INDIAN HISTORY - 1857 TO 1947

• During the War of Independence the Governor General was Lord Canning. He had assumed the charge of his office in 1856.
• Wajid Ali Shah was the Nawab of Awadh. He was sent on exile to Calcutta and his state was annexed by the British in April 1856.
• Three-fourth of the infantry and nearly two-third of the whole Bengal Army was composed of the people from Awadh.
• Maulvi Ahmadullah devised the distribution of chapatti scheme during his travels in the North-West Provinces to prepare the mind of the people for a war of freedom. It was a silent indication of association with a cause.
• Lord Dalhousie had proposed that the successors of Bahadur Shah II (Zafar) would have to vacate the Red Fort of Delhi and move to suburban town of Mehrauli.
• Besides Awadh, the Punjab, Satara, Nagpur, Jhansi, and other small states had been annexed.
• Dalhousie discontinued the pension allowed to Peshwa’s son Nana Sahib and expelled him from his ancestral palace at Poona and exiled him to Bithur near Cawnpore.
• Lord Macaulay designed the English system of education to glorify the Christian faith and to bring into contempt the religious beliefs of the young students.
• William Bentinck abolished sati.
• In 1856 the government promulgated the General Enlistment Act which required the new recruits to serve wherever ordered.
• The Brahmins were irritated on their forced participation in the wars against Burma and Afghanistan because they feared that they will lose their caste if they cross the sea and leave subcontinent.
• The dispatch of European troops to the wars in China and Persia had reduced the proportion between the British troops and the Sepoys to 1 and 3.
• About half of the available British troops were stationed in the recently subjugated Punjab. An insignificant number was stationed in Bengal, Bihar, and the Doab.
• The paucity of the European troops gave an opportunity to the disaffected Sepoys.
• A new kind of rifle, named Enfield, was introduced in the army in January 1857. Its cartridges were smeared with grease and had to be bitten at one end by the user.
• It came to be known that this grease was made of fats of cows and pigs.
• Between Jan. and March 1857 there were several plots and mutinies in Calcutta and the cantonments of Behrampur and Barackpur.
• On 26^th Jan., 5^th Feb., and again on 10^th March, the Sepoys of Calcutta and Behrampur tried to seize Fort William.
• On May 9, in Meerut, a company of Sepoys was court-martialed for refusing to use the cartridges. Each member of the company was sentenced to 10 year’s rigorous imprisonment.
• On May 10 their fellow Sepoys of three regiments in different places rose into rebellion. They opened the gates of the prison-house, killed their British officers and marched towards Delhi.
• Delhi local troops joined them and now their number rose to 5000.
• The Sepoys took possession of Delhi and proclaimed the aged Bahadur Shah Zafar as Emperor of Hindustan on May 11.
• A cabinet was installed and a constitution known as Dasturul ‘Amal was also prepared.
• Mirza Mughal, a son of  Bahadur Shah, was chosen as commander-in-chief.
• Princes Mirza Abu Bakr, Mirza Mendhu, and Mirza Khizr Sultan were appointed commanders.
• The Muslim chiefs of Awadh, Rohailkhand and Bijanor expressed loyalty with the Emperor.
• Bakht Khan of Bareilly reached Delhi with 14000 troops.
• Sikh forces from Patiala and Jhind came to assist the British troops.
• Bakht Khan defended Delhi for 4 months.
• The British artillery succeeded in making breaches in the walls and entering the city on Sept. 20.
• The Emperor took shelter in the tomb of Humayun.  
• The Bakht tried to persuade the Emperor to continue fight from the Doab or Deccan. The Emperor did not agree with him so he left Awadh and from there went to Nepal.
• Hodson arrested the Emperor and shot dead his two sons and one grandson.
• A tribunal tried the Emperor for treason and sent him to be exiled to Rangoon where he died in 1862.
• In Awadh Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah led the fight and drove the British out of Lucknow after killing Sir Henry Lawrence on July 15.
• Wajid Ali Shah’s young son, Birjis Qadr, was raised to the masnad and his mother Hazrat Mahal, became the regent.
• On 1^st March 1858 the British troops under Sir Colin Campbell entered Lucknow.
• Hazrat Mahal fought bravely but then on 16^th March left for Bundi with Birjis Qadr. From there she escaped to Nepal.
• Maulvi Ahmadullah kept fighting for 3 more days but then retreated. He set up a small principality for himself in the suburbs of Shahjahanpur with its capital at Mohammadi.
• He was there defeated by the British troops and was shot dead in June 1858.
• Nana Sahib, who lived in Bithur, led the revolt in the Cawnpore area. He was helped by Azimullah Khan and Tantia Topi, a Maratha leader.
• The rising begin in Cawnpore on 10^th June, 1857 and Nana Sahib took possession of the city. He allowed safe passage to the British troops for Allahabad by river.
• The Sepoys of Nana Sahib opened fire at the British troops when they had boarded the boats. Most of them were killed.
• Havelock came from Allahabad and defeated Nana Sahib’s forces on his way to Cawnpore.
• In revenge Nana Sahib ordered a general massacre of the English prisoners, 5 men and 206 women and children kept in building called Bibigarh.
• On July 17, Havelock entered Cawnpore. Nana Sahib left for Awadh and Tantia Topi went to Gwalior. Tantia continued his resistance but was captured on April 7, 1859 through the treachery of a Hindu Chief, Man Singh.
• From Awadh Nana Sahib fled to Nepal.
• The widowed Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmi Rai, led a force of 20,000 in Bundelkhand and massacred every European that fell into her hands.
• In June 1858 she died after receiving a wound in a fight.
• In Rohailkhand Khan Bahadur Khan, a grandson of Hafiz Rehmat Khan led the fight against the British. On his orders foreign rule was eliminated from Bareilly, Bada’un, Shahjahanpur and Muzaffarnagar.
• Nawab Majiduddin Khan gave a lead to the Sepoys in Moradabad and Bijanor where the resistance was organized by Mahmud Khan.
• Haji Imdadullah led the fight in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar.
• After capturing Lucknow in March 1858 the British sent a major portion of their troops to Rohailkhand which was recovered after a protracted warfare in June 1858.
• In Allahabad the Sepoys rose on June 1857 and were led by Maulvi Liaqat Ali. The city came under their control but the Sikh garrison defended the fort. The arrival of Neil with a force restored British authority in Allahabad.
• By the beginning of 1859 the British had regained complete supremacy over the subcontinent.
• Because of an agreement concluded by the governor general Lord Canning with Amir Dost Muhammad in 1856, the Afghans did not seize the opportunity to take revenge for the British campaign of 1939.
• As a penal measure Delhi was separated from North-Western Provinces and was joined to the Punjab.

