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Government of India Act 1935

Lakshman Brahmawar
Federal Part of the Act:-All India Federation:

 The India Act 1935 proposed to set up All Indian Federation comprising of the British
Indian Provinces and Princely States. The constituent units of the Federation were 11
Governor’s provinces, 6 Chief Commissioner’s provinces and all those states that agreed
to joint it. The States were absolutely free to join or not to join the proposed Federation.
 At the time of joining the Federation the ruler of the state was to execute an Instrument of
Accession in favour of the Crown. On acceptance of that Instrument, the state was
become a unit of the Federation. The ruler was however authorized to extend the
functions of the federal authority in respect of his state by executing another instrument
in its internal affairs.
 The act proposed that federation of India could come into existence only if as many
princely states were entitled to one half of the states seats in the upper house of the
federal legislature.
 The terms offered to the Princes included:
 Each Prince would select his state’s representative in the Federal Legislature. There
would be no pressure for Princes to democratize their administrations or allow
elections for state representatives in the Federal Legislature.
 The Princes would enjoy heavy weightage. The Princely States represented about a
quarter of the population of India and produced well under a quarter of its wealth.
 Unlike the provincial portion of the Act, the Federal portion was to go into effect only
when half the States by weight agreed to federate. This never happened due to opposition
from rulers of the princely states and the establishment of the Federation was indefinitely
postponed after the outbreak of the Second World War. The remaining parts of the Act
came into force in 1937, when the first elections under the act were also held.

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Division of Federal Subjects:

 The scheme of federation and the provincial autonomy necessitated proper division of
subjects between the centre and the provinces.
 The division under 1919 Act was revised and the 1935 Act contained three lists i.e.
(1)Federal, (2)Provincial(3) Concurrent Legislative Lists.

Introduction of Dyarchy at the Centre:

 The India Act 1935 introduced Dyarchy at the centre. The Federal Subjects were divided
into two categories, the Reserved and the Transferred.The reserved subjects were to be
administered by the Governor-General on the advice of executive councilors, while
transferred subjects were to be administered on the advice of the ministers.
 The Reserved included defence, ecclesiastical affairs, external affairs and administration
of Tribal Areas. These were to be administered by the Governor General with the help of
executive councilors not exceeding three in number.
 The rest of the subjects were Transferred ones. These were to be administered by the
Governor General with the help of a Council of Ministers, the number of which was not
to exceed 10. The Governor General by his special powers and responsibilities could
dominate the ministers.
 The British Government, in the person of the Secretary of State for India, through the
Governor-General of India(Viceroy) , would continue to control India’s financial
obligations, defence, foreign affairs and the British Indian Army and would make the key
appointments to the Reserve Bank of India and Railway Board.
 The Act stipulated that no finance bill could be placed in the Central Legislature without
the consent of the Governor General. The funding for the British responsibilities and
foreign obligations (e.g. loan repayments, pensions), at least 80 percent of the federal
expenditures, would be non-votable and be taken off the top before any claims could be
considered for social or economic development programs.

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 The Viceroy, under the supervision of the Secretary of State for India, was provided with
overriding and certifying powers that could, theoretically, have allowed him to rule
autocratically.

Protection of Minorities:

 A very significant provision was the safeguards and protective armours for the minorities.
It was argued that the minorities needed protection from the dominance of the majority
community. But the so-called provisions in the Act relating to safeguards were merely a
trick to empower the Governor Generaland the Governors to override the ministers and
the legislators.

Analysis of the Act:

 The basic conception of the act of 1935 was that the government of India was the
government of the crown, conducted by authorities deriving functions directly from the
crown, in so far as the crown did not itself retain executive functions. His conception,
familiar in dominion constitutions, was absent in earlier Acts passed for India.
 The experiment of provincial autonomy under the act of 1935, definitely served some
useful purposes, thus we can say that the Government of India Act 1935 marks a point of
no return in the history of constitutional development in India.

References

1. Keay, John. India: A History. Grove Press Books, distributed by Publishers Group
West. United States: 2000 ISBN 0-8021-3797-0, pp. 490
2. Anatole FRANCE, The Red Lily, 1894
3. GANGULEE, The making of federal India, p. 165.
4. Gwyer & Appadorai, p. 320.

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