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The '''Viceroy's Executive Council''' was the cabinet of the government of [[British Raj|British India]] headed by the [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy of India]]. It is also known as '''the Council of the Governor-General of India'''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/government-of-india-act-1858-key-features-1443010726-1|title=Government of India Act, 1858: Key Features|date=2017-11-21|website=Jagranjosh.com|access-date=2019-02-04}}</ref> It was transformed from an advisory council into a cabinet consisting of five members heading revenue, military, law, finance and home by the [[Indian Councils Act 1861]] giving recognition to the [[Cabinet (government)|portfolio]] system introduced by Lord [[Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning|Canning]] in 1859. In 1874, a sixth member was added to be in charge of public works.

==History==
The [[Government of India Act 1858]] transferred the power of the [[East India Company]] to the [[The Crown|British Crown]] which was empowered to appoint a [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy and Governor-General of India]] to head the government in India. The advisory council of the Governor-General was based in the capital [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] and consisted of four members, three of which were appointed by the [[Secretary of State for India]] and one by the Sovereign.

The [[Indian Councils Act 1861]] transformed the Viceroy of India's advisory council into a cabinet run on the portfolio system and increased the number of members by one. Three members were to be appointed by the Secretary of State for India, and two by the Sovereign. The five ordinary members took charge of a separate department: home, revenue, military, law and finance. The military Commander-in-Chief sat in with the council as an extraordinary member. The Viceroy was allowed, under the provisions of the Act, to overrule the council on affairs if he deemed it necessary. In 1869, the power to appoint all five members was passed to the Crown and in 1874, a new member was added to be in charge of public works.

The [[Indian Councils Act 1909]] empowered the Governor General to nominate one Indian member to the Executive Council leading to the appointment of [[Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha|Satyendra Prasanna Sinha]] as the first Indian member. The [[Government of India Act 1919]] increased the number of Indians in the council to three.

==Indians in the Council (1909–1940)==
* Law Members: [[Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha|Satyendra Prasanna Sinha]] (1909–1914), [[P. S. Sivaswami Iyer]] (1912–1917), Syed Ali Imam, [[Muhammad Shafi Deobandi|Muhammad Shafi]] (1924–1928), [[Tej Bahadur Sapru]] (1920–1923), [[Satish Ranjan Das]], Brojendra Mitter (1931–1934), Nripendra Nath Sircar (1934–1939), [[Bepin Behary Ghose]] (1933), [[Nalini Ranjan Chatterjee]]<ref>{{Cite news|title=Nalini Ranjan's Portrait Unveiled|date=24 December 2001|work=Statesman}}</ref>
* [[C. Sankaran Nair]] (1915–1919): Education
*[[Muhammad Shafi (politician)|Muhammad Shafi]]: Education (1919–1924)
*[[B. N. Sarma]] (1920–1925): Revenue and Agriculture
*[[Bhupendra Nath Mitra]]: Industries and Labour
*[[Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar]] (1924–1929)
*[[Muhammad Habibullah]] (1925–1930): Education, Health and Lands
*[[Fazl-i-Hussain]] (1930–1935)
*[[C. P. Ramaswami Iyer]]: Law (1931–1932), Commerce (1932), Information (1942)
*[[Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu]] (1934–1937)
*[[Muhammad Zafarullah Khan]] (1935–1941): Commerce (–1939), Law (1939–), Railway, Industries and Labour, and War Supply
*[[Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar]]: Commerce and Labour (1939–1941), Supply (1943)
*Kunwar Sir Jagdish Prasad: Health, Education and Lands
*[[Girija Shankar Bajpai]] (1940): Health, Education
*[[Attaullah Tarar]] (1931–1941 ?) {{who|date=February 2018}}

==Expansion in 1941 and 1942==
On 8 August 1940, the Viceroy [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|Lord Linlithgow]] made a proposal called the [[August Offer]] which expanded the Executive Council to include more Indians. These proposals were rejected by the [[Indian National Congress]], [[All-India Muslim League]] and [[Hindu Mahasabha]].

