INDIA AND DEPENDENCIES 115
INDIA AND DEPENDENCIES.
India, as defined by Parliament (52 and 53 Vict. c. 63, s. 18), comprises all that part of the great Indian Peninsula which is directly or indirectly under British rule or protection. In a popular sense it includes also certain countries such as Nepal, which are beyond that area, but whose relations with India are a concern of the Foreign and Political Dej>artnient of the Govern- ment, whose ageut resides in the country concerned. These countries will be found included in the third part of the Year- Book among Foreign Countries The term British India includes only the districts subject to British law, and does not include native States. The term is so used, unless otherwise stated, in the tables, ic, that follow. The symbol Ry. stands for ten rupees. Rx. 1 — Rs. 10.
Government and Constitution.
The present form of government of the Indian Empire is established by various Parliamentary Statutes which are now consolidated in the Government of India Act, 1915, as amended by the Government of India (Amendment) Act, 1916, and the Government of India Act, 1919. All the territories originally under the government of the East India Company are vested in His Majesty, and all its powers are exercised in his name ; all revenues, tributes and other payments, are received in his name, and disposed of for the purposes of the government of India alone. Under the Royal Titles Act, 1876, the King of Great Britain and Ireland has the additional title of Emperor of India.
It is the declared policy of Parliament to provide for "the increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of sell-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire."
Government, in England. — The administration of the Indian Empire in England is entrusted to a Secretary of State for India, assisted by a Council of not less than eight and not more than twelve members, appointed for five years by the Secretary of State. At least one-half of the members must be j>ersons who have served or resided ten years in India, and have not lelt India more than five years previous to their apj>oiEtment. A member may be removed by His Majesty upon an address from both Houses of Parliament, and the Secretary oi State may for special reasons, to be recorded in a minute signed by him and placed before both Houses of Parliament, reappoint a member of the Council for a further term of five years. No member can sit in Parliament. The duties of the Council, which has no initiative authority, are to conduct the business transacted in the United Kingdom in relation to the government of India. The expenditure of the revenues of India, both in India and elsewhere, is subject to the control of the Secretary of State in Council, and no appropriation can be made without the concurrence of a majority of votes of the Count il. The Secretary of State regulates the transaction ol business. The existence of a legislative Assembly in India with a large elected majority renders it desirable that the Secretary of State should intervene only in exceptional circumstances in matters of purely Indian interest, where the Government and Legislature of India are in agreement.
Power is given by the 1919 Act for the appointment in the United Kingdom of a High Commissioner for India, to whom may be delegated
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