Government of India Act, 1919

This Act was based on what are popularly known as the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms. In August 1917, the British government for the first time declared that its objective was to gradually introduce responsible government in India, but as an integral part of the British Empire.

The Act of 1919, clarified that there would be only a gradual development of self-governing institutions in India and that the British Parliament—and not self-determination of the people of India—would determine the time and manner of each step along the path of constitutional progress.

● Under the 1919 Act, the Indian Legislative Council at the Centre was replaced by a bicameral system consisting of a Council of State (Upper House) and a Legislative Assembly (Lower House). Each house was to have a majority of members who were directly elected. So, direct election

was introduced, though the franchise was much restricted being based on qualifications of property, tax or education.

● The principle of communal representation was extended with separate electorates for Sikhs, Christians and Anglo-Indians, besides Muslims.

● The Act introduced dyarchy in the provinces, which indeed was a substantial step towards transfer of power to the Indian people.

● The provincial legislature was to consist of one house only (legislative council).

● The Act separated for the first time the provincial and central budgets, with provincial legislatures being authorised to make their budgets.

● A High Commissioner for India was appointed, who was to hold his office in London for six years and whose duty was to look after Indian trade in Europe. Some of the functions hitherto performed by the Secretary of State for India were transferred to the high commissioner.

● The Secretary of State for India who used to get his pay from the Indian revenue was now to be paid by the British Exchequer, thus undoing an injustice in the Charter Act of 1793.

● Though Indian leaders for the first time got some administrative experience in a constitutional set-up under this Act, there was no fulfilment of the demand for responsible government. Though a measure of power devolved on the provinces with demarcation of subjects between centre and provinces, the structure continued to be unitary and centralised. Dyarchy in the provincial sector failed.

The Central Legislature, though more representative than the previous legislative councils and endowed, for the first time, with power to vote supplies, had no power to replace the government and even its powers in the field of legislation and financial control were limited and subject to the overriding powers of the governor-general. Besides his existing power to veto any bill passed by the legislature or to reserve the same for the signification of the British monarch’s pleasure, the governor-general was given the power to secure the enactment of laws which he considered essential for the safety, tranquility or interests of British India, or any part of British India.

The Indian legislature under the Act of 1919 was only a non-sovereign law-making body and was powerless before the executive in all spheres of governmental activity, as Subhash Kashyap observes.