The New Constitution for India

Without question, the most important legislation passed in 1935 by the British Parliament was the Government of India Act which received the royal assent on August 2, 1935. This statute has numerous claims to careful study by political scientists. On a purely quantitative scale, the Act has two obvious grounds for distinction. It will serve for some years as the fundamental law for one-fifth of the world's population; and it will operate—if all goes well—over the entire subcontinent of India. In the second place, though one hesitates to offer this as a recommendation, the new statute is by all odds the most enormous constitution in the world. In comparison with its bulk, the most notoriously extensive American constitutions (e.g., those of Oklahoma and California) pale into insignificance. The Government of India Act of 1935 contains 478 sections occupying exactly 300 pages, together with a further 130 pages of schedules. But perhaps it should be explained that the new act really contains two constitutions: one for India (210 pages plus schedules) and one for Burma (90 pages plus schedules).