The Political System of British India

Soth
8267
Pol. Sei.

2-14-1923

Oxford University Press London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai

Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY

PREFACE

THIS introduction to the political system of British India, with special reference to the recent constitutional changes, is based on lectures delivered by the author at Harvard University during the spring of 1921.

The book is intended primarily for the use of students, being designed, on the one hand, to serve as a general introduction to the subject, and on the other to supplement such standard text-books as Ilbert's Government of India and Strachey's India. Special attention is directed, in this latter connexion, to the detailed analysis of India's new constitution contained in Chapter IV.

The subject is of much more than academic interest at the present time, however. India's charter of self-government is a legacy of the world-struggle for freedom and democracy lately ended; and the terms of that charter are well worth the study of all who are interested in the after-war settlement. The attention of such readers is directed more especially to the general survey contained in Chapter I.

A year has elapsed between the delivery of these lectures and their publication in book-form. This has made it possible to add a chapter in which some account is given of the reformed constitution, in operation (Chapter VI), and to deal, at the same time, with the recent manifestations of the revolutionary movement in India-manifestations which all who have followed the grave developments of the past twelve months will recognize as a very serious menace to ordered constitutional progress. This forms the subject of a second additional chapter (Chapter VII).

ST. ANDREWS,

15th April 1922.

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CONTENTS