What are features of Government of India Act, 1919?
Q. Which of the following is/are true regarding the Government of India Act, 1919?
1) It abolished dyarchy introduced by 1909 Morley Minto reforms.
2) It introduced direct elections in the country.- Published on 12 Feb 17a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2
ANSWER: Only 2
- On August 20, 1917, for the first time, the British Government declared, that its objective was the gradual introduction of responsible government in India.
- The Government of India Act of 1919 was thus enacted, which came into force in 1921.
- It is also known as Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms as Montagu was Secretary of State for India and Lord Chelmsford was Viceroy of India.
Features of the Act are -
1. It separated the central and provincial subjects thus relaxing central’s hold over provinces.
2. The central and provincial legislatures could make laws on subjects on their respective list of subjects.
3. But, the structure of government continued to be centralized and unitary.
4. Provincial subjects had two parts - transferred and reserved.
5. The transferred subjects were to be administered by the governor with the aid of ministers responsible to the legislative Council.
6. The reserved subjects were to bead ministered by the governor and his executive council without being responsible to the legislative Council.
7. This was known as ‘dyarchy’ - term derived from the Greek word di-arche which means double rule. However, this experiment failed.
8. It introduced bicameralism and direct elections in the country.
9. Indian Legislative Council was replaced by a bicameral legislature having an Upper House (Council of State) and a Lower House (Legislative Assembly).
10. The majority of members of both the Houses were chosen by direct election.
11. It required that the 3 out of 6 members of the Viceroy’s executive Council (other than the commander-in-chief) were to be Indian.
12. It provided separate electorates for Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans as per the principle of communal representation.
13. It granted franchise to a limited number of people based on property, tax or education.
14. It created a new office of the High Commissioner for India in London and transferred to him some of the functions till now performed by the Secretary of State for India.
15. It provided for the establishment of a Public Service Commission. Hence, as per the Lee Commission on Superior Civil Services in India (1923-24) a Central Public Service Commission was set up in 1926 for recruiting civil servants.
16. It separated provincial budgets from the Central budget and authorized the provincial legislatures to enact their budgets.
17. It provided for the appointment of a statutory commission to inquire into and report on its working after ten years of its coming into force.
