UNIT 7 Reforms Lucknow Pact The Lucknow Pact

UNIT 7 Reforms

Lucknow Pact • The Lucknow Pact was an agreement that reached between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League at the joint sessions of both the parties held in Lucknow in October 1916 during A. C. Mazumdar as President.

clauses of the Lucknow Pact • The main clauses of the Lucknow Pact were: • There shall be self-government in India. • Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government. • There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demanded for joint electorates. • System of weightage should be adopted

CONT • The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150. • At the provincial level, four-fifth of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth should be nominated. • The strength of Provincial legislative should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.

CONT • All members, except those nominated, were to be elected directly on the basis of adult franchise. • No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourth of the members of that community in the Legislative Council. • Term of the Legislative Council should be five years. • Members of Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.

CONT • Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians. • Indian Council must be abolished. • The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British Government and not from Indian funds. • Out of two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian. • The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary.

Importance of the Pact • The Lucknow pact was a great achievement of Hindu and Muslim leaders, who were successful in offering for the first and the only time, a mutually acceptable solution of the Hindu Muslim problem. It appeared as a special significance in the history of India. It was the Quaid-e-Azam, who had always been a staunch supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity.

CONT • The scheme provided for a substantial step taken halfway towards the establishment of self-rule in India which was main core of the jointly sponsored scheme of Lucknow pact. The Congress first time accepted the demand of separate electorate for Muslims. The pact ensured the protection of political rights of Muslims.

CONT • Muslim league separate status was also being accepted. Through the pact the both parties were able to put a joint demand before the British. Congress got strength in term of political and masses because it had got All India Muslim League Supports.

The Government of India Act 1919

Government of India Act 1919 • The Government of India Act 1919 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India. The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, and the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford.

Reforms • This Act, commonly known as Montague. Chelmsford Reforms, introduced the following reforms: • The Council of the Secretary of State was to comprise of eight to twelve people. Three of them should be Indian, and at least half of them should have spent at least ten years in India.

CONT • The Central Legislature was to consist of two houses, Upper House (Council of the State), and the Lower House (Legislative Assembly). Council of the State was to consist of 60 members, out of them 35 members would be elected and rest of them would be nominated by the Governor General. The Legislative Assembly was to consist of 144 members, out of them 103 were to be elected and 41 to be nominated by the Governor General. The duration of the Upper House was five and of the Lower House was three years.

CONT • Powers were divided between the center and the provinces. The important subjects were vested with the center and unimportant remained with provinces. CONT The important central subjects were defense, foreign affairs, custom, and relations with Indian states, currency and railway. On the contrary, unworthy provincial subjects were local selfgovernment, public health, education etc.

CONT • The salary of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid from British exchequer; previously, his salary was paid by Indian treasury. • The system of ‘Diarchy’ or a kind of double government in the Provinces was introduced. Provincial subjects were divided into two categories “Transferred and Reserved. ”

CONT • Transferred subjects which were public health, education, local self-government, and agriculture were under the control of Minister; likewise all transferred subjects were unimportant. Reserved subjects included administration, police, land revenue etc. which were under the control of Governor with the help of his secretaries. It was indirect control over transferred department by reserved department. Hence, Governor was the head of transferred and reserved subjects.

CONT • Indian Constitutional Act of 1919 was passed to satisfy Indian people. On the contrary, Indian people opposed it because the Act went against Congress-League pact thus resulting in the Hindu opposition. Muslims partly accepted the Montague-Chelmsford reforms with certain reservations and demands regarding the safety of Muslim states. Gandhi categorically rejected this scheme and congress denounced it as inadequate, unsatisfactory and disappointing.

CONT • The only point of the reforms appreciated by the Indian was that after ten years, a commission was to assess the reforms and to bring further improvement in them.

The Rowlatt Act

The Rowlatt Act • Also Known As: The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, Black Act • Passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in February 1919, the Rowlatt Act enabled British government to jail anyone suspected of plotting to overthrow them for as long as two years without trial and also to try them summarily without any jury.

CONT • Based on the report of the committee headed by Justice S. A. T. Rowlatt, it replaced the Defence of India Act (1915) instituted during the First World War with a permanent law that gave the British more power over Indians.

CONT • The repressive legislation was strongly opposed by the Indian leaders, especially Mahatma Gandhi, who organised a movement against it that led to the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919 and subsequently, the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Major Provisions of Rowlatt Act • According to the Rowlatt Act: (i) The Government could use the extraordinary repressive powers it had during the war. (ii) The British Government could arrest any person without assigning any reason for the arrest, search any place without a warrant and imprison anyone without trial.

CONT • Trial of all political cases by tribunals to be set up for the purpose. • Possession of seditious pamphlets was declared to be a punishable offence. • The repressive Act also provided for the press to be controlled even more strictly;

CONT • In February 1919 and despite very strong opposition by the Indians, became law in March 1919. Prominent among those opposing the Act were independence activists like Mazhar Ul Haq, Madan Mohan Malviya, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, all of whom joined the rest of their Indian colleagues in resigning from the Council after unanimously voting against the Act.

Jallianwala Bagh • On the afternoon of April 13, a crowd of at least 10, 000 men, women, and children gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh, which was nearly completely enclosed by walls and had only one exit. It is not clear how many people there were protesters who were defying the ban on public meetings and how many had come to the city from the surrounding region to celebrate Baisakhi, a spring festival.

CONT • Dyer and his soldiers arrived and sealed off the exit. Without warning, the troops opened fire on the crowd, reportedly shooting hundreds of rounds until they ran out of ammunition. It is not certain how many died in the bloodbath, but, according to one official report, an estimated 379 people were killed, and about 1, 200 more were wounded. After they ceased firing, the troops immediately withdrew from the place, leaving behind the dead and wounded.

CONT • The shooting was followed by the proclamation of martial law in the Punjab that included public floggings and other humiliations. Indian outrage grew as news of the shooting and subsequent British actions spread throughout the subcontinent.

CONT • Gandhi was initially hesitant to act, but he soon began organizing his first large-scale and sustained nonviolent protest (satyagraha) campaign, the noncooperation movement (1920– 22). The government of India ordered an investigation of the incident (the Hunter Commission), which in 1920 censured Dyer for his actions and ordered him to resign from the military.