Government of India Act, 1935

Government of India Act, 1935 was the last major constitutional statute the British Parliament enacted for India before independence, and it remains the single most important legislative ancestor of India's present Constitution. It was a long, detailed law — 321 sections spread across 10 schedules — that proposed an All-India Federation, handed provinces full internal self-government, and reorganised how legislative power was to be shared between the Centre and the units. Large portions of its structure, and even its phrasing, were carried forward when the Constituent Assembly framed the Constitution of India.

Background: How the Act Came About

The push for the 1935 Act began with the Simon Commission, whose recommendations touched on responsible government in the provinces, a federation combining British India with the princely states, and continuation of communal electorates. To work through these proposals, the British Government convened three Round Table Conferences bringing together representatives of the British Government, British India, and the Indian princely states. The discussions from these conferences were distilled into a White Paper on Constitutional Reforms, which was then examined by a Joint Select Committee of the British Parliament. The committee's recommendations, with some modifications, were finally incorporated into the Government of India Act, 1935.

Key Features

The Act is best remembered for the following structural changes:

• All-India Federation: It provided for a federation with British Indian provinces and the princely states as constituent units, with the Centre and the units sharing legislative authority.
• Three-fold division of powers: Subjects were split into a Federal List, a Provincial List, and a Concurrent List — an arrangement that anticipated the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
• Provincial autonomy: Dyarchy (the split of provincial administration into "reserved" and "transferred" subjects) was abolished in the provinces, and elected provincial ministries were made responsible to provincial legislatures instead.
• Dyarchy shifted to the Centre: While it removed dyarchy from the provinces, the Act introduced a comparable reserved/transferred arrangement for federal subjects at the Centre — a distinction that is frequently tested against the earlier Government of India Act, 1919.
• Wider franchise: The electorate was extended to cover roughly 14 percent of the population.
• Reserved seats for women: The Act made specific provision for women's representation in the legislatures.
• Defence and Foreign Affairs: These subjects were kept under the control of the federal legislature within the federal scheme envisaged by the Act.

The Communal Award and Representation

In August 1932, the British Prime Minister announced the Communal Award, prescribing separate electorates on the basis of religion for Muslims, Sikhs, Europeans, Indian Christians, and Anglo-Indians, and extending the principle to the depressed classes (Scheduled Castes) as well. Following widespread objection, the Award was modified through the Poona Pact, under which separate electorates for the depressed classes were dropped from the scheme of representation. These modified Communal Award provisions were then written into the composition of the central and provincial legislatures under the 1935 Act. Constituent Assembly members later pointed to this communal basis of representation as a factor that had made the task of building national unity considerably harder.

Property Rights and Their Constitutional Afterlife

Section 299 of the 1935 Act governed the compulsory acquisition of property and required compensation to be paid. This section came up repeatedly in the Constituent Assembly debates, most notably in the discussion on zamindari abolition in the United Provinces, where members argued over whether the compensation formula being applied was adequate and whether courts could examine it. Members also noted that Section 299 had rarely been invoked in practice, since compulsory acquisitions had mostly proceeded under the separate Land Acquisition Act of 1894. When the Constitution was drafted, its property provisions substantially reproduced Section 299, adapted to accommodate zamindari-abolition legislation. Other 1935 Act provisions carried forward too — for instance, the section protecting the service conditions of officers appointed under the old Act was echoed in the transitional service guarantees of the Constitution, and the section governing administration of the Merged States fed into later debates on special provisions for those regions.

From the 1935 Act to the Constitution of India

Independence did not immediately displace the 1935 Act. The Indian Independence Act, 1947, which ended British paramountcy over the princely states, gave those states the option of joining India, joining Pakistan, or remaining outside both, and abolished the office of the Secretary of State for India, also provided that until new constitutions were framed, the two new dominions and their provinces would continue to be governed under the Government of India Act, 1935, subject to modifications the dominion legislatures were permitted to make. It was only with the commencement of the Constitution of India on 26 January 1950 that the Government of India Act, 1935 — along with all the enactments amending or supplementing it — was formally repealed, alongside the Indian Independence Act itself.

