The Government of India Act 1935

This handout covers the last constitution that the British gave to India: its terms, provincial autonomy, the federal part that never came into force, how Indians reacted, and the provincial elections of 1937 that were held under it. It belongs to Section 2 of the syllabus: the emergence of Pakistan 1906-47.

Key dates

Date	Event
1919	Government of India Act (Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) introduces diarchy in the provinces
1927-30	Simon Commission visits India and reports
1930-32	Three Round Table Conferences in London
August 1932	Communal Award
1933	British government's White Paper sets out proposals for a new constitution
August 1935	Government of India Act becomes law
1936	Sindh and Orissa begin to work as separate provinces
Winter 1936-37	Elections to the provincial assemblies
April 1937	Provincial part of the Act comes into force
July 1937	Congress agrees to form ministries

Background: why was the Act passed?

1. The 1919 reforms were due for review. The Act of 1919 said that the system would be looked at again after ten years. The Simon Commission was sent for this purpose, and its report recommended ending diarchy in the provinces.
2. Indian demands had grown. Congress had demanded complete independence in 1929 and Muslims had set out their demands in Jinnah's Fourteen Points. The British had to offer a larger share of power to keep India governable.
3. The Round Table Conferences had produced an outline. The conferences did not reach full agreement, but they accepted the ideas of a federation and of responsible government in the provinces. The British government put its own proposals in a White Paper in 1933. The Act was passed in August 1935.

The main terms

The provinces

• Diarchy was ended in the provinces. All provincial subjects were handed to Indian ministers who were responsible to elected assemblies. This was called provincial autonomy.
• There were now eleven provinces. Sindh was separated from Bombay, Orissa was created as a new province, and the North-West Frontier Province had the same status as the others.
• The governors kept special powers. A governor could act on his own to protect minorities or keep the peace, could reject laws, and in an emergency could dismiss the ministry and rule the province himself.

The centre

• India was to become a federation of the British provinces and the princely states.
• There would be a central parliament of two houses, the Council of State and the Federal Assembly, with seats for the provinces and for the princes.
• Diarchy was introduced at the centre. Defence, foreign affairs and a few other reserved subjects stayed with the Governor-General. Other subjects were to be run by ministers.

Other terms

• Subjects were divided into three lists: federal, provincial and concurrent (shared).
• Separate electorates were kept for Muslims and other minorities, following the Communal Award.
• The right to vote was widened. About 35 million people could now vote, including some women, about five times as many as before. This was still only a minority of adults, because voting depended on property and education.
• A Federal Court was set up to settle disputes about the constitution.
• Burma was separated from India.

Provincial autonomy

This was the part of the Act that worked. Under the 1919 Act, important provincial subjects such as police and finance had been "reserved" for the governor and his officials. Now every provincial department was under an Indian minister, and ministries had to keep the support of the elected assembly.

The limit was the power of the governor. Because he could overrule or dismiss ministers, many Indians felt that the autonomy was not genuine. Congress refused to take office after the 1937 elections until the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, gave an assurance that governors would not use their special powers to interfere in the ordinary work of ministries.

The federal part that never came into force

The federation was to begin only when enough princely states had agreed to join. The rule was that states with at least half of the total population of the states had to sign. This never happened.

1. The princes held back. They had spoken in favour of federation in 1930, but they feared losing their independence to an elected central government and they bargained over the conditions. Not enough of them signed.
2. The main parties disliked the scheme. Congress objected that the princes would nominate their own representatives, not elect them, which would give conservative rulers a large block in the central parliament. The Muslim League feared a strong centre with a permanent Hindu majority.
3. The Second World War began. In 1939 the British suspended the talks with the princes. The federal part was never started.

As a result the central government went on working under the old 1919 arrangements until 1947, with the Viceroy and his Executive Council in charge.

Reactions to the Act

Congress rejected the Act because it did not give independence or even Dominion status. The Governor-General and governors kept too much power and the princes were favoured. Jawaharlal Nehru called it a "charter of slavery" and compared it to a machine with strong brakes and no engine.

