Q.Critically evaluate the response of Indians toward Montford Reforms
1919. Were they justified in their protest?[2]
Marks 4
Answers
Answer:
The Government of India Act 1919 was an act of the British Parliament that sought to increase the participation of Indians in the administration of their country. The act was based on the recommendations of a report by Edwin Montagu, the then Secretary of State for India, and Lord Chelmsford, India’s Viceroy between 1916 and 1921. Hence the constitutional reforms set forth by this act are known as Montagu-Chelmsford reform.
Answer:
The Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms or more briefly known as Mont-Ford Reforms were reforms introduced by the colonial government in British India to introduce self-governing institutions gradually in India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State for India during the latter parts of the First World War and Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India between 1916 and 1921. The reforms were outlined in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report prepared in 1918 and formed the basis of the Government of India Act 1919. These are related to constitutional reforms. Indian nationalists considered that the reforms did not go far enough while British conservatives were critical of them. The important features of this act were as follows:
Explanation:
In the years to 1900, the British Raj had developed strategies for ensuring that it
was never again caught unawares by a rising as devastating as the Indian Mutiny
(see page xx). A major strategy was to embark on a process where a small number
of carefully selected Indians were able to participate, albeit marginally, in the Raj’s
decision-making process. A second, no less important, strategy was to devolve
some financial management to Indians to enable them to manage their own affairs
at a local level. The need for some sort of rapprochement with the Indian people
was not questioned by the British in positions of authority but the problem was
how much to give and when to give it.
This unit focuses on the ways in which this problem was addressed in the years up
to 1919. Twice during the early twentieth century the British were forced, by
pressure of events, to face this dilemma: between 1906 and 1909 and again
between 1916 and 1919. How the imperial authorities reacted and what the impact
of this was on India and Indian affairs was to have a profound impact on the
direction Indian politics were to take. This careful and almost unwilling
rapprochement was running in tandem with a growing sense of national
consciousness amongst the indian people