History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s2.7

v7.c96.s2.7

Morley (who was Secretary of State for India and who was believed by many Indians to be a man of liberal or even radical views) introduced separate communal electorates for Moslems in the reforms of 1909 and he was firmly of opinion that a Parliamentary system in India should not be established in the foreseeable²⁶³⁶ future It is unnecessary to refer in detail to Montagu's famous speech in 1917, characterizing the Indian Government as too wooden, too antediluvian for modern times, to his statement (the reverse of Morley's views) that 'the policy of the British Government is the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible Government in India as an integral part of the British Empire,' the failure of Dyarchy introduced by Montagu, the Rowlatt Acts, unrest in Punjab, General Dyer's proclamation declaring any assembly of four or more persons as unlawful, his shooting of men, women and children assembled in Jallianwallah Bagh for a meeting in defiance of the proclamation, when, even according to Government statistics, 300 people were killed and 1200 injured, Dyer's compulsory retirement and the presentation of a purse of thirty thousand pounds to him by his British admirers for saving the British Empire (as they then thought).