Who among the following gave evidence before the Joint Select Committee on the Government of India Bill, 1919 in favour of female franchise? 1. Mrs. Annie Besant 2. Mrs. Sarojini Naidu 3. Mrs. Hirabai Tata Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 only
- (b)1 and 2 only
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. All three women appeared before the Joint Select Committee of the House of Lords and Commons in 1919 to argue for the enfranchisement of Indian women. The sequence explains why. In December 1917 Sarojini Naidu had led a deputation of fourteen women to Edwin Montagu asking that women be included in the new franchise; the Montagu-Chelmsford proposals of 1918 ignored them, and the Southborough Franchise Committee's report of April 1919 rejected the demand again. When Southborough sent that report to the Joint Select Committee in London, the Bombay Committee on Women's Suffrage sent Herabai Tata and her daughter Mithan to give evidence, and in August 1919 Annie Besant and Sarojini Naidu presented their own pleas to the same committee. The campaign did not win the vote outright, but the Government of India Act, 1919 left it open to each Provincial Council to enfranchise women, and between 1919 and 1929 every British province and most princely states did.
- (a)1 only — Names only Annie Besant. She did appear, but so did the other two, and Herabai Tata's evidence was the one the Bombay Committee specifically financed and sent.
- (b)1 and 2 only — Drops Herabai Tata, who is the woman with the strongest claim of the three — she travelled to London for this purpose and appeared before the committee twice, in the summer and again on 13 October 1919.
- (c)2 and 3 only — Drops Annie Besant, who put the case to the committee in August 1919 alongside Sarojini Naidu.
The Government of India Bill of 1919 was scrutinised by a Joint Select Committee of both Houses of the British Parliament, and that committee was the last point at which the franchise rules could be changed. Indian women's organisations, chiefly the Women's Indian Association founded at Adyar in 1917 by Margaret Cousins with Annie Besant as president and Herabai Tata as general secretary, used that opening. Their demand was not universal suffrage but the removal of sex as a disqualification, leaving the same property and education tests that applied to men.
An all-three answer is often the safe reading in a question of this shape, and here it is also the correct one, because these three names are exactly the delegation the histories record. The reason the item is worth learning is the outcome. The committee refused to enfranchise women directly, but the Act permitted provincial legislatures to do it, and they promptly did — Madras city in 1919, Travancore and Jhalawar in 1920, the Madras and Bombay Presidencies in 1921. Two small points on the printed page: the paper spells the third name Hirabai, while the standard spelling in the histories is Herabai; and each name carries the honorific Mrs., which was the usage of the time.
- The Women's Indian Association was founded at Adyar in 1917, with Annie Besant as president and Herabai Tata as general secretary.
- On 15 December 1917 Sarojini Naidu led a deputation of fourteen women to Edwin Montagu demanding that women be included in the new franchise.
- The Southborough Franchise Committee reported in April 1919 that women should not be enfranchised; the Bombay Committee on Women's Suffrage then sent Herabai Tata and her daughter Mithan to London to give evidence.
- In August 1919 Annie Besant and Sarojini Naidu presented pleas for enfranchisement to the Joint Select Committee; Herabai and Mithan Tata appeared before it again on 13 October 1919.
- The Government of India Act, 1919 did not grant the vote but allowed each Provincial Council to remove the sex disqualification, and the first to do so was the Madras City Council in 1919.
- Assuming Annie Besant's role was confined to the Home Rule League. She was president of the Women's Indian Association and argued its case in London.
- Treating the 1919 Act as having granted women the vote. It only allowed provinces to do so, and they did it one by one.
- Confusing the Southborough Committee, which drew up the electoral rules, with the Joint Select Committee of Parliament, which reviewed the Bill.
As a who-did-what item on the women's franchise campaign, or as a statements item on what the Government of India Act, 1919 did and did not do for women.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Women's Indian Association, founded in 1917 at Adyar, had which one of the following as its first president?
- (a)Sarojini Naidu
- (b)Annie Besant
- (c)Margaret Cousins
- (d)Muthulakshmi Reddy
Answer(b) Annie Besant — Margaret Cousins founded the association and Herabai Tata was its general secretary, but Besant was named president.
- practice — not a real PYQ
With regard to women's franchise, the Government of India Act, 1919 did which one of the following?
- (a)Granted the vote to all adult women
- (b)Left it to each Provincial Council to decide whether women could vote
- (c)Reserved seats for women in the Central Legislative Assembly
- (d)Barred women from voting anywhere in British India
Answer(b) Left it to each Provincial Council to decide whether women could vote — and between 1919 and 1929 every British province and most princely states used that power.