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104 seats contested 53 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||
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General elections were held in British India in 1920 to elect members to the Imperial Legislative Council and the Provincial Councils. They were the first elections in the country's modern history.[1]
The new Central Legislative Assembly which was the lower chamber of the Imperial Legislative Council was based in Delhi had 104 elected seats, of which 66 were contested and thirty eight were reserved for Europeans elected through the Chambers of Commerce.[1] For the upper chamber, the Council of State, 24 of the 34 seats were contested, whilst five were reserved for Muslims, three for Whites, one for Sikhs and one for the United Provinces.[1] The Parliament was opened by the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn on 9 February 1921.[2]
Alongside the national elections there were also elections to 637 seats in Provincial Assemblies. Of these, 440 were contested, 188 had a single candidate elected unopposed. Despite the calls by Mahatma Gandhi for a boycott of the elections, only six had no candidate.[1] Within the Provincial Assemblies 38 were reserved for White voters.[1]
In 1920, proportional representation (STV) was used on experimental basis to elect three members of the Legislative Assembly of India for the European constituency of Bengal and to elect four members of the Council of State of India from the non-Mohammedan constituency of Madras. As well STV was used to elect four members of the Legislative Council of Bengal for the European constituency of Bengal.[3]
| Party | Seats | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 48 | |
| Other parties and independents | 47 | |
| Europeans | 9 | |
| Total | 104 | |
| Source: Schwartzberg Atlas | ||
| Member | Office |
|---|---|
| William Henry Hoare Vincent | Home Member |
| Sir Malcolm Hailey | Finance Member |
| Basil Phillott Blackett | Finance Member |
| C. A. Innes | Commerce and Industries Member |
| Tej Bahadur Sapru | Law Member |
| B. N. Sarma | Revenue and Agriculture Member |
| Denys Bray | Foreign Secretary |
| Sir Sidney Crookshank | PWD Secretary |
| Ernest Burdon | Army Secretary |
| Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler | Education Secretary |
| G. R. Clarke | Director General Posts and Telegraph |
| Atul Chandra Chatterjee | Industries Secretary |
| G. G. Sim | Jt. Finance Secretary |
| John Hullah | Revenue and Agriculture Secretary |
| A. V. V. Aiyer | Finance Department |
| M. H. H. Hutchinson | |
| Colonel W. D. Waghorn | |
| Abdul Rahim Khan | |
| Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt | |
| Thomas Henry Holland | |
| R. W. Davies | |
| P. E. Percival | |
| H. P. Tollinton | |
| F. S. A Slocock | |
| W. C. Renouf |
| Member | Province |
|---|---|
| B. C. Allen | Assam |
| Khabeeruddin Ahmed | Bengal |
| Khagendra Nath Mitter | Bengal |
| J. K. N. Kabraji | Bombay |
| Walter Frank Hudson | Bombay |
| William John Keith | Burma |
| J. F. Bryant | Madras |
| T. E. Moir | Madras |
| Theodore Alban Henry Way | United Provinces |
| Rustomji Faridoonji | Central Provinces |
|
Main article: Council of State (India) |