INDIA AFTER THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE  

• The War of Independence caused elimination of the rule of East India Company in India and the British Government assumed direct responsibility for the administration of its empire in the subcontinent.
• The change was effected by the Queen’s proclamation and the government of India Act 1858.
• By a proclamation issued on 1^st November 1858, the Queen Victoria announced the transfer of the empire of the Company to the Crown.
• Lord Canning became the first Viceroy.
• A Secretary of State for India was appointed in British Cabinet to take the place of the President of the Board of Control (of East India Company). He was to be advised by a Council of 15 members.
• 8 members of the Council were to be appointed by the Crown and 7 in the first instance by the Court of Directors and later by the Council itself.
• The most difficult problem for the government after the war was that of finances. The war had increased the public debt by about £ 42 million.
• The military charges that followed augmented the annual expenditure by about £10 million.
• To help the situation a distinguished economist and parliamentary financer, James Wilson, was sent from England as finance member of the Viceroy’s Council.
• Mr. James Wilson died after a brief tenure of 9 months but during this period he reorganized the financial system, outlined necessary economies, imposed an income tax and introduced the practice of annual budgets and statements of accounts.
• His work was carried on by his successor, Samuel Laing, who introduced a uniform tariff of 10 per cent, a convertible paper currency, and a higher salt duty.
• The financial reforms initiated by Wilson and continued by Laing had brought about equilibrium in finances by 1862.
• Before the war there had been 238000 local and 45000 European troops in the Company’s army in the presidencies of Bombay, Madras, and Bengal.
• After the war the proportion of local soldiery was reduced. By 1863 the British Indian army consisted of 140,000 Indians and 65,000 Europeans.
• In 1859 the Bengal Rent Act was passed to protect the rights of zamindars. This Act applied to Bengal proper as well as the whole of north-west, except Awadh and the Punjab.
• This Act conferred property rights on all cultivators who could prove possession for ore than 12 years and forbade the raising of rents except in accordance with its own provisions.
• Macaulay’s Penal Code was drawn up in 1837 but was enforced in 1860.
• In 1861 the Indian High Court Act authorized the abolition of the Supreme and Sadr ‘Adalat Courts representing the jurisdiction of the Crown and the Company. This Act authorized creation of High Courts at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.

