The Reformed Constitution of British India

(1) The Reforms from one point of view are only one step forward in the Indianization and popularization of that system of government which began with the transfer of the Government of India from the Company to the Crown. By that arrangement a Secretary of State for India was created, who, together with a Council, was invested with "the powers of superintendence, direction, and control of the revenues and administration of India." During the next 50 years attempts were made, in 1861, 1892, and finally in 1909, for the greater association of Indians with the central and provincial governments, at first in the legislature and afterwards in the executive. As a matter of fact, however, the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 have failed to satisfy Indian aspirations. By enabling us to reconnoitre the field of government more frequently and at close quarters, they demonstrated how strongly the bureaucracy was entrenched. They created a sense of helplessness and despair, and even if no war had broken out, further progress was inevitable.

Spread of Wes

tern Education

(2) In addition to this-what might be called dynamic element in British Institutions-there was a set of forces which made for political progress in India. It arose out of the spread of Western education, culture, and ideals. The 'educated' Indian became imbued with the political and philosophical speculations of Burke and Gladstone, Mill and Morley; he was impressed with

and Ideals.

the doctrine of 'constitutional progress' as it was taught by the history of England; his mind was liberalized by the language of Shakespeare and Milton, Byron and Shelley; and he began to aspire to have self-government. A kind of self-government we had in villages' and towns from times immemorial. But it was extended and modernized under the British Rule. We became familiar with the principle of representation in Congresses and Conferences and above all in the Councils. There was a growing conviction that our progress depended upon "the extension of that system of self-government which had been the invariable accompaniment of British power and civilization, and which, whenever it has been granted, has been the strongest bulwark of 'Imperial Rule.' And eversince the Calcutta Congress of 1906 a general cry has gone up "in self-government lies our hope, strength and gratitude."

The effects of the War-External.

(3) These aspirations were quickened by the outbreak of the Great War, which, by giving India an opportunity of doing service to the Empire, raised her from the status of a dependency to the position of equality with the other self-governing members of the Empire with which it came into a closer and more sympathetic contact and this elevation was bound to react upon her internal constitution. A further step and a long stride too-in the internal and political evolution of India seemed not merely a desirable but a necessary corollory to the momentous decision that India, with the dominions, should be regularly consulted in peace, as in war, at the Imperial Conference and in the Imperial Cabinet.

And this reforming spirit became irresistible when it came under the full sway of those principles of international justice and national self-determination which were thrown out by the War. As the Report puts it "the war

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