Ilbert Bill

The 'Ilbert Bill' was a bill introduced in 1883 under the reign of the Viceroy Lord Ripon (who earned the epithet Ripon-The good) which was written by Sir C.P Ilbert ( The law member of the Viceroy's Council). According to the said Act, Indian judges could try a European accused.

Lord Ripon had a marathon discussion with Sir CP Ilbert to change the act, thereby favouring the Indians. This is called the famous Ilbert Bill or the White Mutiny (1883).

It was named after Courtenay Ilbert, the recently appointed legal adviser to the Council of India, who had proposed it as a compromise between two previously suggested bills. However, the introduction of the bill led to intense opposition in Britain and from British settlers in India that ultimately played on racial tension before it was enacted in 1884 in a severely compromised state. The issue served to make clear the ceiling of Indian advancement in their own country. The bitter controversy deepened antagonism between the British and Indians and was a prelude to the formation of the Indian National Congress in the next two years.

The most vocal opponents of the bill were British tea and indigo plantation owners in Bengal, led by Griffith Evans, who feared that, unlike British judges, Indian judges would not overlook their mistreatment of Indian workers. At the same time, rumours began circulating of an English female being raped by an Indian in Calcutta. In reference to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when it was alleged that English women and girls were raped by Indian sepoys, many British colonialists expressed great concern over the humiliation English females would have to face appearing before Indian judges in the case of rape. The British press in India even spread wild rumours about how Indian judges would abuse their power to fill their harems with white English females. The propaganda that Indian judges cannot be trusted in dealing with cases involving English females helped raise considerable support against the bill.John Beames, a long serving civil servant in India, stated "It is intensely distasteful and humiliating to all Europeans...it will tend seriously to impair the prestige of British rule in India...it conceals the elements of revolution which may ere long prove the ruin of the country".

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