THE INDIAN COUNCIL ACT OF 1861  

·        This Act added a 5^th ordinary member in the Governor-General’s Executive Council in addition to the Commander-in-Chief who sat as an extraordinary member.

·        In this Act the Governor General was empowered to make rules for the transaction of business. This helped Lord Canning to introduce the portfolio system placing each member of the council in charge of a specific department.

·        Each member disposed of minor matters himself and important ones in consultation with the Governor-General.

·        The Council was chiefly concerned with issues in dispute between departments or those of general administrative importance.

·        The Act increased the number of additional members to the Governor-General’s Legislative Council (created since 1853) from 12 to 18. At least half of these members were to be non-officials.

·        The functions of the Legislative Council were strictly limited to legislation. It was expressly forbidden to transact any other business and was very much under the control of the Viceroy. Its members were not allowed to ask questions or move resolutions, not they could exercise any control over the executive.

·        The Act had also allowed inclusion of non-official members in the Provincial Legislative councils.

·        Lord Canning resigned office in 1862. He was succeeded by Lord Elgin.

·        Lord Elgin died at the hill station of Dharamsala in November 1863 after remaining in office only for 20 months.

        LORD LAWRENCE ( 1864-1869)

  ·        Sir John Lawrence assumed office as Viceroy and Governor-General in Jan. 1864.

·        Lawrence paid special attention to the policy of constructing works of public utility like railways, irrigation and roads.

·        He passed Punjab, and Awadh Tenancy Acts of 1968 giving them the same rights as were given to other areas by Bengal Rent Act 1859.

·        In 1866 Orissa famine claimed lives of one to two million people.

·        In 1868-69 another famine in Bundelkhand and Rajputana played havoc.

·        Lawrence adopted the policy of not trying to subjugate the tribes living near Frontier.

·        The Amir of Afghanistan Dost Muhammad died in 1863. During the war of succession that followed his demise Lawrence adopted a policy of strict non-interference. When Sher Ali emerged as the victor in 1868, Lawrence promptly recognized him Amir.

·        During the tenure of Lawrence there was a huge financial deficit.

LORD MAYO (1869 – 1872)

·        Lawrence retired in January 1869.

·        The British Prime Minister, Disraeli, appointed Lord Mayo as the new Viceroy and Governor-General of the Subcontinent.

·        Before this appointment Mr. Mayo was the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister for Ireland.

·        Mayo continued Afghan policy of Lawrence.

·        Amir of Afghanistan Sher Ali visited subcontinent in March 1969. He was formally recognized at the Ambala darbar.

·         Mayo, with the help of Strachey brothers, brought equilibrium in the finances by raising income tax from 1 to 2.5 and then 3 percent and by increasing salt duty and enforcing economies.

·        Mayo organized the first census of the subcontinent.

·        He created a department of agriculture and commerce and introduced the system of provincial finance.

