Morley-Minto reforms in India and the politics of the Indian National Congress (1906-1909)

The purpose of the article is to study the point of view of the Indian National Congress on the Morley-Minto constitutional reform in India. The author reviewed the changes in the political course of the colonial administration in late 1905, when Campbell-Bannerman became the Prime Minister of Great Britain, J. Morley and lord Minto were appointed as the Secretary of State for India and Viceroy respectively, and the INC's politics on reforms. During the study, it was found that when the Liberal government came to power, the Congress and its English branch (the British Committee of the Indian National Congress) faced the constitutional opportunities opened up before India. The Liberal press generally expressed an opinion on the necessity of reforms in India; however, the Liberal Party did not have a unified position on this issue, and its program in the electoral campaign of 1905-1906 was focused on the shortcomings of the Conservative rule and the removal of the frictions between the factions. As a result, the British Committee of the INC was able to attract the attention of the British public only to a limited extent. The reform project of G.K. Gokhale (i.e. introduction of three Indians in the Council of the State Secretary for India and the allocation of six seats in the House of Commons for Indian representatives) was not accepted by the liberal public. Also, Morley did not want to make important changes in the existing system of colonial administration. Due to frictions in the British Committee and in the Indian Parliamentary Committee, Morley defended his views on Indian reforms. The government formed the committee, headed by A. Arundel, for the preparation of the reforms. The result of its work was the scheme known as "Simla circular", but even the Congress' moderates recognized it as unsatisfactory. Due to "Simla circular" H. Cotton tried to launch a parliamentary attack, but the President of the British Committee, W. Wedderburn, advocated the idea of cooperation with Morley. Thus, negotiations between the moderates and Morley continued. The project of reforms was presented on 17 December 1908 and received the approval of the Congress, but the moderates' reaction changed after the publication of the final scheme of the reform of councils. The most important innovation in it was the establishment of a system of separate electorates, which gave advantage to the Muslim minority. Neither the moderate wing, nor the extremists accepted the new Act. The author came to a conclusion that the Indian Councils Act of 1909 had extremely negative consequences for both the moderates and the political relations of the Congress with the British Liberals. The moderates were unable to influence the Liberal government, the introduction of separate electorates entailed strengthening of communalistic tendencies in the country, and it had a negative impact on the unity of Indian nationalists in the struggle for self-government in India.

Keywords

Authors

References