The British reforms to change India failed because the British would sometimes use force to maintain control, which the Indians did not tolerate, and there was a lack of support for the reforms from Congress as well as the Muslim league and the general In

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Question 3

Why did all the attempts to reform the government of India fail?

        The British reforms to change India failed because the British would sometimes use force to maintain control, which the Indians did not tolerate, and there was a lack of support for the reforms from Congress as well as the Muslim league and the general Indian population.

        The main reason the British reforms did not work was because of lack of support given to them. Congress was very strict on who they would and would not support. They would not support the British as their main objective was to gain total independence and the British had no intention of leaving as they thought of India as ‘the jewel in the crown,’ meaning that they believe that Indian was a necessity in their empire as it had a good economy so it was a good country to trade with and it also had a large amount of man power which was demonstrated in World Wars 1 and 2.

        The British tried to change these ideas of Congress and the Muslim league by introducing the British Reforms of India. The main reforms took place in between 1909 and 1947. Between these times the British tried many new and different tactics in trying to control India.  

        

        The British control of India started in 1858 after the British government took control of India from the East India Company. India offered a lot of wealth and adventure for the British and so the British government was very pleased to have control over it.

        

        The Indian people were at first glad to be in the British Empire as many Indians supported the British and were very peaceful race. However, there was one problem in the amount of control Britain had in India. The first problem was that there were over 300 million Indians in India and there were only 70,000 British in India. This was a problem as there were too little British to control the Indians.  

        The first British reforms came after the division of Bengal incident in 1909. The division of Bengal was called up after two groups fought over territory in Bengal. The British wishing to stop the violence decided to divide Bengal. This led to more violence and soon the British were forced to reunite Bengal. At the same time a newly formed Congress was putting more and more pressure on to the British government to give Indians more chance in representing their country on the Imperial Legislative Council. The growing demands by Congress persuaded the British government to introduce more Indian representatives onto the Imperial Legislative Council. These reforms were known as the Morley-Minto Reforms and were put into action in 1909.

        

        The Morley-Minto reforms stated under the Indian Councils Act that there should be at 60 Indian representatives on the Imperial Legislative Council. Of these 60 at least 27 were to be elected by the Indian public. This was a major breakthrough as no Indians had sat on the Imperial Legislative Council before. Also for the first time, there were elections for seats on the provincial legislative Councils, which gave Indians a much greater voice in provincial governments.

        After the Morley-Minto reforms were introduced, the people of India were pleased with the British Government and became loyal and peaceful once more. This was shown at the Delhi Durbar which was held after the coronation of King George V in 1911. During the Durbar the Indian Princes expressed their loyalty to the British and her King. The King took this moment to reunite the two parts of Bengal and rename Delhi as the capital, as it was closer to the India’s historic centre.

        All seemed well on the surface of India and the British felt that they had nothing else to do however, the Indians did not all feel fine about the Morley-Minto Reforms as it did not give the Indians enough influence in the way India was run. Also out of India’s 300 million population only 2% could vote. This was not very fair as this 2% consisted of the wealthiest in India and did not allow India’s poorer peasants to have a say. Also the Morley-Minto Reforms tended to separate the two main religious groups, Hindus and Muslims. The British seemed to treat them as two different communities and this lead to the idea that two religious groups should be treated as two different political parties. This was known as communalism and it would be hard to make both groups agree on issues later on in the future.      

        In 1914 the First World War began. During this time many Indians still stayed loyal to the British and many volunteered into the British Army. Almost 1.25 million Indians volunteered to fight and were sent to the Middle East and The Western Front.

           During the First World War, India went through an economic boom. More and more Indian cotton was being sold to be used for war uniforms in western countries. These bright years lead the Indians to believe that the British government might reward them for their loyalty. Many Indians hoped that they would be granted home rule. Mohandas Gandhi was urging the Indian public to back the war effort against the Germans as it would make the British see that Indians were very loyal to the British Crown and could be trusted with Home Rule.

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        Indian hopes were raised even more when the Secretary of State, Sir Edwin Montagu, made the Montague Declaration. This stated that home rule was not far away and that the British accepted Home Rule in India. Indians dreams of Home Rule were increased furthermore when Sir Edwin Montague and Viceroy Lord Chelmsford toured India listening to local views on the British Government and other political matters.    

 

        But in 1915 the British put forward the Defence of India Act, which made it possible for an Indian to be arrested for no charge. This was only to be ...

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