EPFO EO/AO 2023 General Ability Test · Question 22 of 120

Correct — C, (c) It retained the authority of the Secretary of State over the Government of India. The 'not' is printed in bold italic, so the item wants the statement that misdescribes the Act. Statements (a), (b) and (d) are the three standard features of 1935. Statement (c) reverses the direction of the change the Act made to the India Office. The 1935 Act ABOLISHED the Council of India — the statutory body that had advised and constrained the Secretary of State for India since the Government of India Act, 1858 — and gave him instead a set of advisers whose counsel did not bind him in the same statutory way. More importantly, provincial autonomy stripped him of the routine superintendence, direction and control he had exercised over provincial administration: the provinces now drew their authority directly from the Crown through the Act, not as agents of a Centre answerable to Whitehall. The examiner's point is that 1935 curtailed the Secretary of State's authority over the Government of India rather than retaining it, which makes (c) the incorrect statement of the four.

• (a)It was an outcome of the Round Table Conferences. — This is correct, so it is not the answer. The Act's paper trail runs Simon Commission report (1930) → three Round Table Conferences in London (1930, 1931, 1932) → the White Paper on Constitutional Reform (March 1933) → the Joint Select Committee under Lord Linlithgow → the Bill → the Act of August 1935. The Congress boycotted the first and third conferences, but the Act is still, on the record, what the conference process produced.
• (b)It provided for the establishment of an All India Federation. — This is correct, so it is not the answer. The Act provided for a Federation of British Indian provinces and the princely states. The federal part never came into being, because accession by the princes was voluntary and the threshold laid down in the Act was never reached; the Centre continued to be run under the 1919 Act as adapted. 'Provided for' and 'came into existence' are different claims, and the option makes only the first.
• (d)It introduced the provision of Provincial Autonomy. — This is correct, so it is not the answer. The Act abolished dyarchy in the provinces and made them autonomous units with ministries responsible to elected legislatures — the arrangement under which the 1937 provincial elections were held and Congress ministries took office in most provinces. Dyarchy was not abolished outright: it was moved to the Centre, where the Governor-General retained reserved subjects. Confusing those two halves is the usual way this option is misread.

The Government of India Act, 1935 is the longest statute the British Parliament had passed to that date and the direct ancestor of the Constitution of India — its federal scheme, its three legislative lists, its office of Governor and its emergency and discretionary powers all survive in altered form. For examination purposes it is a feature-list: an All India Federation of provinces and states (never established), provincial autonomy replacing provincial dyarchy, dyarchy introduced at the Centre, a three-fold division of powers into Federal, Provincial and Concurrent Lists, a Federal Court (set up 1937), a Reserve Bank of India, separate electorates extended, and the abolition of the Council of India at the India Office. The negative half of the list — what the Act took away — is what this item tests.

The paper's history block leans on the four constitutional milestones a labour-administration officer is assumed to know: 1773, 1858, 1919 and 1935. EPFO likes the 'which is not correct' shape here because three of the four options can be lifted straight from a standard feature-list, and the fourth is a plausible-sounding sentence that inverts one of them. The habit rewarded is checking each option for direction of change, not just for topic.

• Government of India Act, 1935 — outcome of the Simon Commission report, the Round Table Conferences, the White Paper of 1933 and the Linlithgow Joint Select Committee.
• It provided for an All India Federation of British Indian provinces and princely states; the states' accession was voluntary and the federation never came into being.
• Provincial autonomy: dyarchy abolished in the provinces, ministries made responsible to provincial legislatures; the 1937 provincial elections were held under it.
• Dyarchy was introduced at the Centre instead, with subjects reserved to the Governor-General.
• Powers divided into three lists — Federal, Provincial and Concurrent — with residuary power left with the Governor-General.
• The Council of India, created by the Act of 1858 to advise the Secretary of State, was abolished; he was given advisers in its place.
• A Federal Court was provided for and was set up in 1937; the Reserve Bank of India was provided for as well.
• The office of Secretary of State for India itself continued until 1947 — what the Act cut back was the scope of his control, particularly over provincial administration.

• Reading 'provided for a federation' as a claim that the federation existed. It never did — but the Act did provide for it.
• Thinking 1935 abolished dyarchy altogether. It abolished it in the provinces and introduced it at the Centre.
• Assuming the Secretary of State's office was abolished in 1935. It was the Council of India that went; the office lasted until 1947.
• Answering the first statement that sounds true when the stem's emphasised 'not' asks for the false one.

EPFO EO/AO tends to ask 1935 either as a 'which is not correct' four-statement item like this one, or as a single-fact recall on one feature (the three lists, the Federal Court, provincial autonomy). Learn the feature-list with its dates and its non-events, and both shapes collapse into the same recall.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following bodies, created by the Government of India Act of 1858, was abolished by the Government of India Act, 1935 ?

  • (a)The Board of Control
  • (b)The Council of India
  • (c)The Court of Directors
  • (d)The Imperial Legislative Council

  Answer(b) The Council of India

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Government of India Act, 1935, dyarchy was :

  • (a)Abolished in the provinces and introduced at the Centre
  • (b)Introduced in the provinces for the first time
  • (c)Abolished both in the provinces and at the Centre
  • (d)Retained in the provinces in its 1919 form

  Answer(a) Abolished in the provinces and introduced at the Centre