Indian Council Act of 1891

In 1858 the Crown took over India and promised to rule it fairly. It said nothing about letting Indians make the laws they lived under. Within a few years Parliament had to answer a narrower, practical question: now that the Company's legislative councils were gone, who actually writes the Regulations for Bombay and Madras, and does any Indian get a seat at that table?

In two minutes

This Act rebuilt the legislative councils after the Company's fall — restoring law-making power to Bombay and Madras, introducing the portfolio system in the Governor-General's Council, and adding the first non-official Indian members to it, though only in a consultative role.

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