Morley Minto Reforms

Morley-Minto Reforms, which is also known as Indian Council Act 1909, is a series of reforms that were being measured accordingly to enact the same in the year 1909 by the British rule. The highlighting principle of the Morley Minto Reforms or Indian Council Act 1909 was to directly introduce the elective principle of membership in the imperial and the local legislative councils in India. 

This act was designed by John Morley. John Morley was the secretary of state for India in the year 1905 to 10. We have selected the content of the Indian Council Act of 1909 in order to update the knowledge of the students regarding the Government of India Act 1909, Communal Electorate. Also, we will know about the Morley Minto Act, separate electorate 1909, features of the Indian Council Act 1909 all will be discussed broadly.

Morley Minto Reforms 1909 – Was this a New Strategy of British Rule to Divide and Rule in India? 

In the year 1906, the Liberal party won an electoral victory in Great Britain. This marked the coming of a new era which dawned with the reforms for British India. At that time, Lord Minto was the new secretary of the state. 

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The New British Viceroy of India

Lord Minto, was then the British viceroy of India (in the year 1905–10), in his reign, he introduced several important innovations in the legislative and the administrative system of the British Indian government. 

Following Queen Victoria’s promise, he implemented equal opportunity for the Indians. Thereby, Lord Minto appointed two Indian members to his own council which was placed at Whitewall. Among the two councils, one was a Muslim, named Sayyid Husain Bilgrami, and the other was a Hindu named Krishna G. Gupta. 

Sayyid Husain Bilgrami was an active member who found the Muslim League. While Krishna G. Gupta was a senior Indian in the Indian Civil Service (abbreviated as ICS). Lord Morley also suggested Lord Minto appoint an Indian member as the viceroy of the Executive Council. Satyendra P. Sinha was then elected as the first Indian Viceroy of the executive council in the year 1909. More Indians took the seats of Legislative Assembly than what was expected 

Though initially, the Britishers attempted to involve only a small minority of educated Indians to take seats in the legislative councils, but eventually almost 135 Indians were elected and they took seats throughout British India. The number of the council members who were Indians increased similarly in different Indian states.

Shunning of the Official Majorities

Morley did not allow the official majorities of the provincial legislatures; he denied the advice of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and other leaders of the Indian National Congress. Not only did Morley denied the advice of the ICS but also denied the advice of his own viceroy and other council members. 

Morley believed, like other British Liberal politicians, that the only justification for the British to rule over India was to pass on their liberty to Britain’s greatest political institution.  

For this, Lord Minto and his own officials in Calcutta and Shimla drafted strict regulations which framed the implementation of the reforms and then insisted on the retention of the executive veto power which occurred entirely on the legislation. 

Govt. of India Act 1909 

The Indian Councils Act or the Government of India Act in 1909 is popularly known as the Morley-Minto or the Minto-Morley Reforms, this was an act formulated by the Parliament of the UK (United Kingdom) which brought about only limited involvement of the Indians in the governance system of British India.

In this Act –

• elections to the legislative councils

• admission of the Indians in the councils to become the Indian Secretary or the viceroy 

• executive councils of Bombay and Madras states – was initiated.  

Communal Electorate 

The Communal Electorate was created by the Prime Minister of Britain named Ramsay MacDonald. The communal electorate was announced after the round table Conference in year 1930 to 1932. This was extended to the separate electorate to the depressed classes who are known as the scheduled castes and other Indian minorities. This separate electorate was introduced for Indian Muslims and was extended to the Indian Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, and also to the Europeans by the Government of India Act of the year 1919.  

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The father of the Communal Electorate was Lord Minto. He instituted a communal electorate to placate the Moderates (meaning the Congress) and introduced a separate electorate which was on the basis of religion. Thus, he is rightly known as the father of the Communal Electorate.  

This system of separate electorate was made available to all the Forward Caste, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans, and the Scheduled Castes. 

The reason behind the introduction of the Communal Electorate was that Britain’s Prime Minister - Ramsay MacDonald considered himself to be a friend of the Indians' and for this, he wanted to resolve the issues lying in the government system of India. Originally the Communal Award was announced only after the failure of the Second Round Table Conference held in India. This Communal Electorate was criticized by Mahatma Gandhi severely.  

Salient Features of Morley Minto Reforms 

The Morley Minto Act was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act brought only a limited increase in the involvement of the Indians in the governance system of British India. In this context, we will learn about the features of Morley Minto Reforms. Students can use this study as studying the Morley Minto Reforms Notes. 

Features of the Morley Minto Reforms

1. The Act largely increased the structure of the legislative councils, both in the Central and in the provincial. The number of members who were in the Central Legislative Council was raised from 16 members to 60 members. The number of members who were in the provincial legislative councils was not uniformly distributed.

2. This act kept an official majority in the Central Legislative Council but in return it allowed the provincial legislative councils to have a non-official majority leading the council.

3. The act enlarged the deliberative functions of the legislative councils at both levels. For example, the members were allowed to ask for supplementary questions, also they were allowed to move the resolutions on the budget, and such other major functions.

4. The Act provided the association of Indians for the very first time with the executive councils of the British Viceroy and Governors. Satyendra Prasad Sinha was the first Indian to join the Viceroy’s Executive Council. Sinha was previously appointed as a law member.

5. Morley Minto Act also gave rise to a system of communal representation for the Muslims by acknowledging the concept of a separate electorate. In this system, the Muslim members were only elected by the Muslim voters. Thus, eventually, the Act ‘legalized the concept of communalism’ and Lord Minto thus came to be known as the Father of the Communal Electorate.

6. This also provided for the separate identification of presidency corporations, chambers of commerce, universities, and also of the zamindars.

Did You Know?

• The Communal electorate was quite controversial as this was believed by some Indians that it was brought by the Britishers to create a social division among the Hindus. In this matter, Gandhi also feared the repercussions that it would disintegrate the Hindu society. 

• However, this Communal Electorate system was also supported by many among the minority communities. Our father of the Indian Constitution Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was one of them.  

• According to Ambedkar, Gandhi was all ready to award the separate electorates to the Muslims and Sikhs. But he was reluctant to give the separate electorates to the scheduled castes as he was afraid of the division inside the Congress and the Hindu society due to the separation of the scheduled caste representations.

• While Ambedkar insisted on a separate electorate for the scheduled caste.

• The Minto-Morley Reforms of the year 19O9 could not totally fulfill the expectations of the Indians.

• The people of India wanted a responsible government in the country. 

• Though the non-official majority was given in the Provincial Councils, the practical result was nil. 

• The Act was merely a shadow rather than any real substance.

The reforms of 1909 are said to have afforded no real or genuine answer and could not also afford any answer to the political problem of India. 

• This was understood the real solution to the problem was incomplete self-rule.

• Nevertheless, the Minto-Morley Reforms also had some positive aspects – It was a mark of an important stage in the process of growth of the representative institution, it was one step ahead towards the responsible association of the elected Indians with involvement in the administration.

• Minto Morley reforms also gave recognition to the elective principle on the basis of the composition of the legislative council for the first time actually. 

• The Indians also got an opportunity to criticize the executives and further they could make better suggestions for good administration in the country.