The Muslim League also criticised it. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah described the federal scheme as thoroughly rotten, fundamentally bad and totally unacceptable. However, the League welcomed some points: separate electorates were kept, Sindh became a province and the provinces gained more freedom from the centre.

In spite of their objections, both Congress and the League decided to contest the provincial elections so that they would not leave the field to their rivals.

The 1937 elections in brief

Elections to the eleven provincial assemblies were held in the winter of 1936-37. Jinnah had returned from England to lead the Muslim League, but the party had weak organisation in the provinces.

• Congress won clear majorities in several provinces and was the largest party in others. It went on to form ministries in eight of the eleven provinces.
• The Muslim League won only about a quarter of the seats reserved for Muslims. It did best in provinces where Muslims were a minority, such as the United Provinces and Bombay.
• In the Muslim-majority provinces regional parties did better than the League: the Unionist Party in the Punjab and the Krishak Praja Party of A. K. Fazlul Haq in Bengal. In the North-West Frontier Province a Congress ministry was formed.

Congress refused to form coalition governments with the League. In the United Provinces it offered places only if the League's members joined Congress. This refusal, and the way the Congress ministries then governed, is covered in the next handout.

How important was the Government of India Act 1935?

Reasons it was important

• It gave Indians real control of provincial government for the first time, a large step towards self-rule.
• It created Sindh as a province and confirmed the status of the North-West Frontier Province, giving Muslims more provinces in which they were the majority.
• It kept separate electorates, which protected the Muslim political identity.
• It widened the vote and led to the 1937 elections. These showed the Muslim League how weak it was and pushed Jinnah to rebuild it.
• It lasted. With amendments, it served as the working constitution of both India and Pakistan after independence in 1947. Pakistan used it until its own constitution of 1956.

Reasons it was limited

• The federal part never came into force, so the centre stayed under British control.
• The Governor-General and governors kept powers to overrule elected ministers.
• Most adults still could not vote.
• Every major Indian party criticised it, and it made no promise of Dominion status.

Judgement. The Act did not satisfy anyone in 1935, and half of it was never used. Even so, it was the most important constitutional step of the British period. Provincial autonomy gave Indians real experience of government, and the elections and Congress ministries that followed changed Muslim politics completely.

Key terms and people

• Diarchy: a system that divides subjects between British officials and Indian ministers.
• Provincial autonomy: provinces governing themselves through ministers answerable to elected assemblies.
• Concurrent list: subjects on which both the centre and the provinces could make laws.
• Unionist Party: party of Punjab landowners of all religions, which won the Punjab in 1937.

Exam practice

1. Describe the system of provincial autonomy introduced by the Government of India Act 1935. [4]
2. Why was there so much opposition in India to the Government of India Act 1935? [7]
3. "The introduction of provincial autonomy was the most important feature of the Government of India Act 1935." How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [14]

Outline answers

1. Diarchy in the provinces was ended. All provincial subjects were given to Indian ministers. Ministers were responsible to elected provincial assemblies. Governors kept special powers and could dismiss a ministry in an emergency. There were eleven provinces, including the new provinces of Sindh and Orissa.

2. (i) It gave neither independence nor Dominion status, which Congress had demanded since 1929, and the Governor-General and governors could overrule ministers, so power stayed in British hands. (ii) The federal scheme gave the princes a large share of nominated seats at the centre, which Congress saw as a block on progress and the League saw as part of a strong centre under a Hindu majority. (iii) Only a minority of adults could vote and the reserved subjects such as defence stayed outside Indian control, so Nehru called it a charter of slavery and Jinnah called it totally unacceptable.

3. Agree: it was the only main part that worked; Indian ministers ran all provincial departments; it led to the 1937 elections and to Congress and other ministries. Other features: new provinces of Sindh and Orissa; separate electorates kept; a wider vote; the federal scheme and diarchy at the centre, important on paper but never started; the Act's later use as the constitution of Pakistan until 1956. Judgement: provincial autonomy mattered most at the time because it was put into practice and shaped events from 1937, while the other features were either smaller or never used.