[p. 462] For several years during World War I, while many Indians were professing loyalty to the Raj and many thousands of Indian troops were fighting in Europe to defend the empire, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League had been discussing [p. 463] an agreement about a plan of constitutional advance. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a member of both organizations, took a leading role in this rapprochement. The scheme that was agreed to in 1916 provided for separate electorates for Muslims in the elections both for the provincial legislative councils and, indirectly, for the imperial legislative council. The Muslims were also to have one-third of the seats in the imperial council. It laid out percentages of reserved seats for them in the provincial councils, giving them less than their percentage of the population in some areas, more in others. The Punjab and Bengal were most at issue, and the agreement called for 50 percent of the seats in the Punjab Council and 40 percent in Bengal. This latter provision angered Bengali Muslim leaders in subsequent years, since Muslims were about 54 percent of the population. They believed they were shortchanged.
Other provisions of the pact called for political advances for Indians in ruling their own country. These were to be achieved by a much wider franchise (details unspecified); by giving Indians a greater role in provincial councils working with the governors of the provinces and in the governor-general's council; and by limiting the role of nominated members and the Indian Civil Service. It also called for the abolition of the advisory council to the secretary of state for India in London, which Indians believed was populated by retired and reactionary civil servants.
Although the Congress–League pact had no visible or practical effect upon the British, it marked the beginning of about a decade in which there was considerable cooperation between Hindus and Muslims in the Congress and League. There were ups and downs, until the rejection of the Nehru Report recommendations in 1928 by Jinnah. The scheme also encouraged the British to formulate and implement their own reform program, known as the Government of India Act of 1919 or the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.
1. Provincial Legislative Councils shall consist of 4/5 elected and of 1/5 nominated members.
2. Their strength shall be not less than 125 members in the major provinces, and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.
3. The members of Councils should be elected ... on as broad a franchise as possible.
4. Adequate provision should be made for the representation of important minorities by election, and the Mahomedans should be represented through special electorates on the Provincial Legislative Councils in the following proportions:
Punjab—One-half of the elected Indian Members
United Provinces—30 p.c. " "
Bengal—40 p.c. " "
Bihar—25 p.c. " "
Central Provinces—15 p.c. " "
Madras—15 p.c " "
Bombay—One-third " "
[p. 464] ... No Mahomedan shall participate in any of the other elections to the Imperial or Provincial Legislative Councils, save and except those by electorates representing special interests.
Provided further that no Bill, nor any clause thereof, nor a resolution introduced by a non-official member affecting one or the other community, which question is to be determined by the members of that community in the Legislative Council concerned, shall be proceeded with, if three-fourths of the members of that community in the particular Council, Imperial or provincial, oppose the Bill or any clause thereof, or the resolution....
7. (a) Except customs, post, telegraph, mint, salt, opium, railways, army and navy, and tributes from Indian States, all other sources of revenue should be provincial.
(b) There should be no divided heads of revenue. The Government of India should be provided with fixed contributions from the Provincial Governments, such fixed contributions being liable to revision when extraordinary and unforeseen contingencies render such revision necessary.
(c) The Provincial Council should have full authority to deal with all matters affecting the internal administration of the province including the power to raise loans, to impose and alter taxation, and to vote on the Budget....
(e) A resolution passed by the Provincial Legislative Council shall be binding on the Executive Government, unless vetoed by the Governor in Council, provided, however, that if the resolution is again passed by the Council after an interval of not less than a year, it must be given effect to.
9. A Bill, other than a Money Bill, may be introduced in Council in accordance with rules made in that behalf by the Council itself, and the consent of the Government should not be required ...
1. The head of every Provincial Government shall be a Governor who shall not ordinarily belong to the Indian Civil Service or any of the permanent services.
2. There shall be in every province an Executive Council, which, with the Governor, shall constitute the Executive Government of the Province.
3. Members of the ICS shall not ordinarily be appointed to the Executive Councils.
4. Not less than one-half of the members of the Executive Council shall consist of Indians to be elected by the elected members of the Provincial Legislative Council....
[p. 465] 1. The strength of the Imperial Legislative Council [shall] be 150.
2. Four-fifths of the members shall be elected.
3. The franchise for the Imperial Legislative Council should be widened as far as possible on the lines of the electorates for Mahomedans for the Provincial Legislative Councils, and the elected members of the Provincial Legislative Councils should also form an electorate for the return of members to [the] Imperial Legislative Council.
4. One-third of the Indian elected members should be Mahomedans elected by separate Mahomedan electorates in the several provinces, in the proportion, as may be, in which they are represented on the Provincial Legislative Councils by separate Mahomedan electorates....
16. The Imperial Legislative Council shall have no power to interfere with the Government of India's direction of the military affairs and the foreign and political relations of India, including the declaration of war, the making of peace and the entering into treaties.
The Governor-General of India will be the head of the Government of India ... [and] will have an Executive Council, half of whom shall be Indians ... elected by the elected members of the Imperial Legislative Council....
1. The Council of the Secretary of State for India should be abolished.
2. The salary of the Secretary of State should be placed on the British Estimates.
3. The Secretary of State should, as far as possible, occupy the same position in relation to the Government of India, as the Secretary of State for the Colonies does in relation to the Governments of the self-Governing Dominions.
4. The Secretary of State for India should be assisted by two permanent Under-Secretaries, one of whom should always be an Indian.
In any Council or other body which may be constituted or convened for the settlement ... of Imperial affairs, India shall be adequately represented in like manner with the Dominions and with equal rights.... Indians should be placed on a footing of equality in respect of status and rights of citizenship with other subjects of His Majesty the King throughout the Empire.
[p. 466] The military and naval services of His Majesty, both in their commissioned and non-commissioned ranks, should be thrown open to Indians, and adequate provision should be made for their selection, training and instruction in India....
[From The Report of the 31st Indian National Congress (1916), as reproduced in C. H. Philips, ed., The Evolution of India and Pakistan, 1858–1947: Select Documents (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 172–173.]
Rachel Fell McDermott, Leonard A. Gordon, Ainslie T. Embree, Frances W. Pritchett and Dennis Dalton, eds., Sources of Indian Traditions, vol. 2: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, 3rd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), pp. 462–466.