Question

Answer the following in 5-6 sentences.
What were the provisions under the Government of India Act 1935?

Answer 1

The Government of India Act 1935 contained 32 Sections 14 Parts and 10 Schedules and consisted of 2 Major Parts. The Act introduced federal system in the centre.Provincial Part of the Act:-Introduction of Provincial Autonomy:

• The provincial part of the Act basically followed the recommendations of the Simon Commission.
• In the provinces Diarchy was abolished. There was no Reserve Subjects and no Executive Council in the provinces.
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• The Council of Ministers was to administer all the provincial subjects except in certain matters like law and orders etc. for which the government had special responsibilities.
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• The ministers were chosen from among the elected members of the provincial legislature and were collectively responsible to it.
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• The British-appointed provincial governors (who were responsible to the British Government via the Viceroy and Secretary of State for India) were to accept the recommendations of the ministers unless, in their view, they negatively affected his areas of statutory “special responsibilities” such as the prevention of any grave menace to the peace or tranquility of a province, the safeguarding of the legitimate interests of minorities, rights of civil servants etc.
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• In the event of political breakdown, the governor, under the supervision of the Viceroy, could take over total control of the provincial government. This, in fact, allowed the governors a more untrammeled control than any British official had enjoyed in the history of the Raj. After the resignation of the congress provincial ministries in 1939, the governors did directly rule the ex-Congress provinces throughout the war.
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• It was generally recognized, that the provincial part of the Act, conferred a great deal of power and patronage on provincial politicians as long as both British officials and Indian politicians played by the rules. However, the paternalistic threat of the intervention by the British governor rankled.