Central Legislative Assembly

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.

Central Legislative Assembly
Imperial Legislative Council
Star of India
Star of India
Type
Type
History
Founded23 December 1919 (1919-12-23)
Disbanded14 August 1947
Succeeded byConstituent Assembly of India
Leadership
President
Seats145
Elections
First past the post
First election
1920 Indian general election
Last election
1945 Indian general election
Motto
Heaven's Light Our Guide
Meeting place
Council House, Raisina Hill, New Delhi

The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Imperial Legislative Council, the legislature of British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was also sometimes called the Indian Legislative Assembly and the Imperial Legislative Assembly. The Council of State was the upper house of the legislature for India.

As a result of Indian independence, the Legislative Assembly was dissolved on 14 August 1947 and its place taken by the Constituent Assembly of India and the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.

Composition

The new Assembly was the lower house of a

bicameral parliament, with a new Council of State as the upper house, reviewing legislation passed by the Assembly. However, both its powers and its electorate were limited.[1][2]

The Assembly had 145 members who were either nominated or indirectly elected from the provinces.[3]

The Legislative Assembly had no members from the

princely states, as they were not part of British India. On 23 December 1919, when King-Emperor George V gave royal assent to the Government of India Act 1919, he also made a proclamation which created the Chamber of Princes, to provide a forum for the states to use to debate national questions and make their collective views known to the Government of India.[4]

Nominated members

The nominated members were officials or non-officials and nominated by the Government of India and the provinces.

Officials

There were a total of 26 nominated officials out of which 14 were nominated by the Government of India from the Viceroy's Executive Council, Council of State and from the Secretariat. The other 12 came from the provinces. Madras, Bombay and Bengal nominated two officials while United Provinces, Punjab, Bihar & Orissa, Central Provinces, Assam and Burma nominated one each.[citation needed]

Non-officials

There were a total of 15 nominated non-officials out of which 5 were nominated by the Government of India representing five special interests namely

Anglo-Indians and the Depressed Classes. The other 10 non-officials were nominated from the provinces namely two from Bengal, United Provinces and Punjab and one each from Bombay, Bihar & Orissa, Berar and the North West Frontier Province.[citation needed
]

Elected members

Initially, of its 142 members, 101 were elected and 41 were nominated. Of the 101 elected members, 52 came from general constituencies, 29 were elected by

Sikhs, 7 by Europeans, 7 by landlords, and 4 by business men.[5][6] Later, one seat each was added for Delhi, Ajmer-Merwara and the North West Frontier Province.[citation needed
]

The constituencies were divided as follows:[7]

