द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

22 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
tation of Mohammedan leaders led by the Aga Khan waited
on the Viceroy on October 1st, 1906. In connection with the
impending reforms they demanded that the Mohammedan
community should have a certain number of seats reserved
for them and that these seats should be voted for, not by the
general body of Indian voters, but only by Mohammedan
voters. This demand by the Mohammedan leaders of what
is known in India as 'separate electorate' was granted in the
Indian Councils Act of 1909. This Act provided for enlarged
legislative councils both in the provinces as well as at the
centre. Additional powers were given to the members in the
matter of putting supplementary questions, moving resolu-
tions, discussing the budget, etc. The method of election was
however indirect and the Act was therefore regarded by many
Indians¹ as a retrograde measure in some respects, as compared
with the Indian Councils Act of 1892. The constituencies
were very small, the largest of them having only 650 voters.
After the introduction of the Morley-Minto Reforms, an
Indian was for the first time appointed as member of the
Viceroy's Executive Council and Sir (later Lord) S. P. Sinha
was the first recipient of this honour. This was followed by
the visit to India of King George V who was crowned at
Delhi as Emperor—following the ancient Indian precedent.
It was the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, who was largely respon-
sible for this arrangement, as also for the transfer of the Capital
of India from Calcutta to Delhi. Lord Hardinge had a
wonderful historic sense and he thought that by these
measures British rule would be more firmly installed in India.
Others, like Lord Curzon, the former Viceroy, were opposed
to these innovations and they felt on the contrary that Delhi
had been the grave of many empires. However, the visit of
the King-Emperor in December 1911, and the annulment of
the partition helped to assuage public feelings and anti-
Government agitation subsided to a large extent. Within the
Indian National Congress a split had occurred in 1907 leading
to the expulsion of the 'Nationalists' (or 'Extremists') from
that body. Moreover, many of the leaders of the Congress
¹ This seems to be the view expressed by Sir Surendranath Bannerji
in his book A Nation in Making, pp. 123-25.