The extent of this continuity was debated inside the Constituent Assembly. Some members argued that the Constitution was, on the political and economic side, not a revolutionary document at all: it had accepted the general framework and much of the phraseology of the 1935 Act, kept existing laws in force except where they conflicted with the new Fundamental Rights, carried the Federal Court forward as the Supreme Court with its existing judges, and retained the Advocate General, the Auditor General, and the Public Service Commissions with essentially the same personnel. Other members went further, describing the new Constitution as built on the 1935 Act's foundation and criticising it as an overly detailed, borrowed document that concentrated excessive power at the Centre. One member summed up the relationship by calling the Constitution a "glorified edition" of the 1935 Act, with the difference that Indian citizens, not the British Crown, were now its masters. A further point of criticism concerned the discretionary powers governors had held under the 1935 Act: these had been withdrawn after August 1947, but critics complained that the new Constitution brought discretionary gubernatorial powers back.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

• The exact composition of the Federal, Provincial, and Concurrent Lists (59/54/36) is a recurring objective-question detail.
• The Act's core features — All-India Federation, provincial autonomy, dyarchy at the Centre (not in the provinces), extended franchise, women's reserved seats — are commonly tested, including as "which is NOT a feature" questions.
• The Communal Award of 1932 and its later modification by the Poona Pact are frequently linked to this Act.

Mains

• Assess how far the Constitution of India is a continuation of, rather than a break from, the administrative and legal framework of the Government of India Act, 1935.
• Examine the debate in the Constituent Assembly on the retention of colonial-era provisions such as Section 299 (property) and discretionary gubernatorial powers.
• Discuss the significance of the three-fold distribution of legislative powers introduced in 1935 for the later design of Indian federalism.

FAQ

Q1. What is the Government of India Act, 1935? It was a British statute of 321 sections and 10 schedules that proposed an All-India Federation of British Indian provinces and princely states, divided legislative powers among a Federal, Provincial, and Concurrent List, and granted the provinces autonomy.

Q2. Did the Act actually establish a working federation of India? The Act laid out the federal scheme, with Defence and Foreign Affairs placed under the control of the federal legislature, and the Centre and provinces sharing power under the three lists.

Q3. What is the difference between dyarchy under the 1919 Act and under the 1935 Act? The 1935 Act abolished dyarchy in the provinces and replaced it with full provincial autonomy, while introducing a comparable reserved/transferred arrangement at the Centre instead — the reverse of the provincial dyarchy the 1919 Act had created.

Q4. How closely is the Indian Constitution based on this Act? Constituent Assembly members themselves observed that the Constitution retained much of the 1935 Act's general framework and phraseology, continued existing laws and institutions such as the Federal Court (renamed the Supreme Court) and the Public Service Commissions, and substantially reproduced provisions such as Section 299 on property.

Q5. When was the Government of India Act, 1935 repealed? It was repealed on 26 January 1950, when the Constitution of India commenced, along with the Indian Independence Act, 1947 and the enactments that had amended or supplemented the 1935 Act.

Quick Revision

• 321 sections, 10 schedules — one of the longest pieces of legislation for India.
• Proposed an All-India Federation of provinces and princely states.
• Federal List (59) + Provincial List (54) + Concurrent List (36).
• Abolished dyarchy in provinces; introduced provincial autonomy.
• Introduced dyarchy at the Centre for federal subjects.
• Franchise extended to about 14% of the population; women given reserved seats.
• Communal Award (1932), modified by the Poona Pact for the depressed classes, shaped legislature composition under the Act.
• Section 299 (property/compensation) is the direct ancestor of the Constitution's property provisions.
• Repealed on 26 January 1950 along with the Indian Independence Act, 1947.

Sources

• Constitution of India — Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India (legislative.gov.in)
• India Code — Central Acts database, Government of India (indiacode.nic.in)
• Constituent Assembly Debates — official record, Parliament of India digital library (eparlib.nic.in / sansad.in)

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.

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