Central Legislative Assembly
Encyclopedia
The Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature
for India
created by the Government of India Act 1919
from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
. It was also sometimes called the Indian Legislative Assembly and the Imperial Legislative Assembly.
As a result of Indian independence
, the Legislative Assembly was dissolved on 14 August 1947 and its place taken by the Constituent Assembly of India
and the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
.
, with a new Council of State as the upper house, reviewing legislation passed by the Assembly. However, both its powers and its electorate were limited.
Initially, of its 144 members, 103 were elected and 41 were nominated. Of the 103 elected members, fifty-one came from general constituencies, thirty were elected by Muslim
s, two by Sikh
s, nine by Europeans, seven by landlords, and four by business men
A new "Council House" was conceived in 1919 as the seat of the future Legislative Assembly, the Council of State, and the Chamber of Princes
. The foundation stone was laid on 12 February 1921 and the building was opened on 18 January 1927 by Lord Irwin
, the Viceroy and Governor-General
. The Council House later changed its name to Parliament House, or Sansad Bhavan, and is the present-day home of the Parliament of India
.
The first elections to the new legislatures took place in November 1920 and proved to be the first significant contest between the Moderates and the Non-cooperation movement
, whose aim was for the elections to fail. The Non-cooperators were at least partly successful in this, as out of almost a million electors for the Assembly, only some 182,000 voted.
The Assembly, the Council of State, and the Chamber of Princes were officially opened in 1921 by King George V's
uncle, the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
In 1923, Motilal Nehru
, the father of Jawaharlal Nehru
, was elected to the Assembly and became leader of the Opposition
. In that role, he was able to secure the defeat, or at least the delay, of Finance bills and other legislation. He agreed to join a Committee with the object of promoting the recruitment of Indian officers into the Indian Army
, but this decision contributed to others going further and joining the Government itself. In March 1926, Nehru demanded a representative conference to draft a constitution conferring full Dominion
status on India, to be enacted by the parliament. When this demand was rejected by the Assembly, Nehru and his colleagues walked out and returned to the Congress
.
In September 1923, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
was elected as Muslim member of the Assembly for Bombay
. He organized many Indian Independent members to work with the Swaraj Party
and helped to press demands for full responsible government. He was so active that when Lord Reading
retired as Viceroy in 1925 he offered Jinnah a knighthood, which was declined.
On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt
threw a bomb into the corridors of the Assembly, followed by a shower of leaflets, shouting "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution!"). No one was injured, and on June 12, 1929 they were sentenced to Penal transportation
for the bombing. Singh was executed in 1931 for other offences.
In 1934, the Congress
ended its boycott
of the existing legislatures and contested the elections to the fifth Central Legislative Assembly held that year. Following this move, there was a sharp increase in the number of government defeats in the Assembly. In a British House of Commons
debate on 4 April 1935, the Secretary of State for India
, Samuel Hoare, stated that "The number of divisions in the Legislative Assembly since the recent elections and up to the 25th March in which Government have been successful is five. The number of adverse divisions in the same period is seventeen." Henry Page Croft
then asked "Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the Government would have been successful on any occasion without the support of the nominated members?" Hoare replied "I could not answer that question without looking into the figures, but in any case I see no reason to differentiate between one class of member and another."
Many resolutions put forward by the Congress in opposition to the Government of India were passed only with the support of the Muslims of Jinnah's Independents, and an unspoken alliance between the two groupings electrified the atmosphere of the Assembly on great occasions. Indeed, there were reports of jubilant scenes of mutual embracing on occasions when the combination of the two succeeded.
introduced further reforms. The Assembly continued as the lower chamber of a central Indian parliament based in Delhi
, with two chambers, both containing elected and appointed members. The Assembly increased in size to 250 seats for members elected by the constituencies of British India, plus a further 125 seats for the Indian Princely state
s.
The first elections to the reformed Assembly were held in 1937, and the Indian National Congress
won 205 seats, with the Muslim League winning 73.
With the situation in Palestine
worsening, Indian troops were sent there. In the Assembly, the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, disallowed all questions and resolutions which asked him to express the concern of Indian Muslims about the position of Arabs in Palestine.
