Estimate the reforms of Lord Ripon.
Ripon believed that self-government is the highest and noblest principles of politics. Therefore, Ripon helped the growth of local bodies like the Municipal Committees in towns and the local boards in Taluk and Villages. The powers of municipalities were increased. Their chairmen were to be non-officials.
They were entrusted the care of local amenities, sanitation, drainage and water-supply and also primary education. District and Taluk boards were created. It was insisted that the majority of the members of these boards should be, elected non officials. The local bodies were given executive powers with financial resources of their own. It was perhaps the desire of Ripon that power in India should be, gradually transferred to the educated Indians. He also insisted on the election of local bodies as against selection by the government.
In all these, measures Ripon’s concern was not so much efficiency in administration. Instead, Ripon diffused the administration and brought the government closer to the people. This was his most important achievement. It was Ripon who laid the foundations of the system which functions today.
Ripon believed that self-government is the highest and noblest principles of politics. Therefore, Ripon helped the growth of local bodies like the Municipal Committees in towns and the local boards in Taluk and Villages. The powers of municipalities were increased. Their chairmen were to be non-officials. They were entrusted the care of local amenities, sanitation, drainage and water-supply and also primary education.
District and Taluk boards were created. It was insisted that the majority of the members of these boards should be, elected non officials. The local bodies were given executive powers with financial resources of their own. It was perhaps the desire of Ripon that power in India should be, gradually transferred to the educated Indians. He also insisted on the election of local bodies as against selection by the government. In all these, measures Ripon’s concern was not so much efficiency in administration.
Instead, Ripon diffused the administration and brought the government closer to the people. This was his most important achievement. It was Ripon who laid the foundations of the system which functions today.
Educational Reforms:
Like Lord William Bentinck, Lord Ripon was a champion of education of the Indians. Ripon wanted to review the working of the educational system on the basis of recommendations of the Wood’s Dispatch. For further improvement of the system Ripon appointed a commission in 1882 under the chairmanship of Sir William Hunter. The commission came to be known as the Huber commission. The commission recommended for the expansions and improvement of the elementary education of the masses.
The commission suggested two channels for the secondary education one was literary education leading up to the entrance examination of the university and the other preparing the students for a vocational career. The commission noted the poor status of women education. It encouraged the local bodie$ in the villages and towns to manage the elementary education. This had resulted in the extraordinary rise in the number of educational institutions in India.
First factory act (1881):
Lord Ripon introduced the Factory Act of 1881 to improve the service condition of the factory workers in India. The act banned the appointment of children below the age of seven in factories. It reduced the working hours for children. It made compulsory for all dangerous machines in the factories to be property fenced to ensure security to the workers.
llbert - Bill controversy (1884):
Lord Ripon wanted to remove two kinds of Law that had been prevalent in India. According to the system of law, a European could be tried only by a European judge or a European magistrate. The disqualification was unjust and it was sought to cast a needless discredit and dishonor upon the Indian born members of the judiciary. C.RIlbert, law member, introduced a bill in 1833 to abolish this discrimination in judiciary. But Europeans opposed this bill strongly.
They even raised a fund of one lakh fifty thousand rupees and established an organization called the Defense Association. They also suggested that it was better to end the English rule in India than to allow the English to the subjected to the Indian judges and magistrates. The press in England joined the issue. Hence, Ripon amended the bill to satisfy the English in India and England.