There is no doubt that the Government of India Act, 1919, gave real responsibility to the representatives of the people in only a very limited sphere of administration; and, judged from the standpoint of a truly democratic measure, it had certain defects with regard to both the Central and Provincial Governments. Nevertheless, it should be regarded as an important installment of constitutional reform. For the first time the British Government officially laid down, as the goal of constitutional development in India, not only Dominion Status but also Responsible Government. The latter could only mean the parliamentary form of government of the British type, which was repudiated by Lord Morley even as late as 1908. The introduction of direct election, for the first time, a comparatively wide franchise was a significant concession. Further, the people were given a valuable opportunity both for political training and for influencing the actions of the Government. This Act also provided that after the expiry of a decade of working of the new Constitution, a Commission of Enquiry should be constituted, with the approval of Parliament, to report after due investigation whether responsible government should be further extended or restricted.
The Reforms of 1919 did not satisfy the national aspirations of the Indians. The Indian demand for political advance gradually grew more and more insistent. So the Conservative Government of Mr. Baldwin, in which Lord Birkenhead was the Secretary of State for India, appointed a Statutory Com- mission, earlier than provided in the Act of 1919, under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon, to report on the working of the reforms. As all the seven members of the Commission were British, it was boycotted by the Congressites, the Liberals and important sections of the Muslim community when it landed in Bombay on 3rd February, 1928. There was also a wider ground on which the Congressites took their stand. They held that it did not accord with the principle of self-determination to have constitutional changes effected on the recommendations of a Commission appointed by an outside authority. In view of the difficult situation in India, Sir John Simon wrote a letter to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, the Premier belonging to the Labour Party which had come to power after the general election of 1929, on 16th October, 1929, suggesting the advisability of inviting, after the publication of the Report of his Commission, the representatives of both British India and the Indian States to a conference before final decisions were made. This suggestion was accepted by the British Cabinet, and on 31st October, 1929, the Governor- General, Lord Irwin, made the momentous announcement ” that the natural issue of India’s Constitutional progress… is the attainment of Dominion Status ” and that a Round Table Conference would be held in London after the Simon Commission had reported.
The Report of the Simon Commission was published in May, 1930. Briefly speaking, it recommended complete Responsible Government in the Provinces, even the control of police and justice being transferred to the Ministers responsible to the Legislatures. Legislatures were to be based on a wider franchise and the official bloc was to go. In the Central Government, it recommended the continuance of complete British authority and control. It pointed out the importance of the growth of contact with the Indian States and envisaged the scheme of an All-India Federation, including the Princes, though its perfect realisation was considered to be a distant possibility. But the recommendations of the Commission were repudiated outright by the Indian nationalists. The British Government then summoned in London a Round Table Conference, consisting of 16 representatives of the three British political parties, 16 delegates from the Indian States and 57 delegates from British India, including some prominent Indians like Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, Mr. Srinivasa Sastri, Mr. C. Y.Chintamoni, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Sir Mohammad Shafi, to consider the question of the Indian Constitution. The first session of the Conference was held from 12th November, 1930, to 19th January, 1931, and the Princes declared their willingness to join the proposed Federation provided that responsibility was given to the Central Government. Though the Congress did not at first participate in the Conference, Gandhiji attended the second session (7th September to Ist December, 1931) as its sole representative, but could not get what he wanted. The third session of the Conference, attended by a far smaller number of representatives than before, met from 17th November to 24th December, 1932.
As a result of the discussions at the Conferences, the British Government drafted its proposals for the reform of the Indian Constitution, which were embodied in the White Paper, published in March, 1933. The White Paper was examined by a joint Committee of both the Houses of Parliament, presided over by Lord Linlithgow, Viceroy of India since 1936, with the help of Indian assessors. The Committee approved of the proposals of the White Paper subject to certain modifications and presented its report in October, 1934. A Bill, prepared on the report of this Committee, known as the Government of India Bill, 1935, was introduced in Parliament and became an Act on 2nd August, 1935, with slight alterations.
The Act of 1935 embodied two main principles- (I) an All-India Federation, comprising Governors’ Provinces, Chief Commissioners’ Provinces and the Federating Indian States, and (2) Provincial Autonomy, with a Government responsible to an elected Legislature in every Governor’s Province. All functions hitherto exercised by the Secretary of State, the Government of India and the Provinces were resumed by the Crown, which redistributed them between the Central Government on the one hand and the provinces on the other. As regards the Indian States, the functions and powers of paramountcy were to be exercised henceforth not by the Government of India but by ” His Majesty’s Representative for the exercise of those functions of the Crown “. Normally, though not necessarily, this office was to be held by the Governor- General, but as His Majesty’s representative and not as the head of the Federal Government. Further, certain important departments like foreign affairs, ecclesiastical affairs and defence, being excluded from the control of the Indian Legislature, were to be administered by the Governor- General under the superintendence and direction of Whitehall alone; and the Governor- General and the governors of Provinces were invested with special powers, in respect of functions transferred to the control of Ministers, for which they had responsibility to the British Parliament. Thus the constitutional status of India, even under the new Act, was that of a dependency, though it was ” gradually gravitating towards that of a Dominion.”
The States being ” independent ” entities could not be compelled to enter the federation. Each State willing to join it, was required to execute through its ruler an Instrument of Accession, which must be accepted by the Crown before it became a member of the Federation. The Federation was to be proclaimed by His Majesty when two conditions were satisfied: (1) an address in that behalf must be presented to the King by each House of Parliament, and (2) States which were entitled to chose not less than fifty two members in the upper house of the Federal Legislature, and whose population was not less than one-half of the total population of the States must accede to it.