On 27 February 1942, during the Second World War, the Assembly held a secret session to discuss the war situation.
The electorate of the Assembly was never more than a very small fraction of the population of India. In the British House of Commons on 10 November 1942, the Labour
MP
Seymour Cocks
asked the Secretary of State for India Leo Amery "What is the electorate for the present Central Legislative Assembly?" and received the written answer "The total electorate for the last General Election (1934) for the Central Legislative Assembly was 1,415,892."
Under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947
, the Central Legislative Assembly was replaced in August 1947 by the Constituent Assembly of India
, which became a fully sovereign body at midnight on 14/15 August, and by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
.
) of the Assembly was called the President. While the Government of India Act 1919 provided for the President to be elected, it made an exception in the case of the first President, who was to be appointed by the Government, and the Governor-General's choice fell on Frederick Whyte
, a former Liberal
member of the British House of Commons
who had been a parliamentary private secretary
to Winston Churchill
.
Whyte was succeeded on 24 August 1925 by Vithalbhai Patel
, who was elected for a second time in 1927. He succeeded in laying down clearly defined practices and procedures for the business of the Assembly and defended members' rights and privileges. In 1928, he was able to create for the first time a separate office for the Assembly, independent of the administration of the Government of India. Patel established the convention that the President would neither take part in debates nor vote, except to use his casting vote
in favour of the status quo
.
Sir Muhammad Yakub was the deputy president of the Assembly from 1927 until 1930 and became President in 1930. Yakub's deputy president from 1931 to 1933, R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
, was President from 1933 to 1934.
In 1935, Sir Abdur Rahim
KCSI
was elected as second Muslim President of the Assembly, serving until 1945. He was a former Chief Justice of the Madras High Court and professor of law in the University of Calcutta
.
Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar
became the last President of the Assembly in January 1946 and remained in office until the Assembly came to an end on 14 August 1947. (Mavlankar became the first Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India
, and in 1952 the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha
, the lower house of the Parliament of India
.)
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
created by the Government of India Act 1919
Government of India Act 1919
-See also:*British India*British Raj*History of Bangladesh*History of India*History of Pakistan*Governor-General of India*Government of India Act*India Office*Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms*Secretary of State for India...
from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were reforms introduced by the British Government in India to introduce self-governing institutions gradually to India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India during the latter parts of World War I and Lord Chelmsford,...
. It was also sometimes called the Indian Legislative Assembly and the Imperial Legislative Assembly.
As a result of Indian independence
Indian Independence Act 1947
The Indian Independence Act 1947 was as an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan...
, the Legislative Assembly was dissolved on 14 August 1947 and its place taken by the Constituent Assembly of India
Constituent Assembly of India
The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and following independence served as the nation's first Parliament.-Nature of the Assembly:...
and the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was formed to write Pakistan's constitution, and serve as its first parliament. It first convened on 11 August 1947, before the end of British rule on August 15, 1947. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the first President of this Assembly until his death on...
.
1920-1935
The new Assembly was the lower house of a bicameral parliamentParliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
, with a new Council of State as the upper house, reviewing legislation passed by the Assembly. However, both its powers and its electorate were limited.
Initially, of its 144 members, 103 were elected and 41 were nominated. Of the 103 elected members, fifty-one came from general constituencies, thirty were elected by Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, two by Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
s, nine by Europeans, seven by landlords, and four by business men
A new "Council House" was conceived in 1919 as the seat of the future Legislative Assembly, the Council of State, and the Chamber of Princes
Chamber of Princes
The Chamber of Princes was an institution established in 1920 by a royal proclamation of the King-Emperor to provide a forum in which the rulers of the Indian princely states could voice their needs and aspirations to the government of British India...
. The foundation stone was laid on 12 February 1921 and the building was opened on 18 January 1927 by Lord Irwin
E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, during which he held several senior ministerial posts, most notably as...
, the Viceroy and Governor-General
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
. The Council House later changed its name to Parliament House, or Sansad Bhavan, and is the present-day home of the Parliament of India
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...
.
