The Tussle In The Legislatures

Until 1920, India's Legislative Councils had no real official power. Nonetheless, the nationalists' work in them aided the growth of the national movement. The Governor-Executive General's Council was enlarged for the purpose of making laws by the Indian Councils Act of 1861. The Governor-General now has the authority to appoint six to twelve members to the Executive Council. Non-officials, Indian or British, had to make up at least half of the nominations. 

The Imperial Legislative Council was the name given to this council. It had no special abilities. It could not discuss the budget, a financial measure, or any other significant bill without the Government's prior approval. It was unable to discuss the administration's actions. As a result, it could not be considered a parliament, even in the most basic sense. The Council met for only twenty-five days per year on average until 1892, as if to emphasise this point.

 

•    The Government of India remained an alien despot, as it had been before 1858. This was not a coincidence. While moving the Indian Councils Bill of 1861, the Secretary of State for India, Charles Wood, said: All experience reaches us that where a dominant race rules another, the mildest form of Government is despotism.’ 

 

•    A year later he wrote to Elgin, the Viceroy, that the only government suitable for such a state of things as exists in India a despotism controlled from home.” This "despotism controlled from home" was to be the hallmark of the Indian government until August 15, 1947.

 

•    What role did Indian members of the Legislative Council play? The government had decided to include them in order to represent Indian viewpoints, as many British officials and statesmen had come to believe that one of the reasons for the 1857 Revolt was that the rulers were unaware of Indian viewpoints. 

 

•    In practise, however, the Council did not fulfil even this function. Only forty-five Indians were nominated to the organisation in the thirty years between 1862 and 1892. Furthermore, the Indian members were invariably chosen by the government as rulers of princely states or their employees, big zamindars, big merchants, or retired high government officials. 

 

•    Syed Ahmed Khan (1878-82), Kristodas Pal (1883), V.N. Mandlik (1884-87), K.L. Nulkar (1890-91) and Rash Behari Ghosh (1892) were among the few political figures and independent intellectuals nominated. 

 

•    The vast majority of Indian nominees did not represent the people of India or emerging nationalist sentiment. As a result, it was unsurprising that they followed the official line to the letter. 

 

•    The storey of Raja Dig Vijay Singh of Balarampur, who was twice nominated to the Council but knew no English, is fascinating. When asked how he voted, he replied that he kept looking at the Viceroy and that when the Viceroy raised his hand, he did so as well, and that when he lowered it, he did so as well!

 

•    Indian nominees on the Council had a poor voting record. Only one Indian member, Maharaja Jotendra Mohan Tagore, the leader of the zamindari-dominated British Indian Association, was present when the Vernacular Press Bill was brought before the Council. He voted in favour of it. 

 

•    The two zamindars' spokesmen in the Council helped emasculate the Bengal Tenancy Bill's pro-tenant character in 1885, at a time when nationalist leaders like Surendranath Banerjea were agitating to make it more pro-tenant. In 1882, Jotendra Mohan Tagore and Durga Charan Laha, a representative of Calcutta's big merchants, opposed the reduction of the salt tax and instead recommended lowering the merchants' and professionals' licence taxes. 

 

•    The nationalists demanded the polar opposite. Peary Mohan Mukherjea and Dinshaw Petit, representing big zamindars and big merchants, respectively, supported the salt tax increase in 1888, along with non-official British members representing British business in India.

 

•    The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was enacted as a result of nationalist agitation, forcing the government to make some legislative changes.

 

•    The Imperial and Provincial Legislative Councils now have a total of sixteen additional members, up from the previous six to ten. Although a few of these members may have been elected indirectly through municipal committees, district boards, and other means, the official majority remained. 

 

•    Members were given the ability to debate the annual budget, but they were not allowed to vote on it or propose amendments. They were also allowed to ask questions, but not to add any additional ones or discuss the answers. 

 

•    During its tenure until 1909, the ‘reformed' Imperial Legislative Council met an average of only thirteen days per year, with only five out of twenty-four unofficial Indian members present!

 

•    The Act of 1892 had left the nationalists completely dissatisfied. It was a mockery of their demands, they believed. Despotism reigned, and the Councils remained powerless. They now want a majority of non-official elected members to vote on the budget and thus have access to the public coffers. 

 

•    They coined the phrase "no taxation without representation" as a rallying cry. Their demands gradually grew more demanding. Many leaders, such as Dadabhai Naoroji in 1904, G.K. Gokhale in 1905, and Lokamanya Tilak in 1906, began to advocate for self-government based on the model of Canada's and Australia's self-governing colonies.

 

•    Lord Dufferin, who drafted the Act of 1892, and other British statesmen and administrators saw the Legislative Council as a way to bring more outspoken Indian political leaders into the colonial political structure, where they could, in a sense, let off steam. 

 

•    They knew that the members of the Councils had no real power; all they could do was give long speeches and spout empty rhetoric, and the bureaucracy could afford to ignore them.

•    The powerless and impotent councils, designed as machines for the endorsement of government policies and measures and as toys to appease the emerging political leadership, were quickly transformed into forums for ventilating popular grievances, mercilessly exposing the defects and shortcomings of the emerging political leadership. 

 

•    They scrutinised the government's acts and policies from every angle, including their intent, method, and impact. Rather than being absorbed by the Councils, nationalist members used them to boost their own political standing in the county and build a national movement. 

 

•    The safety valve became a major propaganda outlet for nationalists. They waged a constant campaign against the government in the Councils, undermining its political and moral influence and generating a powerful anti-imperialist sentiment, using sheer courage, debating skill, fearless criticism, deep knowledge, and careful marshalling of data. Their speeches started to get a lot of coverage in the newspapers, and the legislative proceedings sparked a lot of public interest. 

 

•    Some of the most powerful nationalist leaders flocked to the new Councils. Surendranath Banerjee, Kalicharan Banerjee, Ananda Mohan Bose, Lal Mohan Ghosh, W.C. Bonnerji, and Rash Behari Ghosh from Bengal; Ananda Charlu, C. Sankaran Nair, and Vijayaraghavachariar from Madras; Madan Mohan Malaviya, Ayodhyanath, and Bishambar Nath from U.P

 

•    Pherozeshah Mehta and Gopal Krishna Gokhale were the two men who were most responsible for putting the Council to good use and instilling in them a new spirit. Both men belonged to the Moderate political party. Both became known as the scourge of British officialdom in India for their fearless independence.