Indian Councils Act 1892

The Indian Councils Act 1892 was an Act of British Parliament that introduced various amendments to the composition and function of legislative councils in British India.

Quotes

B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946)

B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946)

Republished in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches: Pakistan or the partition of India. Education Department, Government of Maharashtra. 1979. 

• Three things are noticeable about this political aggression of the Muslims. First is the ever-growing catalogue of the Muslim's political demands. Their origin goes back to the year 1892. In 1885 the Indian National Congress was founded. It began with a demand for good government, as distinguished from self-government. In response to this demand the British Government felt the necessity of altering the nature of the Legislative Councils, Provincial and Central, established under the Act of 1861. In that nascent stage of Congress agitation, the British Government did not feel called upon to make them fully popular. It thought it enough to give them a popular colouring. Accordingly the British Parliament passed in 1892 what is called the Indian Councils Act. This Act is memorable for two things. It was in this Act of 1892 that the British Government for the first time accepted the semblance of the principle of popular representation as the basis for the constitution of the Legislatures in India. It was not a principle of election. It was a principle of nomination, only it was qualified by the requirement that before nomination a person must be selected by important public bodies such as municipalities, district boards, universities, and the associations of merchants, etc. Secondly, it was in the legislatures that were constituted under this Act that the principle of separate representation for Musalmans was for the first time introduced in the political constitution of India.