Province Seats Names of Constituencies
Assam 4 General (2): Assam Valley, Surma Valley with Shillong
Muslim: Assam Muhammadan
Assam European
Bengal 16 General (6): Calcutta Urban (1), Calcutta suburbs (Hoogly, Haorah, 24 Pargana Dist Municipal) (1), Calcutta Rural, Presidency Division (1), Burdwan Division (excluding Hoogly and Howrah Dist) (1), Dacca Division (1), Chittagong Rajshahi Division (1)
Muslim (5): Calcutta and suburbs (Hoogly, Haorah, 24 Pargana Dist) (1), Burdwan and Calcutta Presidency Division (1), Dacca Division (1), Chittagong Division (1), Rajshahi Division (1)
Europeans in Bengal Presidency (2)
Landholders Bengal (1)
Commerce (2): Indian Chambers of Commerce (1), Rotation: Bengal Chambers of Commerce or Marwari Association or Bengal Mahajan Sabha (1)
Bihar and Orissa 12 General (8): Tirhut Division (2), Orissa (2), Patna with Shahabad (1), Gaya with Monghyr (1), Bhagalpur Purnea and the Santhal Parganas (1), Chota Nagpur Division (1)
Muslim (3): Patna and Chota Nagpur cum Orissa (1), Bhagalpur Division (1), Tirhut Division (1)
Bihar and Orissa Landholders (1)
Bombay 16 General (8): Bombay City Urban (2), Sind (1), Northern Division (2), Southern Division (1), Central (2)
Muslim (4): Bombay City Urban (1), Sind Urban (1), Sind Rural in rotation with Northern Division (1), Central Division in rotation with Southern Division (1)
Europeans in Presidency (1)
Commerce (2) Indian Merchants Chamber (1), The Bombay Millowners' Association or The Ahmedabad Millowners' Association (1)
Landholders Rotation (1): Sind Jagirdars & Zamindars or Gujarat & Deccan Sardars & Inamdars
Burma 4 General (3)
European (1)
Central Provinces 5 General (3): Nagpur Division (1), Central Provinces Hindi Division (The Narmada, Jabalpur and Chhattisgarh Divisions) (2)
Muslim (1)
Landholders (1)
Madras 16 General (11): Madras City Urban (1), Madras Districts Rural (1), Ganjam cum Vizagapatnam (1), Godavari cum Krishna (1), Guntur cum Nellore (1), Chittoor cum Ceded Dists (Anantpur, Bellary, Cuddapah, Kurnool) (1), Salem, Coimbatore cum North Arcot (1), Chingleput cum South Arcot (1), Tanjore cum Trichinopoly (1), Madurai, Ramnad cum Tinnevelly (1), Nilgiris and West Coast (Malabar, Anjengo, S. Canara) (1)
Muslim (3): North Madras (Ganjam, Vizgapatam, Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, Anantapur, Bellary, Cuddapah, Kurnool and Chittoor) (1), South Madras (Chingleput, Madras, Arcot, North & South Coimbatore, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madurai) (1), Nilgiris and W. Coast (Malabar, S. Canara) (1)
Europeans in Presidency (1)
Landholders in Presidency (1)
Punjab 12 General (3): Ambala Division (1), Jullundur Division (1), West Punjab (Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan) Division (1)
Muslim (6): East Punjab (Ambala, Kangra, Hoshiarpur, Jullunder, Ludhiana) (1), East Central Punjab (Ferozepur, Lahore, Amritsar and Gurdaspur) (1), West Central Punjab (Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Lyallpur) (1), North Punjab (Gujrat, Jhelum and Rawalpindi) (1), North- West Punjab (Attock, Mianwali, Shahpur and Jhang) (1), South-West Punjab (Multan, Montgomery, Muzaffargarh and Dera Ghazi Khan) (1)
Sikh (2): East Punjab (Ambala and Jullundur Division) (1), West Punjab (Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan) (1)
Punjab Landholders (1)
United Provinces 16 General (8) Cities of UP (Agra, Meerut, Cawnpore, Benares, Allahabad, Bareilly, Lucknow) (1), Meerut Division (excluding Municipality and Cantonment) (1), Agra Division (1), Rohilkhand and Kumaon Division (1), Allahabad Jhansi Division (1), Benares Gorakhpur Division (1), Lucknow Division (1), Faizabad Division (1)
Muslim (6): Cities of U.P (1), Meerut Division (1), Agra (1), Rohilkhand and Kumaon Division (1), Lucknow and Faizabad (1), Southern Division (Allahabad, Benares, Gorakhpur) (1)
European U. P. (1)
Landholders U P (1)

The

British India, plus a further 125 seats for the Indian Princely states
. However, elections for the reformed legislature never took place.

Inauguration

The Central Legislative Assembly met in the Council Hall and later to the Viceregal Lodge in Old Delhi both of which are now located in Delhi University.

Sansad Bhavan, and is the present-day home of the Parliament of India.[10][11]

The Assembly, the Council of State, and the Chamber of Princes were officially opened in 1921 by King George V's uncle, the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn[12]

Elections

The first elections to the new legislatures took place in November 1920 and proved to be the first significant contest between the Moderates and the

Non-cooperation movement, whose aim was for the elections to fail. The Non-cooperators were at least partly successful in this, as out of almost a million electors for the Assembly, only some 182,000 voted.[13]

Main article: 1920 Indian general election

After the withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement, a group within the Indian National Congress formed the Swaraj Party and contested the elections in 1923 and 1926. The Swaraj Party led by Motilal Nehru as the leader of the Opposition was able to secure the defeat, or at least the delay, of finance bills and other legislation. However, after 1926, the members of the Swaraj Party either joined the government or returned to the Congress which continued its boycott of the legislature during the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Main article: 1923 Indian general election
Main article: 1926 Indian general election
Main article: 1930 Indian general election

In 1934, the Congress ended its boycott of the legislatures and contested the elections to the fifth Central Legislative Assembly held that year.[14]

Main article: 1934 Indian general election

The last elections to the assembly were held in 1945.

Main article: 1945 Indian general election

The electorate of the Assembly was never more than a very small fraction of the population of India. In the British House of Commons on 10 November 1942, the Labour MP Seymour Cocks asked the Secretary of State for India Leo Amery "What is the electorate for the present Central Legislative Assembly?" and received the written answer "The total electorate for the last General Election (1934) for the Central Legislative Assembly was 1,415,892."[15]

Important events

Presidents of the Assembly

The presiding officer (or

parliamentary private secretary to Winston Churchill.[23][24] Sachchidananda Sinha was the Deputy President of Assembly in 1921.[25]

Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar was the last President of the Assembly till the Assembly came to an end on 14 August 1947. He became the first Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India, and in 1952 the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India.[26]