The first elections to the new legislatures took place in November 1920 and proved to be the first significant contest between the Moderates and the Non-cooperation movement
Non-cooperation movement
The non-cooperation movement was a significant phase of the Indian struggle for freedom from British rule which lasted for years. This movement, which lasted from September 1920 to February 1922 and was led by Mohandas Gandhi, and supported by the Indian National Congress. It aimed to resist...
, whose aim was for the elections to fail. The Non-cooperators were at least partly successful in this, as out of almost a million electors for the Assembly, only some 182,000 voted.
The Assembly, the Council of State, and the Chamber of Princes were officially opened in 1921 by King George V's
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
uncle, the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the shared British and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family who served as the Governor General of Canada, the 10th since Canadian Confederation.Born the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and...
In 1923, Motilal Nehru
Motilal Nehru
Motilal Nehru was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress, who remained Congress President twice, and...
, the father of Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
, was elected to the Assembly and became leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government...
. In that role, he was able to secure the defeat, or at least the delay, of Finance bills and other legislation. He agreed to join a Committee with the object of promoting the recruitment of Indian officers into the Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
, but this decision contributed to others going further and joining the Government itself. In March 1926, Nehru demanded a representative conference to draft a constitution conferring full Dominion
Dominion
A dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, beginning in the latter part of the 19th century. They have included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland,...
status on India, to be enacted by the parliament. When this demand was rejected by the Assembly, Nehru and his colleagues walked out and returned to the Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
.
In September 1923, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Muslim lawyer, politician, statesman and the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum ....
was elected as Muslim member of the Assembly for Bombay
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. He organized many Indian Independent members to work with the Swaraj Party
Swaraj Party
The Swaraj Party, Swarajaya Party or Swarajya Party, established as the Congress-Khilafat Swarajaya Party, was a political party formed in India in 1922 that sought greater self-government and political freedoms for the Indian people from the British Raj. It was inspired by the concept of Swaraj...
and helped to press demands for full responsible government. He was so active that when Lord Reading
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, PC, KC , was an English lawyer, jurist and politician...
retired as Viceroy in 1925 he offered Jinnah a knighthood, which was declined.
On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt
Batukeshwar Dutt
Batukeshwar Dutt was an Indian revolutionary and a freedom fighter in the early 1900s. He is best known for having exploded a few bombs, along with Bhagat Singh, in the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi on 8 April 1929...
threw a bomb into the corridors of the Assembly, followed by a shower of leaflets, shouting "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution!"). No one was injured, and on June 12, 1929 they were sentenced to Penal transportation
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
for the bombing. Singh was executed in 1931 for other offences.
In 1934, the Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
ended its boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of the existing legislatures and contested the elections to the fifth Central Legislative Assembly held that year. Following this move, there was a sharp increase in the number of government defeats in the Assembly. In a British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
debate on 4 April 1935, the Secretary of State for India
Secretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
, Samuel Hoare, stated that "The number of divisions in the Legislative Assembly since the recent elections and up to the 25th March in which Government have been successful is five. The number of adverse divisions in the same period is seventeen." Henry Page Croft
Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft
Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft was a British Conservative Party politician.-Early life and family:He was born at Fanhams Hall in Ware, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Benyon Croft a naval officer and a major benefactor of the Richard Hale School, and Anne Elizabeth...
then asked "Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the Government would have been successful on any occasion without the support of the nominated members?" Hoare replied "I could not answer that question without looking into the figures, but in any case I see no reason to differentiate between one class of member and another."
Many resolutions put forward by the Congress in opposition to the Government of India were passed only with the support of the Muslims of Jinnah's Independents, and an unspoken alliance between the two groupings electrified the atmosphere of the Assembly on great occasions. Indeed, there were reports of jubilant scenes of mutual embracing on occasions when the combination of the two succeeded.
1937-1947
The Government of India Act 1935Government of India Act 1935
The Government of India Act 1935 was originally passed in August 1935 , and is said to have been the longest Act of Parliament ever enacted by that time. Because of its length, the Act was retroactively split by the Government of India Act 1935 into two separate Acts:# The Government of India...
introduced further reforms. The Assembly continued as the lower chamber of a central Indian parliament based in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, with two chambers, both containing elected and appointed members. The Assembly increased in size to 250 seats for members elected by the constituencies of British India, plus a further 125 seats for the Indian Princely state
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...
s.
