Government of India Act, 1935
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| Long title | An Act to make further provision for the Government of India. |
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| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 24 July 1935 |
| Commencement | 1 April 1937 |
| Repealed | 26 January 1950 (In India) 23 March 1956 (In Pakistan and, subsequently, Bangladesh) 19 November 1998 (In the UK) |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by |
Constitution of India (In India) Constitution of Pakistan of 1956 (In Pakistan and, subsequently, Bangladesh) Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 (In the UK) |
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Status: Repealed
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Government of India Act, 1935 was originally passed in August 1935 (25 & 26 Geo. 5 c. 42), and is said to be the longest Act (British) of Parliament ever enacted by that time. Because of its length, the Act was retroactively split by the Government of India Act, 1935 (Re-printed) (26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8 c. 1) into two separate Acts:
References in literature on Indian political and constitutional history are usually to the shortened Government of India Act, 1935 (i.e. 26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8 c. 2), rather than to the text of the Act as originally enacted.
The most significant aspects of the Act were:
However, the degree of autonomy introduced at the provincial level was subject to important limitations: the provincial Governors retained important reserve powers, and the British authorities also retained a right to suspend responsible government.
The parts of the Act intended to establish the Federation of India never came into operation, due to opposition from rulers of the princely states. The remaining parts of the Act came into force in 1937, when the first elections under the act were also held.
Indians had increasingly been demanding a greater role in the government of their country since the late 19th century. The Indian contribution to the British war effort during the First World War meant that even the more conservative elements in the British political establishment felt the necessity of constitutional change, resulting in the Government of India Act, 1919. That Act introduced a novel system of government known as provincial "diarchy", i.e., certain areas of government (such as education) were placed in the hands of ministers responsible to the provincial even for those areas over which they had gained nominal control, the "purse strings" were still in the hands of British officialdom.
The intention had been that a review of India's constitutional arrangements and those princely states that were willing to accede to it. However, division between Congress and Muslim representatives proved to be a major factor in preventing agreement as to much of the important detail of how federation would work in practice.
Against this practice, the new Conservative-dominated National Government in London decided to go ahead with drafting its own proposals (the white paper). A joint parliamentary select committee, chaired by Lord Linlithgow, reviewed the white paper proposals at great length. On the basis of this white paper, the Government of India Bill was framed. At the committee stage and later, to appease the diehards, the "safeguards" were strengthened, and indirect elections were reinstated for the Central Legislative Assembly (the central legislature's lower house). The bill duly passed into law in August 1935.
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Wikipedia