·        Mayo was stabbed to death by a Pathan convict in Feb. 1872 during his visit to the Andaman Islands.

LORD NORTHBROOK (1872-1876)  

         ·        Northbrook took office in 1872.

·        Except for a year of famine, the subcontinent was prosperous during his tenure partly because of financial reforms of Lord Mayo and partly because of increase in overseas trade with the opening of the Suez Canal.

·        His careful measures successfully averted the famine which threatened Bengal and Bihar in 1893-74.

·        In 1875 he dethroned the Gaikwad of Baroda for misgovernment and for an attempt to poison the British Resident.

·        In 1874 the Conservative party came to power in Britain with Disraeli as PM and Salisbury as Secretary of State for India.

·        The Liberal policy of moderation was now replaced by the Conservative policy of aggression.

·        To establish British influence as the court of Kabul, Salisbury suggested, in 1875, that the Amir of Afghanistan should be asked to accept a British Resident at his court.

·        Northbrook and his entire council disapproved of the suggestion which was repeated by Salisbury as an instruction with the result that Northbrook retired in 1876.

LORD LYTTON ( 1876-1880)  

·        Lytton assumed charge in 1876.

·        There was a terrible famine in India in 1876-78 which affected most of Southern India, Madras, Bombay, Hyderabad, Mysore and parts of Central India and the Punjab and cost more than 5 million human lives in British Territory alone.

·        Lytton appointed a famine commission under the chairmanship of Sir Richard Strachey.

·        On the recommendations of this commission the Famine Code of 1883 was formulated.

·        In 1878 Lytton passed Vernacular Press Act which greatly curbed the freedom of the Vernacular Press and caused much resentment to the educated classes.

·        In 1879 he removed the customs on coarse kinds of cotton cloth to benefit the textile manufacturers of Lancashire.

·        In 1879 he established the Statutory Civil Service of nominated Indians thus fulfilling the promise of the Charter Act of 1833 and that of Royal Proclamation of 1858.

·        Since this service was regarded as inferior to the Covenanted Civil Service it failed to attract higher classes and was abolished eight years later.  

SECOND AFGHAN WAR    

·                 Lytton secured the occupation of Quetta by a treaty with the Khan of Kalat in 1876 which gave the British access top the Bolan Pass, one of the principal gateways to Afghanistan.  

·        By a confidential arrangement with the Maharaja of Kashmir Lytton established a British Agency in Gilgit.

·        In 1877 Sher Ali refused to the posting of a British officer in Afghanistan.

·        In September 1878 Lytton dispatched a mission to Kabul under Neville Chamberlain. This mission was repulsed by Afghans at Ali Masjid, a lonely post on the entrance of Khyber Pass.

·        Britain invaded Afghanistan in November 1878.

·        Britain had initial successes but soon it proved to be a failure.

·        Amir Abdur Rehman became new Afghan Amir in 1880.

·        Lytton resigned in 1880 when there was a new Liberal government in Britain.

·        Lord Ripon became new Viceroy for India.  

