Morley-Minto Reforms and the Sikhs

Who: John Morley, Secretary of State for India, and Lord Minto, the Viceroy, who gave the Act its name. A Muslim deputation led by the Aga Khan had asked Minto at Simla in October 1906 for separate electorates. On the Sikh side the Chief Khalsa Diwan, founded in 1902, spoke through memoranda, and Tikka Ripudaman Singh of Nabha, followed by Sundar Singh Majithia, who was nominated in 1909, sat on the Imperial Legislative Council.

What: The Indian Councils Act received royal assent on 25 May 1909 and took effect on 15 November 1909. It enlarged the central and provincial councils and brought in elected members, though the executive kept an official majority at the centre and a veto over legislation. Muslim members were elected only by Muslim voters, creating separate electorates. The Congress saw this as a divide-and-rule measure. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism notes that separate Muslim electorates were created in the provincial councils except in Punjab and Burma, and it records no Sikh electorate at this stage.

Sikh claims therefore went through petitions and nominated seats. The Anand Marriage Act, which gave legal validity to the Sikh marriage rite, was drafted by the Chief Khalsa Diwan, introduced in 1908 by Ripudaman Singh and piloted by Majithia, and passed on 22 October 1909. In 1911 the Diwan sent a memorandum to Viceroy Lord Hardinge seeking fair Sikh representation in the services and in the councils.

Where: London for the Act, and the Imperial Legislative Council at Shimla for the Sikh voice, with effect across British India.

Why it mattered: The Act made religion the basis of representation, and Sikh leaders had to argue for their own place in that system. Their demands grew through the Lucknow Pact of 1916, when Muslims were given half the communal seats in Punjab, and the 1919 reforms, which finally gave Sikhs communal electorates in Punjab.