However they were revived the next year by [[Tej Bahadur Sapru|Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru]] of the Liberal Party, and accepted by Viceroy who on the 22nd of July 1941 announced a reconstituted Executive Council where for the first time Indians outnumbered Britans.

In addition he announced a 30-member National Defence Council intended to coordinate the war effort between the central government, provincial governments (four of which had elected governments) and the princely states.

An attempt was made to maintain communal balance, but Jinnah as part of his effort to establish his position as the sole spokesman of the Indian Muslim community ordered all AIML members to resign from the Viceroy's Executive and National Defence councils as the Viceroy had not accepted his demand for 50% Muslim representation, nor consulted Jinnah on the selection of Muslim members.

On 2 July 1942 the Viceroy’s Council was again enlarged from 12 to 15. Sir Malik Feroz Khan Noon (ICS officer and High Commissioner in London) appointed Defence member, the first Indian to hold the post (key Congress demand). Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar, a Tamil politician and Maharaja Jam Saheb Sri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji of Jamnagar were appointed to newly elevated positions as representatives of the Government of India to the Imperial War Cabinet in London and to Pacific War Council in Washington DC.

The council now consisted of:<ref>{{cite book|title=Constitutional Schemes and Political Development in India|page=21|isbn=9788171005390|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBCd9ZKzbUUC|last1=Grover|first1=Verinder|last2=Arora|first2=Ranjana|year=1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=THE VICEROY'S EXECUTIVE COUNCIL IS EXPANDED|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19410723-1.2.34.aspx|access-date=8 September 2014|publisher=The Straits Times|date=23 July 1941}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Viceroy's Executive Council - HC Deb 10 November 1942 vol 383 cc2293-4W|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1942/nov/10/viceroys-executive-council}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Portfolio !! Name !! Tenure
|-
| rowspan=2|[[Governor-General of India|Viceroy and Governor-General of India]]
| [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|The Marquess of Linlithgow]]
| 18 April 1936 – 1 October 1943
|-
| [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|The Viscount Wavell]]
| 1 October 1943 – 21 February 1947
|-
| rowspan=4|[[Commander-in-Chief, India]]
| General Sir [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|Archibald Wavell]]
| 5 July 1941 – 5 January 1942
|-
| General Sir [[Alan Hartley]]
| 5 January 1942 – 7 March 1942
|-
| Field Marshal Sir [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|Archibald Wavell]]
| 7 March 1942 – 20 June 1943
|-
| General Sir [[Claude Auchinleck]]
| 20 June 1943 – 21 February 1947
|-
| rowspan=2|Home
| Sir Reginald Maxwell
| 1941-1944
|-
| Sir Robert [[Francis Mudie]]
| 1944-1946
|-
| rowspan=1|Finance
| Sir Jeremy Raisman
| 1941-1946
|-
| rowspan=1|Defence
| Sir Malik [[Feroz Khan Noon]]
| 1942-1944
|-
| rowspan=2|Civil Defence
| Dr. Edpuganti Raghavendra Rao
| 1941-1942
|-
| Sir [[Jwala Prasad Srivastava]]
| 1942-1943
|-
| rowspan=2|Law
| Sir [[Syed Sultan Ahmed]]
| 1941-1943
|-
| Asok Kumar Roy
| 1943-1946
|-
| rowspan=2|Information
| Sir [[Akbar Hydari]]
| 1941-1942
|-
| Sir [[Syed Sultan Ahmed]]
| 1943-
|-
| rowspan=1|Communications
| Sir Andrew Clow
| 1941
|-
| rowspan=2|Supply
| [[Homi Mody|Sir Homi Mody]]
| 1941-1942
|-
| Sir [[Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar]]
| 1943
|-
| rowspan=2|Commerce
| Sir [[Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar]]
| 1941
|-
| [[Nalini Ranjan Sarkar]]
| 1942
|-
| rowspan=2|Health, Education and Lands
| [[Nalini Ranjan Sarkar]]
| 1941
|-
| [[Jogendra Singh]]
| 1942-1946
|-
| rowspan=2|Labour
| [[Feroz Khan Noon]]
| 1941
|-
| [[B. R. Ambedkar]]
| 1942-1946
|-
| rowspan=2|Indians Overseas and Commonwealth Relations
| [[Madhav Shrihari Aney]]
| 1941-1943
|-
| [[Narayan Bhaskar Khare]]
| 1943-1946
|-
| rowspan=2|India's Representative at the British [[Churchill war ministry|War Cabinet]] and on the [[Pacific War Council]]
| [[Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar]]
| 1942-1944
|-
| [[Feroz Khan Noon]]
| 1944-1945
|-
| rowspan=1|War Transport
| Sir E. C. Benthall
| 1942-1946
|-
| rowspan=2|Posts and Air
| [[Mohammad Usman of Madras|Mohammad Usman]]
| 1942-1946
|-
| [[Gurunath Venkatesh Bewoor]]
| 1946
|-
| rowspan=1|Food
| Sir [[Jwala Prasad Srivastava]]
| 1943-1946
|-
| rowspan=1|Commerce, industries, civil supplies
| Mohammad [[Azizul Haque (educator)|Azizul Huque]]
| 1943-1945
|-
| rowspan=1|Post-war Reconstruction
| [[Ardeshir Dalal]]
| 1944-1945
|-
|}