BEGINNINGS OF MUSLIM NATIONALISM   

• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) wrote a treatise in 1858 namely Risalah Asbab-i-Baghawat-i-Hind (The Causes of the Indian Revolt).
• Sir Syed commenced the publication of a series of pamphlets, The Loyal Mohammedans of India.
• He also wrote a commentary on Bible know as Tabyin-ul-kalam, which developed into a scholarly work on comparative religion.
• In 1868 he produced a documented pamphlet, Risalah Ahkam-i-Ta’am-i-Ahl-i-kitab.
• Sir Syed founded a school in Ghazipur in 1863 that included English as a regular subject in its curriculum.
• In 1864 he founded a Translation Society in Ghazipur which later moved to Aligarh and named as scientific society.
• The chief object of this society was to get standard English books translated into Urdu so as to make it possible for the Muslims to get acquainted with the latest developments of Western thought.
• In 1866 Sir Syed called a meeting of eminent residents of Aligarh and made a move for the establishment of an association representing all parts of the North-Western Provinces to bring to the notice of the Government the feelings of the people with regard to the laws and regulations enforced by the British administration.
• The suggestion was accepted and the British Indian Association, Aligarh was formed with Raja Jaikishandas as president and Sir Syed as secretary. It was the first joint Hindu-Muslim organization that envisaged the development of a common outlook towards Indian problems and towards the relations of the people with their rulers.
• It flourished only for a year. Its only noteworthy contribution was to submit a scheme for the establishment of a vernacular university in the North-Western Provinces.
• In 1867 some prominent Hindus of Banaras started a movement for the replacement of Urdu by Hindi written in the Deva Nagiri script as the court language. This forced Sir Syed to realize that Hindus and Muslims could not live together.
• In 1869 Sir Syed went to England and stayed there for a year and a half.
• In 1870 Sir Syed set up a committee called the Committee Striving after the Educational Progress of the Muslims.
•   The Committee proposed to establish a college at Aligarh to be known as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College. Sir Syed was nominated secretary of its managing committee.
• In May 1875 the M.A.O school was opened.
• The school was soon upgraded to college level.
• On 8^th Jan. 1877 Viceroy Lytton laid the foundation stone of the M.A.O College.
• The educational mission which Syed Ahmed Khan began in Northern India was started in Bengal by Nawab Abdul Latif who was born in 1828 in Faridpur. 
• His family traced its descent to Hazrat Khalid bin Walid.
• Nawab Latif was educated at Calcutta Madrassa. After his education he became professor of Arabic in the same institution.
• In 1849 he was appointed Deputy Magistrate by the Govt. of Bengal. For sometime he acted as the Presidency Magistrate in Calcutta.
• He was appointed Member of the newly created Bengal Legislative Council and was the first Muslim to sit in a legislative council.
• In April 1863 he founded the Muhammadan Literary Society of Calcutta.
• In 1863 he was made a fellow of the Calcutta University.
• In 1875 Dayananda Saraswati started a movement called Arya Samaj. This gave birth to a violent Hindu reaction to foreign influences. He also began the Shuddhi movement for conversion of non-Hindus, particularly Muslims of Hindu origin to Hinduism.
• In 1882 Dayananda formed a Cow Protection Society to rouse Hindu feelings against Christians and Muslims for slaughtering cows and oxen.
• A Hindu political organization known as the Indian Association came into being in Calcutta in 1876.
• The Indian Association was established by a few educated Bengali Hindus led by Babu Surendranath Benerjea.  It was forerunner of the Indian National Congress.
• The Indian Association did not attract much attention outside Bengal except when it agitated the Govt. decision in 1877 to reduce the maximum age limit for the Indian Civil Service Competitive examination from 21 to 19.
• Muslims had no role in Indian Association.
• In 1877 Syed Ameer Ali (1849 – 1928) established the Central National Muhammadan Association in Calcutta. It was the first Muslim political body organization to represent the Muslims of the subcontinent as a whole.
• In 1882 the Vernacular Press Act was repealed.
• In 1885 The Indian National Congress was founded on the initiative of A. O. Hume, a retired member of the Civil Service.
• In 1886 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan founded the Muhammadan Educational Conference.
• In December 1887 a Bombay Muslim Badruddin Tyebji presided the 3^rd session of the Indian National Congress.
• Nawab Abdul Latif retired from public life in 1887.
• In 1888 Sir Syed laid the foundation of the Indian Patriotic Association
• Bankim Chandra Catterjee started a literary movement in Bengal and identified nationalism with the Hindu religion.
• Militant Hindu Nationalism was started by B.G. Tilak.
• In 1892 Indian Council Act was passed. It enlarged the legislative councils and extended their functions. In the Imperial Council the number of additional members was fixed between 10 and 16, of whom not more than six were to be officials.
• In the legislatures of Madras and Bombay the additional members were to be not less than 8 and not more than 20. The number of members of Councils of Bengal and North-Western Provinces was to be raised to 20 and 15 respectively.
• The Act allowed the members to discuss the budget and offer suggestions for its improvement. The introduction of interpellation allowed the members to put questions to the executive about its administrative acts.
• This Act also made room for an elective element in the councils.
• Sir Syed died in1898.
• After his death Mohsin-ul-Mulk became secretary of the Aligarh college.
• In April 1900 the Lt. Governor of the North-Western Provinces Sir Anthony issued a resolution declaring that Hindi written in the Nagiri script would enjoy equal status with Urdu as the language of the law courts in the provinces and in future only such persons would be appointed, except in a purely English office, to government jobs who knew Urdu as well as Hindi.
• In August 1900 the Aligarh leaders established in Lucknow an Urdu Defense Association with Mohsin-ul-Mulk as president and Barrister Hamid Ali Khan as secretary.     
• The governor threatened that the government will discontinue the financial of Aligarh College if Mohsin-ul-Mulk continued as president of Urdu Defense Society. Keeping in view the importance of the college Mohsin-ul-Mulk gave up president ship of this society. 
• A representative Muslim meeting held in Lucknow in October 1901 decided to found a genuine All-India Muslim political association.
• Viqar-ul-Mulk was asked to establish district associations in different parts of the country which should later coalesce into a central organization.
• In 1903, Viqar-ul-Mulk established district associations in some parts of the United Provinces. But at eh beginning of the next year he want on pilgrimage to Mecca.
• His work having been stopped, the formation of the proposed organization remained deferred till the establishment of the All-India Muslim League in 1906.

