Prelims · Modern India & the freedom struggle · 14 questions

Constitutional development & the transfer of power

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Prelims 2017 · Q26

Medium

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). Permalink ·

Prelims 2017 · Q62

Easy

In the context of Indian history, the principle of ‘Dyarchy (diarchy)’ refers to

Answer & explanation

Answer: (d) Division of the subjects delegated to the provinces into two categories.

Dyarchy, introduced in the provinces by the Government of India Act, 1919, divided provincial subjects into two lists: ‘reserved’ subjects run by the Governor with his executive council, and ‘transferred’ subjects run by Indian ministers answerable to the elected provincial legislature.

✓ (d) Provincial subjects were split into reserved and transferred categories, and each was administered by a different set of authorities under the same Governor.
✗ (a) The 1919 Act did make the central legislature bicameral (a Legislative Assembly and a Council of State), but that was a separate reform. Dyarchy was confined to the provinces.
✗ (b) A division of powers between the Centre and the provinces is a federal arrangement, not dyarchy. Dyarchy worked inside each province; the 1919 Act classified subjects as Central and Provincial and split only the provincial ones.
✗ (c) Dyarchy was not about rulers in London and Delhi. It concerned the division of authority within a provincial government.

Remember · Dyarchy (1919 Act): provincial subjects split into reserved (Governor and executive council) and transferred (ministers from the elected legislature); no dyarchy at the Centre.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Sources

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (Government of Tamil Nadu): History of the State Legislature ↗ “in regard to provincial matters a further division was made into "transferred subjects" administered by the Governor and his ministers responsible to the Legislative Council and "reserved subjects" administered by the Governor and his Executive Council.”
PIB, President's Secretariat: Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Memorial Lecture on the History of Parliamentary Democracy in India (15 May 2017) ↗ “The Government of India Act 1919 introduced the system of ‘dyarchy’ in eight major Provinces known as Governors Provinces. This system established a dual form of government in each province. … Under the 1919 Act, the Imperial Legislative Council was enlarged and a bicameral legislature introduced.”
NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part III, Chapter 4 “The executive was made partly responsible to the provincial legislature in 1919, and almost entirely so under the Government of India Act of 1935.”

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). Permalink ·

The same topic in Mains

The freedom struggleGS 1 syllabus
Constitution: evolution, features & basic structureGS 2 syllabus

Read it in NCERT

Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Chapter 1cited in 1 explanation
Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Chapter 4cited in 1 explanation