In this article, we discuss Morley Minto Reform 1909. It is also known as the Indian Councils Act.
What happens in 1906, the Liberal Party government came to Britain, and the Muslim League was established in India.
With the Liberal Party government coming to power in Britain, it was believed that now this government can bring better government and rules in India.
This will give more political freedom to the people of India. On the other hand, the people of the Muslim League were demanding a separate electorate.
What is a separate electorate, if 10 people live in a constitution and out of which 6 people are Muslim and 4 people are from different communities then in the election Muslim people will have the right to stand in and the right to vote will only belong to Muslim people.
His second demand was that there should be at least 2 Indians in the executive council of the Viceroy. One may belong to the Muslim community and the other may be of a different community.
Control of Government of India in Indian Council Act 1909:
The control of the Government of India was still in the hands of the Secretary of State. It was to handle India with the help of the Viceroy while living in Britain.
Administration in Indian Council Act 1909:
In the Indian Council Act 1861, the Viceroy's executive council used to have 6 members and the Viceroy was also given the power to make temporary ordinances by that act who lived valid for 6 months.
Also Read -
These 6 Members are Home, Military, Law, Revenue, Finance, and Public Works. The power of ordinance was given so that the Viceroy could make temporary laws on urgent matters.
There was no change in the administration in the Indian Council Act 1892. It changed here that there can be 1 Indian member in the Executive Council of the Viceroy.
So Satyendra Sinha became the first Indian member, he was a law member in the Viceroy's executive council.
Before understanding the changes in the Indian council act 1909, let's discuss what are changes are made in the Indian council act 1892 so that changes in the 1909 act will understand better.
Central Legislature in Indian Council Act 1892:
In the Indian Council Act 1892, there used to be an executive council of the Viceroy and his 6 people in the Central Legislature in which they're used to be Indian.
Apart from this, there used to be additional members whose number used to be less than 10 and a maximum of 16.
In 1892, the maximum number of additional members was kept only 16, in which the official was 6 and the non-official was 10.
The official members were those people who worked in civil or military service. Non Officials were taken from 3 places. The Viceroy used to nominate 5 people.
4 used to come to Bombay, Bengal, Madras, and Northwest Frontier to be nominated from the provincial assemblies of Province. 1 Nominate used to be from the Chamber of Commerce of Calcutta.
The Viceroy used to nominate 6 official members i.e. 6 and 5 i.e. 11 members were nominated by the Viceroy.
Changes in Indian Council Act 1909/Morley Minto Reform:
In the Indian Council Act 1909, the number of additional members was kept at least 16 and a maximum of 60.
There were 60 additional members in this. The number of official members was kept at 28, whom the Viceroy used to nominate. Out of the number of non-official people, the Viceroy used to nominate 5 people.
Earlier the members who came to nominate from the Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta, and the Provincial Assemblies of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, WFP. He was about to come to the elect now but the election was going to be indirect.
The number of non-official was increased from 10 to 32.
A member who used to be nominated from the Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta, now his number was increased to 2. Retrieved from the second member Chamber of Commerce Bombay.
Apart from this, now there were 4 not 12 members from the provincial assemblies as they were to come. Provincial assemblies were also extended for this.
The rest of the people were going to come after choosing from the special electorate, whose number was going to be 13.
Now the number of officials was 28 and the number of non-officials was 32, but in the Act of 1892, 28 officials and 6 executive council members such a total was 34. There was still a majority of official members.
33 additional members were nominated by the Viceroy and 27 members were elected. This means that nominated members are more than elected members.
Discussion related to Finance is allowed in the Act of 1892 but voting on finance bills is not allowed.
It was allowed to ask questions after giving 6 days notice to the additional member. But asking counter-question was not allowed.
Minto Marle Reform had allowed voting along with the discussion on the Finance Bill. Now additional members could ask questions from the executive council along with supplementary questions.
Provincial Legislation:
The number of Provincial Legislature was increased which is given below -
1.Madras
2.Bombay
3.Bengal
4.United Province
5.Punjab
6.Burma
7.Assam
The number of additional members was increased to 50 in Madras, Bombay, Bengal, and the United Provinces.
Also Read -
In Punjab, Burma, and Assam, the number of additional members was increased to 30. But here it is said that the number of non-officials can be more than the official.
The additional members in the provincial legislature will be elected from universities, district boards, municipalities, zamindars, and chambers of commerce.
India's participation at the central and provincial levels was greatly increased. Those who were elected members were given a lot of power in their legislature.
The problem was that the elected members were not directly elected by the public because very few people had the right to vote, who used to be very educated and rich.
If you like this article, consider sharing this article with friends.
