Salient features of the Government of India Act - 1858

• India's rule came directly under British Crown.

• The administration was to be run by Her Majesty, through the Secretary of State for India, assisted by the Council of India

• The court of Directors and Board of control were abolished.

• The council of India was an advisory body, with the secretary of state as its Chairman.

• This act made India a direct colony of the British Crown.

• Council of India had 15 members, 8 appointed by the Crown and 7 elected by the Court of Directors.

National Awakening was established in the extreme sense in the beginning of 20th Century. National Movement was activated and on the issue of division of Bengal Swadeshi Movement started. Reacting to this, the British Government brought the Indian Council Bill 1909.

Salient features of the Government of India Act, 1909

• It increased the number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the Provincial Legislative Councils. However, overall majority of non-elected members remained intact.

• Even elected members were to be elected indirectly by electoral college, elected by local bodies.

• Powers of legislatures were enlarged to enable it to pass resolution and ask questions and supplementaries, but yet not able to vote upon the budget as a whole.

• One Indian was to be appointed to the Viceroy's executive council.

• Separate electorate was introduced. Muslims were allocated 8 seats, British capitalists 6 seats, landlords 2 seats and general electorate were allocated 13 seats out of total 27 non-official seats of total 68 seats in Imperial Legislative Council.

• Muslims were also provided representation in excess to their strength.

The number of elected member in the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial Legislative Council was increased. The electoral system that was introduced contained two divisions of electorates; they are General electorates and special electorates. No universal franchise was introduced. Only a class of citizen was qualified for voting which was almost a minority to the total population of each electorate. Communal Representation introduced here was aimed at dividing Hindu-Muslim to make them weaker.

The reforms of 1909 was infect framed to confuse moderate nationalists, to divide the nationalist ranks and to check the growth of unity among Indians and such the reforms of 1909 afforded no answer to the Indian political problems.

The Act ushered in a new period of Indian history, bringing about the end of Company rule in India. The era of the new British Raj would last until Partition of India in August 1947, at which time all of the territory of the Raj was granted dominion status within the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India.

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• Government of India Act 1858

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