The first elections to the reformed Assembly were held in 1937, and the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
won 205 seats, with the Muslim League winning 73.
With the situation in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
worsening, Indian troops were sent there. In the Assembly, the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, disallowed all questions and resolutions which asked him to express the concern of Indian Muslims about the position of Arabs in Palestine.
On 27 February 1942, during the Second World War, the Assembly held a secret session to discuss the war situation.
The electorate of the Assembly was never more than a very small fraction of the population of India. In the British House of Commons on 10 November 1942, the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Seymour Cocks
Seymour Cocks
Frederick Seymour Cocks, known as Seymour Cocks , was a British Labour Party Member of Parliament ....
asked the Secretary of State for India Leo Amery "What is the electorate for the present Central Legislative Assembly?" and received the written answer "The total electorate for the last General Election (1934) for the Central Legislative Assembly was 1,415,892."
Under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947
Indian Independence Act 1947
The Indian Independence Act 1947 was as an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan...
, the Central Legislative Assembly was replaced in August 1947 by the Constituent Assembly of India
Constituent Assembly of India
The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and following independence served as the nation's first Parliament.-Nature of the Assembly:...
, which became a fully sovereign body at midnight on 14/15 August, and by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was formed to write Pakistan's constitution, and serve as its first parliament. It first convened on 11 August 1947, before the end of British rule on August 15, 1947. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the first President of this Assembly until his death on...
.
Presidents of the Assembly
The presiding officer (or speakerSpeaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
) of the Assembly was called the President. While the Government of India Act 1919 provided for the President to be elected, it made an exception in the case of the first President, who was to be appointed by the Government, and the Governor-General's choice fell on Frederick Whyte
Frederick Whyte
Sir Alexander Frederick Whyte KCSI was a British civil servant, Liberal Party politician, writer, and journalist.-Biography:...
, a former Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
member of the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
who had been a parliamentary private secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
to Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
.
Whyte was succeeded on 24 August 1925 by Vithalbhai Patel
Vithalbhai Patel
Vithalbhai Patel was an Indian legislator and political leader, and co-founder of the Swaraj Party.-Early life:Born in Nadiad, in the Indian state of Gujarat, Vithalbhai Jhaverbhai Patel was the third of five Patel brothers, four years elder to Vallabhbhai Patel, raised in the village of Karamsad...
, who was elected for a second time in 1927. He succeeded in laying down clearly defined practices and procedures for the business of the Assembly and defended members' rights and privileges. In 1928, he was able to create for the first time a separate office for the Assembly, independent of the administration of the Government of India. Patel established the convention that the President would neither take part in debates nor vote, except to use his casting vote
Casting vote
A casting vote is a vote given to the presiding officer of a council or legislative body to resolve a deadlock and which can be exercised only when such a deadlock exists...
in favour of the status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
.
Sir Muhammad Yakub was the deputy president of the Assembly from 1927 until 1930 and became President in 1930. Yakub's deputy president from 1931 to 1933, R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
Sir Ramasamy Chetty Kandasamy Shanmukham Chetty KCIE was an Indian lawyer, economist and politician who served as independent India's first finance minister from 1947 to 1949...
, was President from 1933 to 1934.
In 1935, Sir Abdur Rahim
Abdur Rahim (judge)
Sir Abdur Rahim, KCSI, Kt , sometimes spelt Abdul Rahim, was a judge and politician in British India, and a leading member of the Muslim League...
KCSI
Order of the Star of India
The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:# Knight Grand Commander # Knight Commander # Companion...
was elected as second Muslim President of the Assembly, serving until 1945. He was a former Chief Justice of the Madras High Court and professor of law in the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
.
Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar
Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar
Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar popularly known as Dadasaheb was an independence activist, the President of the Central Legislative Assembly, then Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India, and later the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India.-Early...
became the last President of the Assembly in January 1946 and remained in office until the Assembly came to an end on 14 August 1947. (Mavlankar became the first Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India
Constituent Assembly of India
The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and following independence served as the nation's first Parliament.-Nature of the Assembly:...