==Interim Government==
{{main|Interim Government of India}}
As per the mid-June 1946 [[1946 Cabinet Mission to India|Cabinet Mission Plan]], the Executive Council was expanded to consist of only Indian members except
the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief intended to form the Interim Government of India until the transfer of power. The Viceroy, Viscount Wavell extended invitations for 14 members.

The Interim Government began to function from 2 September 1946 once the Indian National Congress members took their seats. However, the All-India Muslim League refused to participate until 26 October 1946. The Interim Government served until transfer of power to the [[Dominion of India]] and the [[Dominion of Pakistan]] on 15 August 1947.

===Members of Interim Government===
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Portfolio !! Name !! Party
|-
| [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy and Governor-General of India]] 
| [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|The Viscount Wavell]] 
[[Lord Louis Mountbatten]]
| None
|-
|[[Commander-in-Chief, India]]
| General Sir [[Claude Auchinleck]]
| None
|-
| Vice-President of the Executive Council 
External Affairs & Commonwealth Relations 
| [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Home Affairs 
Information & Broadcasting 
| [[Vallabhbhai Patel]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Defence
| [[Baldev Singh]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Industries and Supplies
| [[John Mathai]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Education
| [[C. Rajagopalachari]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Works, Mines and Power
| [[Sarat Chandra Bose]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Works, Mines and Power
| [[C.H. Bhabha]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Food and Agriculture
| [[Rajendra Prasad]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Railways and Transport
| [[Asaf Ali]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| Labour
| [[Jagjivan Ram]]
| [[Indian National Congress]]
|-
| [[Minister of Finance (India)|Finance]]
| [[Liaquat Ali Khan]]
| [[All-India Muslim League]]
|-
| Commerce
| [[Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar]]
| [[All-India Muslim League]]
|-
| Health
| [[Ghazanfar Ali Khan]]
| [[All-India Muslim League]]
|-
| Posts and Air
| [[Abdur Rab Nishtar]]
| [[All-India Muslim League]]
|-
| Law
| [[Jogendra Nath Mandal]]
| [[All-India Muslim League]]
|-
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
* [[Central Legislative Assembly]]
* [[Council of State (India)]]
* [[Imperial Legislative Council]]

[[Category:Government of British India]]
[[Category:History of the government of India]]
[[Category:1861 establishments in British India]]
[[Category:1947 disestablishments in India]]

Viceroy's Executive Council - Revision history

imported>SdkbBot: General fixes, removed erroneous space