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What is Morley minto reforms |
| Answer» ndian Councils Act of 1909,\xa0also called\xa0Morley-Minto Reforms, series of reform measures enacted in 1909 by the\xa0British Parliament, the main component of which directly introduced the elective principle to membership in the imperial and local legislative councils in\xa0India. The act was formulated by\xa0John Morley, secretary of state for India (1905–10).In\xa0Great Britain\xa0the\xa0Liberal Party\xa0had scored an electoral victory in 1906 that marked the dawn of a new era of reforms for British India. The relatively new secretary of state—hampered though he was by\xa0Lord Minto, the British viceroy of India (1905–10)—was able to introduce several important\xa0innovations\xa0into the legislative and administrative machinery of the British Indian government.\xa0Implementing\xa0Queen\xa0Victoria’s promise of\xa0equality of opportunity\xa0for Indians, he appointed two Indian members to his council at\xa0Whitehall: one a Muslim, Sayyid Husain Bilgrami, who had taken an active role in the founding of the Muslim League; and the other a Hindu, Krishna G. Gupta, a senior Indian in the Indian Civil Service (ICS). Morley also persuaded a reluctant Lord Minto to appoint to the viceroy’s Executive Council the first Indian member,\xa0Satyendra P. Sinha, in 1909.Though the initial electorate base designated by the 1909 act was only a small minority of Indians authorized by property ownership and education, in 1910 some 135 elected Indian representatives took their seats as members of legislative councils throughout British India.When Morley abolished the official majorities of provincial legislatures, it was on the advice of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and other liberal leaders of the Indian National Congress, such as Romesh Chunder Dutt. He overrode the bitter opposition of not only the ICS but also his own viceroy and council. Morley believed, as did many other British Liberal politicians, that the only justification for British rule over India was to bequeath to India Britain’s greatest political institution: parliamentary government.\xa0 | |