Journey to our Constitution: Indian Councils Act 1861.

This Act undone effect of the 1833 Act inasmuch as it restored the power of legislation to the Governments of Madras and Bombay. Also it made notable changes in the composition of the Governor General's council for executive & legislative purposes.

Changes brought:

Executive purposes.

Council of the Governor General was expanded and a fifth ordinary member was added. Now it included total 7 members (other two members being the Governor General and the commander in Chief).

Legislative purposes.

For the legislative purposes, not less than 6 and not more than 12 members were additionally to be nominated (comprising of both official and non-official members) by the Governor General and they were to hold the office for two years. Out of these, not less than half were required to be Non-Official. 

Similar provisions were enacted for the Governor's Council in provinces of British India.

Portfolio system:

With the Indian Councils Act for the first time Portfolio system started. Each member of the Council of the Governor General was allocated portfolio of a particular department. Lord Canning (1856-1858 as Governor general, 1858-1862 as Viceroy) was the First to start a Portfolio system.

Before the adoption of the portfolio system in the Government of India, the whole business of the Indian governmental business was carried out by the Governor-General-in Council (earlier name of Cabinet Secretariat), As the amount and complexity of business of the Government increased, the work of the various departments was distributed amongst the members of the Council: only the more important cases were dealt with by the Governor-General or the Council collectively.

Criticism:

1. Though the non-official members were added, the councils were neither a deliberative nor a representative body as these members could only consider the proposals kept before them by the Governor-General. But they could not criticise it.
2. The Governor -General was given overriding powers inasmuch as it enjoyed the powers of prior sanction, without which a bill could not be introduced in the assembly. Also, it enjoyed the ordinance making power in situation of emergency, having the force of Act of the Council. He could also veto a bill after it was passed.

Language issue in India: A historical overview (1937-1940).

The Anti-Hindi agitations began in pre-Independence era in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras State and part of Madras Presidency), which stretched to post-Independence periods. The agitations hugely criticised, through mass protests, riots, student and political movements the imposition of the official status of Hindi in the state and in the Indian Republic.

English was the official language during the British Raj. To make Hindustani as a common language to unite various linguistic groups against the British Government, in 1918, Mahatma Gandhi established the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (Institution for the Propagation of Hindi in South India). 

In 1925, the Indian National Congress adopted Hindustani for conducting its proceedings. It was supported by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Also Congress wanted to propagate the learning of Hindustani in non-Hindi speaking Provinces of India. But this was opposed by Periyar, who viewed it as an attempt to make Tamils subordinate to North Indians.

1937 Election in Madras Presidency: the Beginning.

After the 1937 elections in Madras Presidency, the Indian National Congress formed the government and C. Rajgopalachari (Rajaji) became the Chief Minister. He was a supporter of propagating Hindi in South India. Even before the elections, he had expressed support for Hindi in a newspaper article (Sudesamithran, 6 May 1937): 

"Government employment is limited. All cannot get it. Therefore one has to search for other jobs. For that and for business, knowledge of Hindi is necessary. Only if we learn Hindi, the south Indian can gain respect among the others."

Within a month of coming to power, he started his move of promoting Hindi by issuing a policy statements, introducing teaching in secondary schools and lobbying by pro-Hindi organisations like Hindustani Seva Dal and Hindustani Hitashi Sabha. This was opposed by Periyar and the opposition Justice Party led by A. T. Panneerselvam. With same objective, an Anti-Hindi conference was organised in October 1937 to protest the announcement. 

Meanwhile, in 1938, Rajaji passed a government order (G.O) making the teaching of Hindi compulsory in 125 Secondary schools in the Presidency. This move was viewed by Hindi's opponents as an attempt to destroy Tamil and promote Hindi. Thus, it led to wide protests against Rajaji and Hindi, which involved protest marches, anti-Hindi conferences, observing an anti-Hindi day (1st July and 3rd December 1938), fasts against government policies, black flag demonstrations and picketing of government offices and institutions.

The agitation lasted till the order was withdrawn in February 1940. 

Notable Role (11/1000): Prashant Narayan (Murder 2).

Recently, watching the movie Ek Villain, which was released last week, I felt something missing. I tried to recall my filmi brain, (which is occupied by most Hindi movies), I found the missing thing. This had something to do with the character portrayed by Ritesh Deshmukh in the movie. I feel that movie was good, but it could have been better, had Prashant Narayan been roped instead of Ritesh.

I still remember the 1st sequel of Bhatt camp's Murder- Murder-2 -which was released in 2011. This movie still stands as one of the finest and most successful psycho horror of Bhatt (after Dushman). It is so because of the character portrayed by Prashant (Dheeraj Paney in the movie). It is due to his role, that this movie won several accolades.

His role stands as on of the best negative role ever performed in Bollywood.

Here are several scenes of the movie:

Interrogation scene.

Murder of college girl.