The Viceroys of India - Notes | Study SSC CGL Tier 2 - Study Material, Online Tests, Previous Year - SSC CGL

Lord Canning ( 1856 – 1862 )

• The last Governor General and the first of the Viceroys.
• Mutiny took place in his time.
• On Nov. 1858, the rule passed on to the crown.
• Withdrew Doctrine of lapse.
• The University of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were established in 1857.
• Indian Councils Act was passed in 1861.

Lord Elgin (1862 – 1863)

Lord Lawrence (1864 – 1869)

• Telegraphic communication was opened with Europe.
• High Courts were established at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1865.
• Expanded canal works and railways.
• Created the Indian Forest Department.

Lord Mayo

• Started the process of financial decentralization in India.
• Established the Rajkot College of Kathiarwar and Mayo College at Ajmer for the Indian Princes.
• For the first time in Indian history, a census was held in 1871.
• Organised by Statistical Survey of India.
• Was the only Viceroy to be murdered in office by a Pathan convict in the Andamans in 1872.

Lord Northbrook(1872 – 1876 )

Lord Lytton ( 1876 – 1880)

• Known as the Viceroy of reverse character.
• Organised the grand ‘Delhi Durbar’ in 1877 to decorate Queen Victoria with the title of ‘Kaiser-i-Hind’.
• Arms Act (1878) made it mandatory for Indians to acquire licence for arms.
• Passed the infamous vernacular Press Act (1878).

Viceroys of India

Lord Rippon (1880 – 1884 )

• Liberal person, who sympathized with Indians.
• Repealed the Vernacular Press Act (1882).
• Passed the local self – government Act (1882).
• Took steps to improve primary and secondary education (on William Hunter Commission’s recommendation).
• The I Factory Act, 1881, aimed at prohibiting child labour.
• Passed the llbert Bill (1883) which enabled Indian district magistrates to try European criminals. But this was withdrawn later.

Lord Dufferin (1884 – 1888)

• Indian National Congress was formed during his tenure.

Lord Lansdowne (1888 – 1894)

• II Factory Act (1891) granted a weekly holiday and stipulated working hours for women and children, although it failed to address concerns such as work hours for men.
• Categorization of Civil Services into Imperial & Provincial. 
• Indian Council Act of 1892 was passed.
• Appointment of Durand commission to define the line between British India and Afghanistan.

Lord Elgin II (1894 – 1899 )

• Great famine of 1896 – 1897. Lyall Commission was appointed.

Lord Curzon (1899 – 1905)

• Passed the Indian Universities Act (1904) in which official control over the Universities was increased.
• Partitioned Bengal (October 16, 1905) into two provinces  1) Bengal (proper)  2) East Bengal & Assam.
• Appointed a police commission under Sir Andrew Frazer to enquire into the police administration of every province.
• The uprisings of frontier tribes in 1897 – 98 led him to create the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).
• Passed the Ancient Monuments Protection Act (1904) to restore India’s cultural heritage. Thus the Archaeological Survey of India was established.
• Passed the Indian Coinage and the Paper Currency Act (1899) and put India into a gold standard.
• Extended railways to a great extent.

 Lord Minto (1905-1910)

• There was a great political unrest in India. Various acts were passed to curb the revolutionary activities. Extremists like Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh (in May 1907) and Bal Gangadhar Tilak (in July 1908) were sent to Mandalay jail in Burma.

 Lord Hardinge (1910-1916)

• Held a durbar in Dec, 1911 to celebrate the coronation of King George V.
• Partition of Bengal was cancelled (1911): capital shifted from Calcutta to Delhi (1911).
• A bomb was throw at him, but he escaped unhurt (Dec 23,1912).
• Gandhiji came back to India from S Africa (1915).
• Annie Besant announced the Home Rule Movement.

 Lord Chelmsford (1916-1921)

• August Declaration of 1917, whereby control over the Indian government would be gradually transferred to the India people.
• The Government of India Act in 1919 (Montague-Chelmsford reforms) was passed.
• Rowlatt Act of 1919: Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (April 13, 1919).
• Non- Cooperation Movement.
• An Indian, Sir S. P. Sinha, was appointed the Governor of Bengal.
• A Women’s university was founded at Poona in 1916.
• Saddler commission was appointed in 1917 to envisage new educational policy.

Lord Reading (1921-1926)

• Rowlatt act was repealed along with the Press act of 1910.
• Suppressed non-cooperation movement.
• Prince of wales visited India in Nov, 1921.
• Moplah rebellion (1921) took place in Kerala.
• Ahmedabad session of 1921.
• Formation of Swaraj Party.
• Vishwabharati University started functioning in 1922.
• Communist party was founded in 1921 by M. N. Roy
• Kakory Train Robbery on Aug 9, 1925.
• Communal riots of 1923-25 in Multan, Amritsar, Delhi.
• Swami Sharddhanand, a great nationalist and a leader of the Arya Samajists, was murdered in communal orgy.

Lord Irwin (1926-1931)

• Simon Commission visited India in 1928.
• Congress passed the India Resolution in 1929.
• Dandi March (Mar 12, 1930).
• Civil Disobedience Movement (1930).
• First Round Table Conference held in England in 1930.
• Gandhi-Irwin Pact (Mar 5, 1931) was signed and Civil Disobedience Movement was withdrawn.
• Martyrdom of Jatin Das after 64 days hunger strike (1929).

Lord Willingdon (1931-1936)

• Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931.
• On his return Gandhi Ji was again arrested and Civil Disobedience Movement was resumed in Jan, 1932.
• Communal Awards (Aug 16, 1932) assigned seats to different religious communities, Gandhi Ji went on a epic fast in protest against this division.
• Third Round Table Conference in 1932.
• Poona Pact was signed.
• Government of India Act (1935) was passed.

 Lord Linlithgow (1936-1944)

• Government of India Act enforced in the provinces. Congress ministries formed in 8 out of 11 provinces. They remained in power for about 2 years till Oct 1939, when they gave up offices on the issue of India having been dragged into the ll World War. The Muslim League observed the day as ‘Deliverance Day’ (22 December).
• Churchill became the British PM in May, 1940. He declared that the Atlantic Charter (issued jointly by the UK and US, stating to give sovereign rights to those who have been forcibly deprived of them) does not apply to India.
• Outbreak of World War II in 1939.
• Cripps Mission in 1942.
• Quit India Movement (August 8, 1942).

Lord Wavell (1944-1947)

• Arranged the Shimla Conference on June 25, 1945 with the India National Congress and Muslim League; failed.
• Cabinet Mission Plan (May 16, 1946).
• Elections to the constituent assembly were held and an Interim Government was appointed under Nehru.
• First meeting of the constituent assembly was held on Dec.9, 1946.

Lord Mountbatten (Mar. 1947-Aug. 1947)

• Last Viceroy of British India and the first Governor General of free India.
• Partition of India decided by the June 3 Plan.
• Indian Independence Act passed by the British parliament on July 4, 1947, by which India became independent on August 15, 1947.
• Retired in June 1948 and was succeeded by Rajagopalachari (the first and the last Indian Governor General of free India.)