Government of India act 1919 and establishment of Indian legislatures as the beginning of ‘trasfer of power' in British Empire

The article examines influence of the Government of India Act 1919 on the reorganization of legislatures in British India, as well as the following change in the character of relations between the Indian national movement and colonial administration. The main research tasks are: 1) to look through the above mentioned Act and to compare the situation before and after it adoption; 2) to define the main changes in the legislative branch of power in British India according to the Act; 3) to point out predominant Indian parties of the considered period; 4) and finally to depict the difference in the parties attitude to the official colonial administration after the reforms were brought to life. To attain the settled goals there were mostly used comparative method as well as the classic narrative one. The Government of India Act 1919 itself was used as the main source of the research. Relevant to the Act legal information introduced in the book of Mitra H.N. “The Govt. of India Act 1919: Rules Thereunder and Govt. Reports, 1920” was very useful as well. Some articles published in the “Foreign Affairs” journal, including Viceroy Reading's article “The Progress of Constitutional Reform in India”, delivers opinion of the English on the question observed. Some conclusions were made after the completion of the research. The 1919 Act defined state structure and political institutes of India: bicameral parliamentary system in the centre and the provinces, establishment of diverse political parties and elections. Lately these elements of sovereign state developed in independent India. The Act encouraged national political activity in its negative and disruptive sense. In spite of initial purpose of the British to involve the national Indian elite into the governing process, a reverse reaction of the indigenous population came into being, and the first civil disobedience company led by M. K. Gandhi had been launched. Substantially the Indians considered the Act as an inadequate measure to the then circumstances. The whole situation become more complicated due to the loyal liberal wing of Indian parties was too weak to pledge their support to the government. On the contrary Indian National Congress after its session in Nagpur gained wide popular support and, thus, the ability effectively confront the central government in New Delhi. The Swaraj party turned out to be the only compromise power which accepted the new rules of the game. Nevertheless, the Swarajists entered the renewed legislatures to fight for freedom legally within its walls. Both the dramatic change of the governing scheme of India and precedent of legal activity of the Swarajists within new constitutional framework introduced prerequisites for the transfer of power on the Indian subcontinent. Since 1919 the model of interrelation between the colony and the United Kingdom became ambivalent. The national movement was armed with logic of liberation struggle while London started to develop gradually selfgoverning institutions in the subcontinent and at the same time utilize repressive methods for remaining status quo. The outcomes of the triggered dialogue were partly represented in the Government of India Act 1935 and the Constitution of India 1950.

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