Study Guide · Chapter 4
Key Economic and Administrative Legislation
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- Factory Acts (1881, 1891, 1911, 1922, 1934): A series of laws progressively regulating child labour, working hours, and safety conditions in Indian factories, generally lagging behind British domestic standards and often prompted more by British manufacturers' competitive concerns (about cheaper unregulated Indian labour) than purely humanitarian motives.
- Indian Councils Act series (1861, 1892, 1909): See Section 1 above.
- Vernacular Press Act, 1878: Passed by Lord Lytton, imposed strict censorship on Indian-language newspapers (not English-language ones) — widely resented as discriminatory; repealed by Lord Ripon in 1882.
- Arms Act, 1878: Restricted Indians' right to possess firearms, again seen as racially discriminatory since it did not equally restrict the European population.
- Ilbert Bill, 1883/84: Proposed by Lord Ripon's law member Sir Courtenay Ilbert to allow Indian judges to try European defendants in criminal cases; provoked fierce opposition from the European community in India (the "White Mutiny"), leading to a substantially watered-down final version — a controversy that significantly spurred Indian political consciousness ahead of the INC's founding.
- Rowlatt Act, 1919: Formally the "Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act," allowed for detention without trial and trial without jury for certain political offences; provoked the Rowlatt Satyagraha and the chain of events leading to the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
- Government of India Act 1935: See Section 1 above — includes major economic/administrative provisions (Federal Court, RBI-linked reforms, provincial autonomy).
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