Is it justified to say that the Government of India Act of 1935 had all brakes, but no engine?

Answer:

The Government of India Act of 1935 was the longest and most elaborate constitutional measure the British ever enacted for India, yet its extensive safeguards and reservations so hedged the powers it conferred that the epigram about brakes without an engine is largely justified.

What the Act conceded

• It provided for an All-India Federation of British provinces and princely states.
• Provincial autonomy replaced dyarchy, with ministers responsible to elected legislatures.
• The franchise was widened to about thirty million, some fourteen per cent of the population.
• A Federal Court and a Reserve Bank were established.

The brakes at the centre

• Dyarchy was transferred to the centre, with defence and external affairs kept as reserved subjects.
• The Governor-General retained wide discretionary and emergency powers.
• The federation was to come into being only if half the princely states acceded, and it never did.
• Thus the central provisions of the Act were never implemented at all.

The brakes in the provinces

• Governors held special responsibilities and could veto or take over the administration.
• They could issue ordinances and legislate independently of the ministries.
• Provincial finances were constrained, and much revenue remained beyond ministerial control.

Reactions and working

• Nehru called it a machine with strong brakes but no engine, and a charter of slavery.
• Jinnah described it as thoroughly rotten, fundamentally bad and totally unacceptable.
• Yet Congress contested the 1937 elections and formed ministries in most provinces.
• These ministries governed with some success until resigning in 1939 over the war.

A qualified assessment

• Separate electorates were extended, entrenching communal division.
• The Act nonetheless gave Indians real administrative experience of governing provinces.
• Much of its structure survived to become the framework of the Constitution of 1950.

Why the brakes were built in

• British opinion was unwilling to concede real power as war approached in Europe.
• Conservative opposition led by Churchill resisted even these limited concessions.
• Safeguards were designed to protect British commercial and strategic interests.
• Princely accession was required because the princes were expected to be a conservative counterweight.
• The federal scheme therefore remained a dead letter throughout the Act's life.

The epigram is therefore substantially justified, especially as regards the centre, where the safeguards and the still-born federation left the engine missing altogether. Yet, as historians note, provincial autonomy proved a genuine advance, and the Act's administrative framework outlived the Raj to shape independent India's own constitution.