to by the Governor, would not become law unless assented to also by the Governor-General, and by empowering the governor to reserve a Bill for the consideration of the Governor-General if it related to matters specified in this behalf by the Rules made under the Act.