The object of the Butler Committee of 1927 was to
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) Improve the relationship between the Government of India and the Indian States.
The Butler Committee was the Indian States Committee, set up in 1927 under Sir Harcourt Butler to examine the relationship between the Paramount Power (the British Crown acting through the Government of India) and the princely states, including their financial and economic relations with British India.
- ✓ (d) Its brief was the relationship between the Paramount Power and the Indian (princely) States; its 1929 report held that paramountcy must remain supreme and that the states could not be handed over to an Indian government without their consent.
- ✗ (a) Dividing jurisdiction between the Centre and the provinces was the subject of the 1919 and 1935 Government of India Acts and the Simon Commission, not the Butler Committee.
- ✗ (b) The Secretary of State's powers were fixed by Acts of the British Parliament; the Butler Committee dealt only with the princely states.
Remember · Butler Committee = Indian States Committee (1927–29), chaired by Sir Harcourt Butler: relations between the Paramount Power and the princely states.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- Raj Bhavan (Jan Bhavan), Uttar Pradesh: Sir Harcourt Butler ↗ “Governor of U.P. (1921–22); Governor of Burma (1923–27); Chairman, Indian States Committee (1928)”
- NCERT Class 12 · Politics in India since Independence, Chapter 1 “enjoyed some form of control over their internal affairs as long as they accepted British supremacy. This was called paramountcy or suzerainty of the British crown.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·