Government of India Act 1909

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Government of India Act of 1909, commonly known as the Morley-Minto Reforms, began when John Morley, the aging Liberal intellectual, (Secretary of State for India December 10, 1905 - November 3, 1910) and the Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, the Conservative practical administrator, (Governor-General of India 1905–1910) recognized that cracking down on terrorism in Bengal was a necessary but not sufficient for restoring stability to the British Raj after George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston disastrously partitioned Bengal. A dramatic step was required to put heart into loyal elements of the Indian upper classes and the growing westernized section of the population.

They produced the Indian Councils Act of 1909 (Morley-Minto reforms), these reforms did not go any significant distance toward meeting the Indian National Congress demand for 'the system of government obtaining in Self-Governing British Colonies'.

The Act of 1909 was important for the following:

  • It effectively allowed the election of Indians to the various legislative councils in India for the first time. Previously some Indians had been appointed to legislative councils. The majorities of the councils remained British government appointments. Moreover the electorate was limited to specific classes of Indian nationals;
  • The introduction of the electoral principle laid the groundwork for a parliamentary system even though this was contrary to the intent of Morley. As stated by Burke and Quraishi -

“To Lord Curzon's apprehension that the new Councils could become 'parliamentary bodies in miniature', Morley vehemently replied that, 'if it could be said that this chapter of reforms led directly or indirectly to the establishment of a parliamentary system in India, I for one would have nothing at all to do with it'. But he had already confessed in a letter to Minto in June 1906 that while it was inconceivable to adapt English political institutions to the 'nations who inhabit India...the spirit of English institutions is a different thing and it is a thing that we cannot escape, even if we wished...because the British constituencies are the masters, and they will assuredly insist.. .all parties alike.. .on the spirit of their own political system being applied to India.' He never got down to explaining how the spirit of the British system of government could be achieved without its body.”

  • Muslims had expressed serious concern that a ‘first past the post’ British type of electoral system would leave then permanently subject to Hindu majority rule. The Act of 1909 stipulated, as demanded by the Muslim leadership
  • that Indian Muslims be allotted reserved seats in the Municipal and District Boards, in the Provincial Councils and in the Imperial Legislature;
  • that the number of reserved seats be in excess of their relative population (25 percent of the Indian population); and,
  • that only Muslims should vote for candidates for the Muslim seats (' separate electorates').

These concessions were a constant source of strife 1909-47. British statesmen generally considered reserved seats as regrettable in that they encouraged communal extremism as Muslim candidates did not have to appeal for Hindu votes and vice versa. As further power was shifted from the British to Indian politicians in 1919, 1935 and after, Muslims were ever more determined to hold on to, and if possible expand, reserved seats and their weightage. However, Hindu politicians repeatedly tried to eliminate reserved seats as they considered them to be undemocratic and to hinder the development of a shared Hindu-Muslim Indian national feeling.

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