, and in 1952 the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
, the lower house of the Parliament of India
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...
.)
Notable members
- Asaf AliAsaf AliAsaf Ali was an Indian independence fighter and noted Indian lawyer. He was the first ambassador from India to the United States. He also worked as the governor of Orissa....
- B. R. AmbedkarB. R. AmbedkarBhimrao Ramji Ambedkar , popularly also known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, political leader, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian, orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar, editor, a revolutionary and one of the founding fathers of independent India. He was also the Chairman...
- Madabhushi Ananthasayanam AyyangarMadabhushi Ananthasayanam AyyangarMadabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker and then Speaker of Lok Sabha in the Indian Parliament. He was Governor of Bihar also....
- Sir Shah Nawaz BhuttoShah Nawaz BhuttoSir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, CIE, OBE, OBI was a politician hailing from Larkana in Sindh province of British India, which is now part of Pakistan.-Early life:Bhutto, the son of Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto, was born into Arain family of Sindh...
- Amarendra ChatterjeeAmarendra ChatterjeeAmarendranath Chatterjee was an Indian independence movement activist. In charge of raising funds for the Jugantar movement, his activities largely covered revolutionary centres in Bihar, Orissa and the United Provinces....
- R. K. Shanmukham ChettyR. K. Shanmukham ChettySir Ramasamy Chetty Kandasamy Shanmukham Chetty KCIE was an Indian lawyer, economist and politician who served as independent India's first finance minister from 1947 to 1949...
(President of the Assembly, 1933–1934) - Bhagwan DasBhagwan DasBhagwan Das was an Indian theosophist and public figure. For a time he served in the Central Legislative Assembly of British India. He became allied with the Hindustani Culture Society and was active in opposing rioting as a form of protest...
- Bhulabhai DesaiBhulabhai DesaiBhulabhai Desai was an Indian freedom fighter and acclaimed lawyer. He is well-remembered for his defense of the three Indian National Army soldiers accused of treason during World War II, and for attempting to negotiate a secret power-sharing agreement with Liaquat Ali Khan of the Muslim League.-...
- Gurusaday DuttGurusaday DuttGurusaday Dutt was a civil servant, politician, folklorist, and writer.-Early Life and education:He was the son of the Ramkrishna Dutt Chaudhuri and Anandamayee Debi...
- V. V. GiriV. V. GiriVarahagiri Venkata Giri , commonly known as V. V. Giri, was the fourth President of the Republic of India from 24 August 1969 to 23 August 1974.-Early life:...
- Hari Singh GourHari Singh GourHari Singh Gour , also known as Sir Hari Singh Gour and Dr. Hari Singh Gour, was a distinguished lawyer, jurist, educationist, social reformer, poet, and novelist. He was one of the greatest visionaries of education of this century on the Indian subcontinent and even on a global scale...
- Abdullah Haroon
- P. S. Sivaswami IyerP. S. Sivaswami IyerSir Pazhamaneri Sundaram Sivaswami Iyer, KCSI, CIE was a prominent lawyer, administrator and statesman who served as the Advocate General of Madras from 1907 to 1911....
- Madan Mohan MalaviyaMadan Mohan MalaviyaMadan Mohan Malaviya was an Indian educationist, and freedom fighter notable for his role in the Indian independence movement and his espousal of Hindu nationalism...
. - Muhammad Ali JinnahMuhammad Ali JinnahMuhammad Ali Jinnah was a Muslim lawyer, politician, statesman and the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum ....
- Khan Abdul Jabbar KhanKhan Abdul Jabbar KhanKhan Abdul Jabbar Khan popularly known as Dr. Khan Sahib was a pioneer in the Indian Independence Movement and a Pakistan politician.-Early life:...
- Liaquat Ali KhanLiaquat Ali KhanFor other people with the same or similar name, see Liaqat Ali Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan was a Pakistani statesman who became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Defence minister and Commonwealth, Kashmir Affairs...
