Question

Why was the Ilbert Bill controversial?

Answer 1

Hint: A Bill was introduced in 1883 by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, the Law Member of the Governor General’s Executives Council. This bill allowed Indian judges to try cases involving the Europeans. Till now, only European judges could try the cases of Europeans. The Ilbert Bill caused widespread agitation amongst the European community. They have opposed the Bill and forced the government to withdraw it.

Complete answer:
Courtenay Illbert drafted the “Bill to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1882, thus far because it was associated with the jurisdiction of European British subjects' ', which afterward became known as the Ilbert Bill. On 2nd February 1883, he moved for leave to introduce it and the bill was formally introduced on 9 February 1883. The most vocal opponent of the bill was British tea and indigo plantation owner in Bengal. The rumors were spread by British Press in India that an English female was raped by an Indian in Calcutta. The agenda that Indian judges couldn’t be trusted in handling cases involving English females helped raise considerable support against the Ilbert Bill. John Beames, a civil servant in India stated, “It is intensely distasteful and humiliating to all Europeans. It will tend seriously to impair the prestige of British rule out India. It conceals the weather of revolution which can ere long prove the ruin of the country.” Bengal women support the Ilbert Bill by claiming that they were more educated than the English women as opposed to the bill.

Note: The University of Calcutta became one of the first universities to take admissions of female graduates to its degree programs in 1878, before any of the British universities had done the same. As a result of popular disapproval of the bill by a majority of English women, Viceroy Rippon passed an amendment, whereby a jury of 50% Europeans was required if an Indian judge was to face a European on the dock. At last, an answer was adopted by compromise: jurisdiction to undertake Europeans might be conferred on European and Indian session judges and DMs alike. Finally, the bill was passed on 25 January 1884, coming into force on 1st May 1884.