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The Central Legislature in British India 1921-47: Parliamentary Experiences Under the Raj is an exceptional exposé of Colonial India's highest legislative body. With its wealth of materials and in-depth description of the former Indian Legislature's actual working, its political milieu and its institutional development, this book belongs to the larger genre of the British Indian narratives on the constitutional encounters between the rulers and the ruled. This book touches on a critical range of areas essential to our understanding of the British Raj in India. This book adds a significant depth to a neglected quarter of historical knowledge-the chronicle of parliamentary experiences and the representative institution-building in Colonial India. Undeniably, the Central Legislature was the only acknowledged all-India forum where the Indian legislators and the Imperial Executive, time and again, ran into each other. Yet, even at the lowest ebb of the Indian lawmakers' disillusionment, the two flanks, intermittently, showed a modicum of mutual respect: though limited, the two sides indirectly shared power, went through the motion and contributed to policy-making typically over a strip of non-controversial subjects.
List of contents
List of Tables - Foreword - Preface - Preface to the First Edition (1965) - Acknowledgements for the Second Edition - List of Abbreviations - Development of the Central Legislature From 1861 to 1920 - The Central Legislature and Indian Politics, 1921 to 1947 - Nature of the Electoral System and Elections - Powers, Privileges, and Procedures in the Central Legislature - The Composition and Political Groupings of the Two Houses - The Legislative Influence on Administration - Legislation With Special Reference to the Influence of Non-Official Members - Financial Procedure in the Central Legislature - Political Grievances in the Central Legislature - Relations Between the Two Chambers - Conclusion - Appendix I. Certain Provisions of the Government of India Act, 1919, Relating to the Indian Central Legislature Are Reproduced for Reference - Appendix II. A Statement Showing the Actual Number of Days on Which the Assembly Sat and the Days on Which Non-Official Business Was Transacted - Appendix III. Table Showing the Strength of the Major Political Parties/Groups in the Legislative Assembly From 1921 to 1947 - Appendix IV. List of Voting Divisions Held in the Legislative Assembly From 1921 to 1947 - Bibliography - Index.
About the author
Mohammad Rashiduzzaman is a retired academic and Professor Emeritus in Political Science at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, USA. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Durham, England in 1964 as a British Commonwealth Scholar. His Ph.D. thesis on the British Indian central legislature (1921¿47) was the co-winner of the British Hansard Society¿s Lord Campion Prize in 1965 for the best dissertation on the understanding of representative institutions. He taught at the University of Dhaka, now Bangladesh, before going to Columbia University in New York for his postdoctoral research. Later, he taught at Rowan University. He has written several publications on British India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Summary
This book explores the constitutional encounters between the rulers and the ruled in Colonial India's highest legislative body.