- Mohammad Ismail Khan
- G. S. KhapardeG. S. KhapardeGanesh Srikrishna Khaparde was a renowned Indian lawyer, scholar, political activist and a noted devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba....
- Rafi Ahmed KidwaiRafi Ahmed KidwaiRafi Ahmed Kidwai , was an Indian independence activist and a socialist, sometimes described as an Islamic socialist...
- Kasturbhai LalbhaiKasturbhai LalbhaiKasturbhai Lalbhai was an Indian industrialist. He was widely perceived as a nationalist businessman akin to G. D. Birla.- Early life :...
- Minoo Masani.
- Ganesh Vasudev MavlankarGanesh Vasudev MavlankarGanesh Vasudev Mavalankar popularly known as Dadasaheb was an independence activist, the President of the Central Legislative Assembly, then Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India, and later the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India.-Early...
(last President of the Assembly, January 1946 to August 1947) - Barrister Ramrao DeshmukhRamrao DeshmukhRamrao Madhavrao Deshmukh was a prominent political and academic personality from Amravati, Maharashtra. He was one of the very few Barristers from the region at that time.-Political life:...
- Satyendra Chandra MitraSatyendra Chandra MitraSatyendra Chandra Mitra was an Indian freedom fighter, who started his political career as a revolutionary in the Jugantar Party in 1916, to being elected the Chief Whip of the Swarajya Party in the Central Legislative Assembly in 1927 and later became the President of the Bengal Legislative...
- Motilal NehruMotilal NehruMotilal Nehru was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress, who remained Congress President twice, and...
- Govind Ballabh PantGovind Ballabh PantBharat Ratna Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant was a statesman of India, an Indian independence activist, and one of the foremost political leaders from Uttarakhand and of the movement to establish Hindi as the official language of India.-Early life:Govind Ballabh Pant was born on September 10, 1887 in...
- Vithalbhai PatelVithalbhai PatelVithalbhai Patel was an Indian legislator and political leader, and co-founder of the Swaraj Party.-Early life:Born in Nadiad, in the Indian state of Gujarat, Vithalbhai Jhaverbhai Patel was the third of five Patel brothers, four years elder to Vallabhbhai Patel, raised in the village of Karamsad...
(first elected and first non-European President of the Assembly, 1925–1930) - Anugrah Narayan SinhaAnugrah Narayan SinhaDr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha , known as Bihar Vibhuti, was an Indian statesman who was the first Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of the Indian state of Bihar...
- Tanguturi PrakasamTanguturi PrakasamTanguturi Prakasam Pantulu was an Indian politician and Freedom Fighter and the first Chief Minister of the Indian province Andhra state...
- Sir Abdur RahimAbdur Rahim (judge)Sir Abdur Rahim, KCSI, Kt , sometimes spelt Abdul Rahim, was a judge and politician in British India, and a leading member of the Muslim League...
KCSIOrder of the Star of IndiaThe Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:# Knight Grand Commander # Knight Commander # Companion...
(President of the Assembly, 1935 to 1945) - Lala Lajpat RaiLala Lajpat RaiLala Lajpat Rai was an Indian author, freedom fighter and politician who is chiefly remembered as a leader in the Indian fight for freedom from the British Raj. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari or Sher-e-Punjab meaning the samem and was part of the Lal Bal Pal trio...
- Kumar Sankar RoyKumar Sankar RoyKumar Sankar Roy was born in 1882 and was a scion of the zamindar family of Teota . Although initially trained as a Barrister he never took up law as his profession. Instead, he entered politics as part of the Swarajya Party, founded by Chittaranjan Das and was elected to the Central Legislative...
- Kasturiranga SanthanamK. SanthanamShri Kasturiranga Santhanam , also known as Kumitithadai Santhanam, was an Indian politician. He was a conservative Iyengar from Tamil Nadu and acquired the appellation 'Pandit' for his erudition....
- Sir Frederick WhyteFrederick WhyteSir Alexander Frederick Whyte KCSI was a British civil servant, Liberal Party politician, writer, and journalist.-Biography:...
(first president of the Assembly, 1920–1925) - Sir Ibrahim Rahimtoola KCSI CIE GBE (President of the Assembly, 1931 to 1933)