Government of India Act, 1919

Introduction

The Government of India Act 1919, was followed by the August Declaration, and was also called Montague-Chelmsford Reform. It aimed to gradually introduce progressive government in India. The provisions of this act were finally enforced in February 1921.

Main Provisions of the Act

• At the centre, the Governor-General’s executive council to have 3 Indians in the 8 member team
• The centre legislature will have two houses, the lower house or the central legislative assembly and the Upper House or the Council of the State. The lower house will have 144 members, out of which 103 were to be elected members. The Upper House was to have 60 members, of which 34 were to be elected.

• In the provinces the Dyarchy (rule of two, the executive councillors and popular ministers) was to be introduced in the council.

• The subjects were classified into – reserved and transferred subjects. The reserved subjects included land revenue, finance, law and order and irrigation and were to be governed by the governor and his executive councils. The transferred subjects included public health, education, industry, agriculture and local government to be administered by the ministers nominated from among the elected members of the council.

• The Act provided that in case of any emergency; the governor could take over the administration of the transferred subjects too.

• The ministers were responsible to the legislative council and had to resign if the legislature passed a no-confidence motion against them. However, the governor and his executive council were not responsible to the legislature.

• Seventy percent of the members of the council were to be elected, based on the adult franchise and communal and class electorate

• The legislative council had the power to reject the budget, but the governor had the power to over-rule.

The Drawback of the Act

The reform failed to satisfy the Indian leaders, as they found a number of drawbacks in the act itself like – the diarchy and the classification of the subjects were impractical and unworkable and at the centre the legislatures had no control over the governor general and his executive council. Both the Congress party and the Muslim League rejected it.