Study Guide · Chapter 5
Acts That Shaped the Office
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A quick-reference layer beneath the officeholder list — many "who did what" questions are really "which Act did what" questions in disguise.
| Act | Year | What It Actually Did |
|---|---|---|
| Regulating Act | 1773 | First British parliamentary intervention in Company rule; created the post of Governor-General of Bengal (with a five-member Council, including the Governor-General, that could outvote him) and a Supreme Court at Calcutta; subordinated Bombay and Madras Presidencies to Calcutta in a loose way. |
| Pitt's India Act | 1784 | Established a Board of Control in London (answerable to the British Parliament) alongside the Company's Court of Directors — a "double government" of Crown oversight plus Company administration; also reduced the Governor-General's Council to three and gave him a casting vote. |
| Charter Act | 1813 | Ended the Company's trade monopoly with India (except tea and China trade); asserted Crown sovereignty over Company territories; earmarked a small sum for Indian education for the first time. |
| Charter Act | 1833 | Created the single post of "Governor-General of India" (from "of Bengal"), giving him legislative authority over the whole of British India; ended the Company's remaining commercial functions entirely, leaving it a pure administrative agency; added a Law Member to the Council. |
| Charter Act | 1853 | Introduced a form of open competitive examination for the Indian Civil Service; separated, for the first time, the Legislative and Executive functions of the Governor-General's Council by adding legislative councillors — an early ancestor of the Imperial Legislative Council. |
| Government of India Act | 1858 | Passed in the immediate aftermath of the 1857 Revolt; abolished the East India Company altogether and transferred all its powers to the British Crown; created the post of Secretary of State for India (a Cabinet minister in London) with an advisory Council of India; the Governor-General additionally became Viceroy, the Crown's personal representative. |
| Indian Councils Act | 1861 | Restored limited legislative powers to Bombay and Madras; introduced a separate Legislative Council with a few nominated non-official Indian members for the first time. |
| Indian Councils Act | 1892 | Enlarged the Legislative Councils and introduced indirect, limited election of some non-official members — a cautious first move toward representation. |
| Indian Councils Act (Morley-Minto Reforms) | 1909 | Further enlarged the Legislative Councils; introduced separate electorates for Muslims, a decision with long, controversial consequences for the later communal politics that fed into Partition. |
| Government of India Act (Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) | 1919 | Introduced dyarchy in the provinces (subjects split into "transferred," run by Indian ministers responsible to the legislature, and "reserved," kept with the British-appointed executive); created a bicameral central legislature. |
| Government of India Act | 1935 | The longest and most detailed Act of the colonial period; proposed an All-India Federation of British provinces and princely states (never actually implemented, as not enough princely states acceded); replaced dyarchy in the provinces with full provincial autonomy under elected ministries responsible to provincial legislatures — the immediate constitutional backdrop to the 1937 provincial elections. |
| Indian Independence Act | 1947 | Ended British paramountcy over the princely states; partitioned British India into two new dominions, India and Pakistan, effective 15 August 1947; each dominion retained a Governor-General as constitutional head of state (no longer "Viceroy," since paramountcy itself had lapsed) pending the framing of its own constitution. |
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