Lord Ripon's resolution of 1882

Also called: Resolution on local self-government · Topic: Urban Local Government: Municipalities and Cities · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 8 "Local Governments"

Meaning

Lord Ripon's resolution of 18 May 1882 was a British government order that asked for elected local bodies in both towns and villages. These bodies were to have a majority of elected non-official members, a non-official chairperson, and only outside supervision from the government. It is called the "Magna Carta" of local self-government in India, and it earned Ripon the title father of local self-government. NCERT (Class 11) dates elected local bodies in India from 1882.

Explanation

Background: what came before 1882

• Local self-government: local people run local affairs, such as roads, sanitation and schools, through bodies they elect themselves.
• Madras Corporation (1687–88): India's oldest municipal body. A municipal corporation is an elected local body that runs a large city.
• It was created by an East India Company charter of 1687 and set up on 29 September 1688.

• It got the power to levy municipal taxes only through a Parliamentary Act of 1792.

• Charter of 1726: it set up mayors' corporations in the three presidency towns: Madras, Bombay and Calcutta.

• 19th century: municipal acts spread step by step, first to the presidency towns and then to district towns.
• Mayo's resolution (1870): it gave the provinces more control over some local funds. This is financial decentralisation (handing money powers down from the centre).
• It was about money, not about elected boards.

The four demands of the 1882 resolution

• Local boards in rural areas:
• Before this, local bodies were mostly in towns.

• Ripon wanted elected boards in rural areas as well.

• Elected non-official majorities:

• "Non-official" means ordinary citizens, not government servants.

• Most members of each board were to be such citizens, chosen by election.

• Non-official chairpersons:

• A citizen, not a district officer, was to head the board.

• State control from outside, not from within:

• The government should check and guide the boards from outside.
• It should not sit inside the boards and run them.

The idea behind it

• Political and popular education:
• Ripon saw local bodies as a training school.

• By running their own towns and districts, Indians would learn self-rule.

• Why it is called the "Magna Carta":

• A Magna Carta is a founding charter of rights.
• The 1882 resolution was the first clear statement of the principles of local self-government in India.

Limits of the resolution

• It was only a resolution, not a law.

• It set out policy. It did not give local bodies any legal or constitutional guarantee.

• The government stayed in overall charge.

• Real control over local government passed to elected Indians only in 1919, when it became a transferred subject.

• Its principles waited 110 years for constitutional protection.

• That protection came only with the 74th Amendment in 1992.

In the Constitution and practice

• How it grew under British rule:
• Royal Commission on Decentralisation (1907–09, Hobhouse): it reviewed how power was shared between the Government of India, the provinces and local bodies. It also looked at how to make local bodies stronger.
• Government of India Act 1919: under dyarchy ("double rule"), local self-government became a transferred subject. That means it was handed to Indian ministers who answered to the elected provincial legislature.

• Government of India Act 1935: it brought provincial autonomy. Elected ministers now handled all provincial subjects, including local government.

• Municipalities as a school for nationalists (Ripon's idea at work):

• Jawaharlal Nehru chaired the Allahabad municipality.
• Vallabhbhai Patel led the Ahmedabad municipality.

• C.R. Das became Calcutta's first mayor (1924), with Subhas Chandra Bose as its chief executive officer (CEO).

• After 1947: no constitutional guarantee for towns

• State List, Entry 5 (Seventh Schedule) puts "local government" under the states. Each state therefore passed its own municipal acts.
• Article 40 is a Directive Principle (a goal for the State that no court can enforce). It speaks only of village panchayats, not towns.

• Supersession was common. This means state governments dissolved elected councils and handed them to administrators (officials), which went against Ripon's principle of "control from outside".

• Constitutional recognition at last:

• The Constitution (65th Amendment) Bill, 1989 on nagarpalikas (municipalities) fell in the Rajya Sabha.
• The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 inserted Part IXA ("The Municipalities") [3]. It came into force on 1 June 1993 [2].
• Its Statement of Objects and Reasons (the official note explaining why a bill is needed) said local bodies had become "weak and ineffective" [3].
• It blamed the "failure to hold regular elections, prolonged supersessions and inadequate devolution of powers and functions" [3].

Don't confuse with

• Mayo's resolution (1870): it was about financial decentralisation to the provinces. Ripon's 1882 resolution was about elected boards with non-official majorities and chairs.
• Government of India Act 1919: it made local self-government a transferred subject under Indian ministers. Ripon's resolution only set out principles and did not change who controlled the subject.
• Madras Corporation (1687–88): it was India's oldest municipal body. Ripon's resolution came almost 200 years later and gave the first general policy of elected local self-government.
• 74th Amendment (1992): it gave urban local bodies constitutional status (Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule). Ripon's resolution was only an executive policy with no legal guarantee.

Prelims Hooks

• "Magna Carta" of local self-government: Lord Ripon's resolution of 18 May 1882. Ripon is the father of local self-government in India.
• Trap: Mayo's resolution (1870) was about financial decentralisation, not elected boards. Do not mix it up with Ripon's 1882 resolution.
• The four principles of 1882:
• rural local boards
• elected non-official majorities
• non-official chairpersons

• state control from outside, not from within

• Local self-government became a "transferred subject" under the Government of India Act 1919, not under the 1882 resolution or the 1935 Act.

• Royal Commission on Decentralisation (1907–09) was chaired by Hobhouse.
• Constitutional status for municipalities came with the 74th Amendment. It added Part IXA and came into force on 1 June 1993 [2][3].

Mains Points

• An old idea with a late guarantee (GS-II):
• Ripon's 1882 principles of elected majorities, non-official chairs and control from outside got constitutional backing only in 1992.
• In the gap, states could supersede councils at will, because local government was only a matter of state law under State List Entry 5.

• The 74th Amendment's Statement of Objects and Reasons admits this weakness [3].

• Local bodies as schools of democracy (GS-I/II):

• Ripon's "political and popular education" idea proved true. Nehru, Patel, C.R. Das and Bose all learned to govern in city bodies.

• This supports the case that strong local bodies train future leaders and build democratic habits.

• "Control from outside" is still a live issue (GS-II):

• Even after the 74th Amendment, real devolution of funds, functions and functionaries depends on each state.
• Many urban local bodies lack their own taxes and trained staff. Ripon's goal of truly self-governing local bodies is still only partly met.

Related concepts

• Madras Municipal Corporation

Read more

• From the Madras Corporation to the Nagarpalika Bill