THE PARTITION OF BENGAL   

• Assam had been separated from Bengal in 1874 and was placed under a Chief Commissioner.

• On 16^th October, 1905 the unwieldy province of Bengal was partitioned.
• The Dhaka, Rajshahi and Chittagong Divisions (excluding the Darjeeling district) and the District of Malda having been separated from it were united with Assam and a new province under the name of Eastern Bengal and Assam were formed.
• In this province the Muslims formed an overwhelming majority and saw a better chance of their progress. The Hindus on the other hand regarded this change as apposed to their economic and political interests and started a vehement agitation against it.
• The idea of partition of Bengal was quite an old one.
• The agitation by Hindus against the partition soon took the form of a communal movement.
• Vande Mataram (Hail Mother) was adopted by the anti-partition Hindus as their national song. This song was taken from Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel Ananda Math (The Abbey of Bliss). This novel had for its theme the Sanyasi rebellion against Muslim rule in Bengal in the 1770s and was essentially an anti-Muslim song.
• As an economic device to compel the Government to revoke the partition, the anti-partition elements started the swadeshi movement which aimed at boycotting British manufacturers and using home made goods.
• The Indian National Congress fully identified itself with the anti-partition movement.

THE SIMLA DEPUTATION

 ·        In 1905 Minto succeeded Curzon as Viceroy. Soon after he assumed office, a Liberal ministry came to power in Britain with John Morley, a radical, a Secretary of State for India.

·        Congress expected Minto to restore Bengal to its original boundaries. However due to administrative reason it was difficult for the British to undo the partition.

·        In order to appease the Congress in another way, it was inclined to consider the question of giving a more representative character to the legislative councils.

·        A clear indication in this direction came in July, 1906 when Morley announced in the House of Commons that the Governor-General was about to appoint a small committee of his Executive  Council to consider the extension of representative element in his Legislative Council and that he expected the Committee to frame recommendations in the near future.

·        Muslims had not been satisfied with the working of the Councils Act of 1892 as it had given them practically no representation on the Councils.

·        After Morley’s announcement several Muslim newspapers and leaders began emphasizing the necessity of Muslims making an organized effort to place before the rulers their own views regarding constitution of the reformed councils.

·        On the initiative of Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the Muslims decided to place their point of view before the through a representative deputation.

