Charter Act 1853: Overview and Features [UPSC Polity Notes]

What is Charter Act 1853?

Go through the highlights of the Charter Act 1853 for easy quick revision.

Charter Act 1853 UPSC 

The Charter Act 1853 is an important topic in Modern Indian History. Over the years, several questions are asked from the Charter Act 1853 in both UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains GS Paper- 1. To cover this topic, a candidate needs to be well versed with the Indian History Notes for UPSC, along with readings of the NCERT Books for UPSC and the UPSC Books.

The importance of the Charter Act 1853 must be understood in a detailed manner along with the comparison between several other charter acts. 

Features of Charter Act 1853

• The legislative and executive functions of the Governor-General’s council were, for the first time separated. It provided for the addition of 6 new members to the council (12 in total), known as legislative councilors. The 12 members were:
• 1 Governor-General, 
• 1 Commander-in-Chief,
• 4 members of the Governor-General’s Council, 
• 1 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, 
• 1 regular judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, and 
• 4 representative members were drawn from the company’s servants with at least 10 years of tenure, appointed by the local governments of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, and North-Western Provinces.

• Through the Charter Act 1853, local representation was introduced into the legislative council in the form of four members from the local governments of Bengal, Bombay, Madras and North Western Provinces.
• Charter Act 1853 established a separate Governor-General’s legislative council which was known as the Indian (Central) Legislative Council. This legislative wing of the council functioned as a mini-Parliament.
• The Governor-General was relieved of the administrative duties of Bengal and instead worked for the Government of India.
• The Governor-General could nominate a Vice President to the council and his assent would be required for all legislative actions.
• Charter Act 1853 extended the company’s rule for an indefinite period, unlike the previous Charter Acts. 
• The Charter Act 1853 also served as the foundation of the modern parliamentary form of government. 
• The number of the members of the court of directors was reduced from 24 to 18 out of which 6 were to be nominated by the Crown. The Court of Directors was empowered to constitute a new Presidency.
• Charter Act 1853 established an open competition system for civil servant selection and recruitment for Indians. In 1854, the Macaulay Committee (the Committee on Indian Civil Service) was formed.

Charter Act 1853 UPSC Questions

One of the sample UPSC Prelims Questions on Charter Act 1853 can be:

Question- Under which Charter Act introduced by the British Parliament, the Indian Civil Services was thrown open to the Indians:

1. A) The Charter Act of 1833
2. B) The Charter Act of 1853
3. C) The Better Government of India Act, 1858
4. D) The Indian Councils' Act of 1861

Answer- Option B

Charter Act 1853 UPSC Notes PDF

Charter Act 1853 UPSC Notes will allow you to prepare the topic in a comprehensive manner for the upcoming IAS Exam. Download the Charter Act 1853 UPSC Notes from here.

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