Lord Lytton was a nominee of the Conservative Government of Benjamin Disraeli and was appointed with a special eye to the Central Asian developments. Lytton was a diplomat by profession and had served the British Foreign Office in many capacities. He was a reputed poet, a novelist and an essayist and known in the literary world as 'Owen Meredith'. Till 1876 Lytton had no experience of administration nor any acquaintance with Indian affairs.
1. Lytton and Free Trade
Free
trade had become a passion with the ruling circles of England, more so because
it suited the interests of an industrially advanced country that England was at
that time. The Lancashire cotton manufacturers were jealous of the new cotton
mills that were springing up at Bombay and wanted to prevent India from
developing competitive industries; they attacked the import duties on cotton
goods levied in India. Lytton abolished import duties on twenty nine articles
including sugar, sheetings, drill and some other varieties of cloth. Lord
Salisbury, the Secretary of State, approved of the Viceroy's action although
the India Council was equally divided, seven voting for and seven against. Thus
the claims of Indian administration were subordinated to the necessities of
English politics.
2. Financial Reforms
The
Provincial governments were given the control of the expenditure upon all
ordinary provincial services including land revenue, excise, stamps, law and
justice, general administration etc. For the discharge of the newly transferred
services, the provincial governments were not given any increase in their fixed
grants, but handed over some specified sources of revenue (e.g., law and
justice, excise, licence fee) from their respective provinces. It was also
provided that any surplus above the estimated income was to be shared equally
with the Central Government, the latter on its part undertaking to meet half of
any deficit.
Sir
John Strachey, the Finance Member of the Viceroy's Council, also took steps to
equalize the rates of salt duties in the British provinces. He also negotiated
with the Indian princes for surrender of their rights of manufacture of salt in
return for compensation. Thus inter-state smuggling of salt came to an end and
the salt duties began to yield more revenue to the government.
3. The Famine of 1876-78
A
severe famine ravaged India during 1876-78. The areas worst affected were
Madras, Bombay, Mysore, Hyderabad and some parts of Central India and the
Panjab. The famine-affected area was estimated at 257,000 square miles, with a
population of more than 58 millions. Romesh Dutt has estimated that five
million people perished in a single year'. In 1878 a Famine Commission was
appointed under the presidency of Richard Strachey to enquire into the whole
question of famines and grant of famine relief. Further, it urged for the
creation of a Famine Fund in every province. As a part of the preventive
programme, the Commission recommended the construction of railway and
irrigation works. Thus were laid down the principles on which the Government of
India based its subsequent famine policy.
4. The Royal Titles Act, 1876
The
British Parliament passed the Royal Titles Act, investing Queen Victoria with
the title of Kaiser-i-Hind or Queen Empress of India. However, a grand darbar
was held at Delhi on 1 January 1877 to announce to the people and princes of
India the assumption of the title. Unfortunately, the darbar was held at a time
when several parts of the country were in the grip of a severe famine.
"The Royal Titles Act and the Delhi Darbar", writes R.G. Pradhan,
"drove an under-current of national humiliation among the people of
India". A Calcutta journal adversely commented that Nero was fiddling
while Rome was burning. He raised the cry of ‘India for Indians' and claimed
his country as his own.
5. The Vernacular Press Act, March 1878
The
unpopular policies of Lytton and the Government's apathy towards the suffering
of the people drove discontent among the masses. In the Bombay Presidency,
records William Wedderburn, agrarian riots were followed by gang robberies and
attacks on moneylenders. The simmering discontent came to the surface and the
government policy began to be openly criticised in the vernacular press.
Alarmed at the rapid growth of seditious writings, Lytton decided on a
repressive policy. In March 1878 the Vernacular Press Act was put on the
statute books. Act IX of 1878, an Act for the Better Control of Publications in
Oriental Languages, empowered a magistrate to call upon the printer and
publisher of any vernacular newspaper.
Sir
Erskine Perry, a member of the India Council, described the bill as "a
retrograde and ill- conceived measure, injurious to the future progress of
India". S.N. Banerjee described the act as 'a bolt from the blue'. The
worst feature of the Act was the discrimination between 'the disloyal native
press' and 'the loyal Anglo-Indian press'.
6. The Arms Act, 1878.
Another
repressive measure of Lytton's administration was the Indian Arms Act. Act XI
of 1878 made it a criminal offence to keep, bear or traffic in arms without
licence. The panalties for contravention of the Act were imprisonment for a
term which may extend to three years or with fine or with both and in case of
concealment or attempt at concealment to a term which may extend to seven years
or with fine or both. The worst feature of the act, however, was the racial
discrimination it introduced. Europeans, Anglo-Indians and some categories of
government officials were exempted from the operation of this Act.
7. The Statutory Civil Service
The
Charter Act of 1833 had declared all offices in India open to merit
irrespective of nationality or colour. The Charter Act of 1853 had provided for
the holding of a competitive examination in London for recruitment to higher
services under the Company. In 1864 Satyendra Nath Tagore was the first Indian
to qualify for the covenanted service. Lytton proposed the plan of the
Statutory Civil Service in 1878-79. According to the rules of 1879, the
Government of India could employ some Indians of 'good family and social
standing to the Statutory Civil Service on the recommendation of the provincial
governments and subject to the confirmation of the Secretary of State, provided
the number of such appointments did not exceed one-sixth of the total
appointments made to the Covenanted Service in a year. The Statutory Civil
Service was not to have the same status and salary as the Covenanted Service.
The Statutory Service, however, did not prove popular with Indian public and
had to be abolished eight years later. However, steps were taken calculated to
discourage Indians from competing for the said examination by lowering the
maximum age from 21 to 19 years. Since the examination was held only in London,
young Indians had to face insurmountable difficulties.
Estimate
Lytton
undoubtedly was a man of ideas. Lytton's unpopular and repressive policy drove
discontent among the masses. The unrest became widespread and was becoming
dangerous. Lytton's reactionary policy was greatly responsible for the
beginning of counteraction of the part of the Indians. His repressive policy
stirred the Indian community into life. Taken in this light, Lytton proved to
be a benefactor of India, without intending it to be.
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