No Image President Tenure[27]
1 Frederick Whyte 3 February 1921 – 23 August 1925
2 Vithalbhai Patel 24 August 1925 – April 1930
3 Muhammad Yakub 9 July 1930 – 31 July 1931
4 Sir Ibrahim Rahimtoola 17 January 1931 – 7 March 1933
5 Sir Ramasamy Shanmukham Chetty 14 March 1933 – 31 December 1934
6 Sir Abdur Rahim 24 January 1935 – 1 October 1945
7
Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar
 24 January 1946 – 14 August 1947
No Image Deputy President Tenure[28]
1 Dr Sachchidananda Sinha February 1921 – September 1921
2 Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy September 1921 – 1923
3 T. Rangachari February 1924 – 1926
4 Muhammad Yakub January 1927 – 1930
5 Hari Singh Gour July 1930
6 R. K. Shanmukham Chetty January 1931 – March 1933
7 Abdul Matin Chaudhury March 1933 – 1934
8 Akhil Chandra Datta February 1934 – 1945
9 Muhammad Yamin Khan February 1946 – 1947

Notable members

Dissolution

As per the Indian Independence Act 1947, the Central Legislative Assembly and the Council of States ceased to exist and the Constituent Assembly of India became the central legislature of India.

See also

References

  1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica 1974, vol. 9 Macropaedia Hu-Iv, p. 417
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-547323-0
    . The introduction of a 'two-house' parliamentary system, with a Council of State and a Central Legislative Assembly.
  3. ^ Report of the Indian Statutory Commission. p. 168.
  4. ^ V. D. Mahajan, Modern Indian History (New Delhi: Chand Publishing, 2020), p. 584
  5. ^ Rāmacandra Kshīrasāgara, Dalit Movement in India and its Leaders, 1857–1956, M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1994, p. 142
  6. ^ "-- Schwartzberg Atlas -- Digital South Asia Library".
  7. ^ Mira, H. N. (1921). The Govt Of India Act 1919 Rules Thereunder And Govt Reports 1920. N.N.Mitter Annual Register Office.
  8. ISBN 9788176482561
    .
  9. ^ "DU plans heritage tour, light and sound show at Viceregal Lodge - Indian Express".
  10. ^ John F. Riddick (2006) The History of British India: a Chronology, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 181
  11. ^ Archival Photos of Parliament House at rajyasabha.nic.in
  12. ^ Arthur, Prince, first duke of Connaught and Strathearn in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
  13. ^ John Coatman, India, the Road to Self-Government (George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1942) full text online
  14. ^ Varahagiri Venkata Giri, My Life and Times (Macmillan Co. of India, 1976), p. 97
  15. ^ "Central Legislative Assembly Etectorate (1942)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Written-Answers. 10 November 1942. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  16. ^ Jawaharlal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru: an autobiography, with musings on recent events in India (1936)
  17. ^ "Bombs Thrown into Assembly". Evening Tribune. 8 April 1930. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  18. ^ "TWO BOMBS THROWN". The Examiner (DAILY ed.). Launceston, Tasmania. 10 April 1929. p. 4. Retrieved 29 August 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ Bhagat Singh remembered – Daily Times of Pakistan
  20. ^ "Central Legislative Assembly (1935)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 4 April 1935. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  21. ^ Joan G. Roland, The Jewish Communities of India: identity in a colonial era (Transaction Publishers, 1998), p. 197
  22. ^ Subhash C. Kashyap. Parliamentary Procedure (Universal Law Publishing Co, 2006), p. 139
  23. ^ Ajita Ranjan Mukherjea, Parliamentary Procedure in India (Oxford, 1983), p. 43
  24. ^ Philip Laundy, The Office of Speaker in the Parliaments of the Commonwealth (Quiller, 1984), p. 175
  25. ^ "he entered the Central Legislative Assembly in 1921 not only as one of its members, but ;,'Is Deputy President also". Archived from the original on 6 July 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  26. ^ Subhash C. Kashyap, Dada Saheb Mavalankar, Father of Lok Sabha (Published for the Lok Sabha Secretariat by the National Publishing House, 1989), pp. 9–11)
  27. ISBN 9788183241267
    .
  28. ISBN 9788185402345
    .
  29. ^ Ambeth, அம்பேத்: Perunthalaivar M. C. Rajah -- First Leader who Organized the Scheduled Classes at the National Level in India
  30. ^ Ambeth, அம்பேத்: Thanthai N. Sivaraj -- National Level Leader Who Worked for the Scheduled Classes of India.
  31. ^ Rajya Sabha Past Members' Bio-Data http://rajyasabha.nic.in/rsnew/pre_member/1952_2003/d.pdf
  32. ^ The Hindu dated 15 February 1952, New Lieutenant-Governors[usurped] online
  33. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    (2004)
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