Butler Committee (1927) - General Knowledge of Modern India

Butler Committee (1927) - General Knowledge of Modern India

In the time of the First World War, the native rulers had given valuable help to the British government. At the end of the war, a plan was made for the development of responsible governance in India. As a result, the need was felt to explain the relationship between the native rulers and the British government and to define British sovereign power. As a result, in 1927 AD, the Indian-States-Committee, which is generally known in history as the Butler Committee, was constituted under the chairmanship of Harcourt Butler to investigate it and give an appropriate opinion in this regard.

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Butler Committee: The recommendations of the Butler Committee were as follows -

1. To deal with the states, not the Governor-General, including the Council, but the Viceroy became the representative of the British Empire.
2. The process of relation between the British monarch and the native rulers should not be transferred to the Government of India without the opinion of the native monarchs because it is responsible to the legislature.
3. The plan to form a state council should be canceled.
4. Interfering in the governance of the native states should be left to the decision of the Viceroy.
5. Special committees should be appointed to resolve the differences between the Government of India and the native states.
6. A committee should be appointed to examine the economic relations between British India and the native states.
7. Separate arrangements should be made for the appointment and education of political officials and they should be taken from the universities of England.

Condemnation of the Butler Committee

The Butler-Committee's recommendations have been strongly criticized because its authors invented a new theory. It was clearly stated in the report of the committee that the native states were not related to the Government of India, but were directly related to the British monarch. But this direct relation had no historical basis, but this theory was invented with the aim of establishing a big wall between the Indian government and the native states. Through this principle, a plan was made to weaken the responsible government in British-India. For this reason some Indians strongly criticized the recommendations of the Butler Committee.

Mr. C. Y. Chintamani pointed out that “The Butler Committee was bad in its birth, its timing of appointment was bad, the conditions of its investigation were bad, the people working in it were bad and its method of inquiry was bad. The arguments in this report are bad and its conclusions are bad."

There was no indication of the future for the people of the native states in the report of the Butler Committee. They lacked modern ideas and things that could infuse faith and hope.