Who headed the Royal Commission on Indian currency appointed in 1913 ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Sir Austin Chamberlain. The body appointed in 1913 was the Royal Commission on Indian Finance and Currency, and it is universally known by the name of its chairman as the Chamberlain Commission. Austen Chamberlain — the booklet prints 'Austin' — was a senior British Conservative politician who had already served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he presided over an inquiry into how India's monetary system should be organised, in particular whether the gold exchange standard then in operation should be retained. The Commission reported in 1914, endorsing the existing arrangement, and its recommendations were then largely overtaken by the First World War. The reason option (a) is dangerous is that John Maynard Keynes really was on this commission — he was its youngest member, he had published Indian Currency and Finance in the same year, 1913, and he contributed an annexe proposing a state bank for India. Being the most famous name attached to a body is not the same as heading it, and questions of this type are built precisely on that confusion. The other two are men from different decades of the same debate. James Wilson came to India as the first Finance Member of the Viceroy's Council in 1859, founded The Economist in Britain, introduced the income tax in India in 1860 and set in motion the government paper currency that followed in 1861 — half a century before 1913. Sir W. R. Mansfield is a nineteenth-century name, again far removed from a body appointed in 1913. Only Chamberlain fits both the year and the office of chairman.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The classic trap, because it is half true. Keynes was a member of this very commission, its youngest, and he published Indian Currency and Finance in 1913 and wrote an annexe proposing a state bank for India. He did not chair it. A question asking who headed a body is testing exactly the distinction between its most famous member and its chairman.  (b) Right subject, wrong half-century. Wilson was the first Finance Member of the Viceroy's Council, arriving in 1859, and he introduced the income tax in India in 1860 and initiated the government paper currency that followed. He died in India in 1860, more than fifty years before this Commission was appointed.  (c) A nineteenth-century name. It appears here because a candidate who has learned a list of currency committees without their dates may recognise it and reach for it without checking that it belongs to a different era altogether.

Concept: India's monetary arrangements under colonial rule were settled through a sequence of committees and commissions, and the exam expects the sequence with the names attached. The problem they were all addressing was the same: the rupee was a silver coin, the value of silver against gold fell steeply in the late nineteenth century, and India's obligations to Britain — the Home Charges — had to be paid in sterling. The Herschell Committee of 1892 responded by recommending that the Indian mints be closed to the free coinage of silver, which was done in 1893. The Fowler Committee of 1898 recommended a gold standard with the British sovereign as legal tender, giving rise to what became known as the gold exchange standard. The Chamberlain Commission of 1913–14 reviewed that system and endorsed it. After the war, the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance of 1926, chaired by Hilton Young, recommended a gold bullion standard and the creation of a central bank, and that recommendation eventually produced the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934, under which the Bank began operations on 1 April 1935. Reading the chain in order is what makes each individual name memorable.

State PCS 2024 Q55 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q55 — History PYQ with Answer