40 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
both, with some slight exceptions, to the minister’s own discretion.”
Disraeli’s Bill suffered worse fate than the one of Lord Palmerston. It simply fell. A new bill was therefore introduced in August, 1858, and passed designated as an “Act for the better government of India.”
The Provision of this Act (of Section 75) which still largely regulate the administration of India may be divided into classes according to their nature :
(1) Those dealing with the past affairs.
(2) Those dealing with the future affairs.
We will first consider those that deal with the past affairs— mainly the settlement of the fiscal and commercial obligations of the Company. Section 42 of this Act “provided that the dividend on the capital stock of the East India Company, should be charged and chargeable upon the revenues of India alone.”
Amidst all the questions between India and England that had to be settled with equity none was more prominent than the question of the Indian debt. Who should bear the burden of the Indian debt was the burning question of the time. The crux of the question was who was responsible for it and what was its purpose ?
The most enlightening commentary on the problem is that of Major Wingate who immediately after the mutiny argued :
“Have the people of India had a voice in the management of their affairs, or have the taxation and expenditure of the Indian Government been regulated with a view to the welfare of India alone, without intervention or interference on the part of the government of this country ? By no means, the Government of India, whether viewed with reference to its forms or powers, has been, from the first hour of its existence up to the present time, the creation of the British Parliament. The power vested in the Government of India to contract debt, was a delegation of authority from the British Parliament, which, up to this hour, as in the case of the last debenture loan, exerts a right of interference over its exercise...... The East India Company have been declared by Parliament to have been simply trustees for the British nation, which, in accordance with this