·        On 1^st October, 1906 a deputation consisting of 35 prominent Muslims from all parts of the Sub-continent met the Viceroy, Minto in Simla.

·        In an address read by the Aga Khan, it pointed out that the Muslims were inadequately represented on the councils, and that their representatives who were almost always nominated did not enjoy approval and confidence of the community. It demanded that the Muslim representatives on all councils-local, provincial, and Imperial- should be elected by separate Muslim electorates, and that the representation accorded to the Muslims should commensurate with their numbers as well as the value of their contribution to the defense of the empire.  

THE ALL-INDIA MUSLIM LEAGUE  

• In September, 1906, when Muslim leaders met in Lucknow to decide the composition of the Simla deputation it was also decided that an All-India Muslim political organization should be established at the next annual meeting of the Muhammadan Educational Conference.
• The matter was again discussed at Simla in October, 1906 by the members of the Simla Deputation who decided that the nature and the aims and objects of the proposed organization should be finally determined at a representative meeting at Dacca to be held after the conclusion of the annual session of the Muhammadan Educational Conference in the last week of December, 1906.
• Nawab Salimullah suggested the name “All-India Muslim Confederacy” in the middle of December, 1906.
• A meeting of the delegates to the Educational Conference and of other prominent Muslims was held at Dacca on December 30, 1906 presided by Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk.
• A resolution proposed by Nawab Salimullah Khan, seconded by Hakim Ajmal Khan and supported by a number of leading Muslims including Mohammad Ali Johar and Zafar Ali Khan, was unanimously passed and All-India Muslim League was formed.
• A provisional committee consisting of leading Muslims representing all provinces was appointed with Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Viqar-ul-Mulk as joint secretaries to frame a constitution for the Muslim League and place it before a representative meeting of Muslims to be convened at a suitable time and place.
• At the first session of the League, held in Karachi in December 1907, some new members were added to the committee and it was here that the task of framing the constitution of the League was completed.
• This constitution was given a final approval at a special session of the Muslim League in Aligarh in the middle of March, 1908. This session also elected Aga Khan as president and Sayyid Hasan Bilgrami as secretary of the League.    
• In 1908 a branch of Muslim League was also established in London with Syed Ameer Ali as president and Syed Ibn Hasan as Secretary.  
• At this stage of time the British Government was considering to increase the local representation in legislative councils but the Secretary of State was not in favor of separate Muslim electorates. 
• The Muslim League at its second annual session held at Amritsar in December, 1908 passed emphatic resolutions demanding that Muslim seats in the Councils should be filled only by Muslim electorates.
• In January 1909 a deputation headed by Syed Ameer Ali met the Secretary of State and told him that the proposed mixed electoral colleges would prove highly detrimental to Muslim interests.

MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS  

• These reforms materialized in the form of the Indian Councils Act of 1909. It represented a notable improvement on the Councils Act of 1892.
• This Act introduced for the first time the principle of election side by side with that of nomination.
• The number of the members the councils was also increased.
• The additional members of the imperial Legislative Council were increased from 16 to a maximum of 60, those of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay to a maximum of 50. The same number was assigned to the United Provinces and Eastern Bengal and Assam. The Punjab was to have 30 members.
• An official majority was retained in the Imperial Legislative Council but small non-official majorities were given to the Provinces with a considerable number of non-elected members.
• Morley had, in 1907, nominated two Indians to the India Council. After the passage of this Act an Indian member was also appointed to the Viceroy’s Executive Council.
• The scope of discussion in the new councils was considerably enlarged.
• Members were allowed to discuss budget item by item. They could also ask questions and move resolutions on matters of public interest.
•  The Act did not, however, empower the councils to control the government.
• The member-in-charge had the option not to answer questions and they could also be disallowed by the President.
• Similarly, resolutions passed by the councils could be ignored by the government as they had no binding force.
• A very important feature of the Minto-Morley Reforms was the introduction of separate electorates for the Muslims. Some seats were reserved in each council, excepting that of the Punjab to be filled exclusively by Muslim voters. 

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