1920 Indian general election

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1920 Indian general election
British Raj Red Ensign.svg
1920 1923  

104 seats contested
53 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond party
  Hari Singh Gour.jpg William Vincent.jpg
Leader Hari Singh Gour W. H. H. Vincent
Party DP Independent
Seats won4847

General elections were held in British India in 1920 to elect members to the Imperial Legislative Council and the Provincial Councils. They were the first elections in the country's modern history. [1] [2]

Contents

The new Central Legislative Assembly which was the lower chamber of the Imperial Legislative Council was based in Delhi had 104 elected seats, of which 66 were contested and thirty eight were reserved for Europeans elected through the Chambers of Commerce. [1] For the upper chamber, the Council of State, 24 of the 34 seats were contested, whilst five were reserved for Muslims, three for Europeans, one for Sikhs and one for the United Provinces. [1] The Parliament was opened by the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn on 9 February 1921. [3]

Alongside the national elections there were also elections to 637 seats in Provincial Assemblies. Of these, 440 were contested, 188 had a single candidate elected unopposed. Despite the calls by Mahatma Gandhi for a boycott of the elections, only six had no candidate. [1] Within the Provincial Assemblies 38 were reserved for European voters. [1]

Electoral system

Single transferable vote (STV) was used on experimental basis to elect three members of the Legislative Assembly of India for the European constituency of Bengal and to elect four members of the Council of State of India from the non-Muslim constituency of Madras. STV was also used to elect four members of the Legislative Council of Bengal for the European constituency of Bengal. [4]

Results

Central Legislative Assembly

PartySeats
Democratic Party 48
Other parties and independents47
Europeans9
Total104
Source: Schwartzberg Atlas [5]

Members of Central Legislative Assembly

[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Officials

Government of India

MemberOffice
William Henry Hoare Vincent Home Member
Sir Malcolm Hailey Finance Member
Basil Phillott Blackett Finance Member
C. A. Innes Commerce and Industries Member
Tej Bahadur Sapru Law Member
B. N. Sarma Revenue and Agriculture Member
Denys Bray Foreign Secretary
Sir Sidney Crookshank PWD Secretary
Ernest BurdonArmy Secretary
Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler Education Secretary
G. R. ClarkeDirector General Posts and Telegraph
Atul Chandra Chatterjee Industries Secretary
G. G. SimJt. Finance Secretary
John HullahRevenue and Agriculture Secretary
A. V. V. AiyerFinance Department
M. H. H. Hutchinson
Colonel W. D. Waghorn
Abdul Rahim Khan
Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt
Thomas Henry Holland
R. W. Davies
P. E. Percival
H. P. Tollinton
F. S. A Slocock
W. C. Renouf

Nominated from Provinces

MemberProvince
B. C. Allen Assam
Khabeeruddin Ahmed Bengal
Khagendra Nath Mitter Bengal
J. K. N. Kabraji Bombay
Walter Frank Hudson Bombay
William John Keith Burma
J. F. Bryant Madras
T. E. Moir Madras
Theodore Alban Henry Way United Provinces
Rustomji Faridoonji Central Provinces

Nominated Non-Officials

Elected Non-Officials

Members of the Council of State

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "New Indian Councils: Failure Of Boycott Movement", The Times, 8 January 1921, p9, Issue 42613
  2. Roy, Chakshu (31 March 2024). "History Headline - 1920: The start of India's election journey". The Indian Express .
  3. "New Era For India: Delhi Parliament Opened, King's Messages", The Times, 10 February 1921, p10, Issue 42641
  4. Hoag and Hallett. Proportional Representation (1926). p. 258.
  5. Schwartzberg Atlas
  6. East India. 1922. p. 11. OL   22879068M.
  7. India's Parliament Selections from the proceedings of the second session of the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State. Director, Central Bureau of Information, Gov't of India. 1921. OL   24188384M.
  8. The Legislative Assembly Debates. 1922.
  9. "Pioneer Mail". 10 December 1920.
  10. The Indian Year Book. Bennett, Coleman & Company. 1922.
  11. Md. Rashiduzzaman, (1964) The central legislature in British India: 1921 to 1947, Durham theses, https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8122/
  12. Miss Dottie Karan and others v Rai Bahadur Lachmi Prasad Sinha and others (Patna) [1930] UKPC 102 (16 December 1930)