The separate representation of zamindars and landholders granted under the Morley-Minto scheme is extended and provision made for university seats. The election by accredited bodies of representatives of commerce and industry is also continued and amplified. There is to be nomination for the representation of the “depressed classes,” for in no case was it found possible to provide an electorate on any satisfactory system of franchise. Labour is to be represented by nomination where the industrial conditions seem likely to give rise to labour problems. The majority of the Committee are of opinion that dismissal from Government service should constitute a bar to candidature if it has taken place in circumstances which, in the opinion of the Governor in Council, involve moral turpitude; but Lord Southborough, Mr. S. N. Bannerjea, and Mr. Sastri dissent, considering it improper to limit the choice of the electorate by a disqualification based on the decision of an executive authority.
The size of the Provincial Legislatures will vary from 53 in Assam to 125 in Bengal. The eight Councils will comprise 796 members, made up as follows:—
Elected by general constituencies, 308.
By communities, 185.
By landholders, 35.
By universities, 8.
By commercial, industrial, and planting interests, 45.
The nominated representatives will number 47, and the officials, 128.
The “All-India” Body
For the Indian Legislative Assembly, the Committee propose 80 elected members, instead of the 68 suggested in the Joint Report. Fourteen representatives appointed by nomination and 26 officials (including seven ex-officio members) will bring up the total, exclusive of the Governor-General, to 120, as compared with 68 at present. A statement of the manifold difficulties in the way of direct election for this All-India body leads to the conclusion that there must be indirect election for all general and communal seats by the members of the Provincial Legislatures. “We trust that, in progress of time, a growing sense of political organization will enable indirect election to be superseded by some direct method.”
A scheme for the creation of the “Council of State” on the lines of the Joint Report is set forth, on the basis of election thereto by non-official members of the Provincial Councils. There would be 24 elected and 32 ex-officio or nominated members, exclusive of the Governor-General. The electors should be left free to choose any person qualified to be a member of a Provincial Legislature.
THE DIVISION OF FUNCTIONS
The first duty of Mr. Feetham’s Committee was to consider what were the services to be appropriated to the provinces, all others remaining with the Government of India. The Committee proceeded on the basis that there is to be no such statutory demarcation of powers as to leave the validity of Acts passed to be challenged in the Courts. In other words, no alteration is proposed in the system under which the All-India Legislature as regards British India, and each of the Provincial Legislatures as regards its own province, have in theory concurrent jurisdiction over the whole legislative field.
In framing the lists the Committee have treated as All-India subjects certain large general heads, such, for instance, as commerce and laws regarding property, but have taken out of these and allotted to the provinces important sections—e.g., in the case of the first Excise, and in the case of the second laws regarding land tenure. Any matter included in the provincial list is to be deemed to be excluded from any All-India subject of which otherwise it would form part. Subjects not expressly included in either list are regarded as All-India subjects, but the Governor-General in Council may add to the provincial list “matters of merely local or private interest within the province.” It is claimed that the scheme has been devised on such a basis as to leave the way open for the process of development.
The list of subjects to be transferred to Indian Ministers is on the whole more extensive than the suggested list attached to the Joint Report. With certain reservations University education is to be transferred, as well as primary, secondary, and technical, on the ground that the educational system must be regarded as an organic whole. But European and Anglo-Indian education, which is organized on a separate basis is excluded from the transfer.