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The Many-Layered Cake: A Case Study in the Reform of the Indian Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Richard Danzig
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Extract

Whereas reformers (occasionally with intent to mislead, often because they are themselves misled) tend to describe their work as if it were a concerted, directed whole worked out with a minimal difference of attitude and opinion, historians often gravitate to the glaring points of conflict in studying the development of a reform act. From these it is easy and interesting to paint a colourful picture. One might (rather inaccurately) describe the evolution of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms as the product of a process of conflict between the ambitious, radical, eccentric, ego-centric, Jewish, Secretary of State for India, Montagu and the Edwardian, unambitious, conscientious, self-effacing Viceroy, Chelmsford. Similarly, there is some temptation to view the growth of these reforms as the outcome of a battle between the forces of light (Montagu and Chelmsford) and the forces of darkness (the provincial governors).

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , January 1969 , pp. 57 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

1 Serious research on the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms can be said to have begun only within the past three years after revision of the British secrecy law opened the relevant cabinet and India Office records, the correspondence of Montagu and Chelmsford, and related India Office collections (e.g. the papers of Harcourt Butler and Lord Willingdon). In addition it has only recently become possible to make use of the George Lloyd and Bonar Law papers with the opening of the Beaverbrook Library. This year, for the first time, the archives of The Times have been opened to scholars. They shed some light on the activities of the newspaper, its editor, Geoffrey Dawson, and its influential correspondent, Sir Valentine Chirol. In preparing an Oxford D. Phil. thesis on the evolution of these reforms, the author of this article has also been able to make use of a number of sets of papers in private hands.Google Scholar

2 Chelmsford Collection, India Office Library, MSS.Eur. E264, Vol. 10, no. 27, Montagu to Chelmsford, 9 January 1919.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Harcourt Butler Collection, India Office Library, MSS. Eur. F116, Folder 41, Harcourt Butler to Sir Geoffrey Butler, 1 June 1921, commenting on these members.Google Scholar

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11 Paragraph II of the Montagu-Chelmsford Report quotes the message of Hope: ‘The only possible solution of the difficulty would appear to be gradually to grant the provinces a larger measure of self-government, until at last India would consist of administrations autonomous in provincial affairs, with the Government of India ordinarily restricting their functions to matters of Imperial concern.’

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45 Montagu Collection, Vol. 3, Montagu to Chelmsford, I May 1919. This suggestion followed along lines recommended by the Crewe Committee.Google Scholar

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52 Montagu Papers, Trinity College, Cambridge, Cab. Folio 1916/ 17, Holderness Memorandum on Viceroy's Formula 31 July 1916, cites Chelmsford's letter. The phrase ‘subject to the maintenance of the supremacy of British rule’ was, however, removed in the India Office redrafting of Chelmsford's ‘formula’, and Chelmsford, with a strong sense of duty, a commitment to the belief that policy should be made in England, and an increasingly desperate desire for an announcement, accepted the change.Google Scholar

53 Chamberlain Papers, AC 15/5/5, Montagu Memorandum to Cabinet urging announcement. 8/17.

54 It should be noted that publicly Montagu took a rather more conservative view, bringing him closer to Curzon than the above quotation would suggest. In his 1912 speech at the Cambridge Liberal Club, for example, he subscribed exactly to the words of the Government of India Delhi Despatch of 1911:‘… a number of administrations, autonomous in all provincial affairs, with the Government of India above them all, and possessing power to interfere in case of misgovernment, but ordinarily restricting its functions to matters of Imperial concern’. (28 February 1912). In the cabinet memorandum cited, he was also rather conservative: ‘… there may be in India… some day or another, some states enjoying responsible government… some provinces will eventually become self-governing while others may never become self-governing’. Chamberlain Papers, AC 15/5/5, Montagu Memorandum to Cabinet urging announcement, 8/17.Google Scholar

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61 Lothian Collection, GD 40/17/33, Kerr to Curtis, 2 October 1917.Google Scholar

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65 Ibid., pp. 398–9.

66 Report, op. cit., para. 120.Google Scholar