Indian Councils Act 1909
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| Citation | 9 Edw. 7 c. 4 |
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| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 25 May 1913 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Government of India Act 1915 |
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Status: Unknown
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The Indian Councils Act 1909 (9 Edw. 7 c. 4), commonly known as the Morley-Minto Reforms (or as the Minto-Morley Reforms), was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that brought about a limited increase in the involvement of Indians in the governance of British India.
John Morley, the Liberal Secretary of State for India, and the Conservative Viceroy of India, Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, believed that cracking down on the uprising in Bengal was necessary but not sufficient for restoring stability to the British Raj after Lord Curzon's partitioning of Bengal. They believed that a dramatic step was required to reassure loyal elements of the Indian upper classes and the growing Westernised section of the population.
They produced the Indian Councils Act of 1909 (Morley-Minto Reforms). They did not go any significant distance toward meeting the Indian National Congress demand for 'the system of government obtaining in Self-Governing British Colonies'.
The Act was important for the following reasons:
“To Lord Curzon's apprehension that the new Councils could become 'parliamentary bodies in miniature', Morley vehemently replied that, 'if it could be said that this chapter of reforms led directly or indirectly to the establishment of a parliamentary system in India, I for one would have nothing at all to do with it'. But he had already confessed in a letter to Minto in June 1906 that while it was inconceivable to adapt English political institutions to the 'nations who inhabit India.The spirit of English institutions is a different thing and it is a thing that we cannot escape, even if we wished... because the British constituencies are the masters, and they will assuredly insist... all parties alike... on the spirit of their own political system being applied to India.' He never got down to explaining how the spirit of the British system of government could be achieved without its body.”
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