Table of Contents
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
India is a representative government in which the government is accountable to the legislature. Colonial rulers were employed and invented to administer Indian affairs, and in Indian governance and constitution some residue of the British administration can be seen. Some of the acts that were important for present constitution are:
REGULATING ACT OF 1773
The Regulating Act of 1773 was an Act of the parliament of Great Britain designed to revise the leadership of the rule of the east India company in India.
PITT’S INDIA ACT OF 1784
The East India Company Act, also known as the Pitt’s India Act, was an act of parliament of Great Britain designed to resolve the deficiencies of the 1773 Regulatory Act by putting the law of the East India Company in India under the British Government’s jurisdiction. Since there were several flaws in the governing legislation, it was appropriate to pass another Act to delete these defects.
CHARTER ACT OF 1813
The East India Company Act 1813 was an act of the parliament of the United Kingdom, also known as the Charter Act 1813, which renewed the charter given to the British east India company and continued the law of the company in India. However, except for the tea and opium trade and trade with china, the economic monopoly of the company was terminated, indicating the rise of British influence in India.
CHARTER ACT OF 1833
This act also meant to allow for an expansion to the royal charter given to the company. This act extended the charter by 20 years. It included the following provision: the governor general of Bengal was re- designated as the governor general of India.in the last year of 1833, under this clause, Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor general of India. The cabinet of the governor general s the ‘Government of India’ and the India Assembly’ as his council.
For the entire British India, the Governor-General and his executive council were granted exclusive legislative authority. The functions of the British East India Corporation as a trading entity were abolished and it became a solely administrative body. The corporation has broken its monopoly on trading with China and other areas of the Far East.
CHARTER ACTS OF 1853
The last charter act passed by the East India Corporation was the 1853 Charter Act.
It was passes after the Charter act of 1833 expired. The charter was renewed, but there were no major improvements. However, this was the first time when, unlike other charter acts, the charter act did not place any limitations on the continuity of the company’s administration in India.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT OF 1858
An act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 2nd August 1958 was the Government of India Act 1858. Its terms provided for the British East India Company to be liquidated and its duties passed to the British Crown. A bill for the transition of power of the Government of India from the East India Company to the crown was proposed by Lord Palmerston, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, pointing to the significant flaws in the current structure of the Government of India
INDIAN COUNCILS ACT 1861
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan urged the British Government to take Indian nationals into India’s administration after the War of Independence. In his The Causes of the Indian Rebellion pamphlet, he argued that the British’s refusal to accept Indians intro the Legislative Council prohibited them from getting any voice in government decisions that directly influenced them and was the key reasons behind the revolt. “The Indian Councils Act 1861was an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament that converted the executive council of India to serve as a portfolio structure cabinet run”. This cabinet has six “ordinary members” who each took over a different department in the government of Calcutta: home, wealth, military, law, finance, and (after 1874) Public works.
INDIAN COUNCILS ACT 1892
The 1892 Indian Councils Act was an Act of the British Parliament that incorporated various changes to the structure and operation of British India’s legislative councils, In fact, the act included provisions relating to the number of new members to be included in the National and Regional Councils.
INDIAN COUNCILS ACT 1909
Another term for the Indian Councils Act of 1909, named after the Secretary of State and the Viceroy, was the Morlet-Minto Reform. To placate the moderates, it was instituted. The membership of the national and regional legislative bodies has been extended according to this act. In these councils, though, the number of elected members was less than half of their overall membership.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT OF 1919
An act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom was the Government of India Act 1919. It was passed to increase Indian involvement in India’s government. In the report of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, and the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, the act reflected the amendments suggested.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT OF 1935
The Government of India Act, 1935, extracted substance from four primary sources, namely. The Simon Commission Report, the Third Round Table Conference meetings, the 1933 White Paper and the findings of the Joint Select Committees.
This act places an end to the structure of diarchy developed by the 1919 Government of India Act and provided for the formation of a Federation of India consisting of Provinces of British India and any or all or the Princely States.
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE ACT OF 1947
The Indian Independence Act of 1947 is an Act of the UK parliament separating British India into the two new autonomous dominions of India and Pakistan. On 18 July 1947, the Act Obtained Royal Assent and thus India and Pakistan, comprising the regions of West (modern day Pakistan) and East (modern day Bangladesh), came into being on 15 August 1947.
Author: Yashi Sharma,
Bennett University