Discussion
Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced in British India by the
Answer: C
Correct answer: Indian Councils Act, 1909
The Indian Councils Act of 1909, the Morley–Minto reforms, introduced separate electorates for Muslims, under which Muslim members were elected by Muslim voters alone. Lord Minto is sometimes called the father of communal electorates for it. The system was extended by the 1919 Act to Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans, and the 1935 Act extended it further to depressed classes, women and labour. Its proposed extension to the depressed classes under the Communal Award of 1932 provoked Gandhi’s fast unto death and the resulting Poona Pact with Ambedkar, which replaced separate electorates for them with reserved seats within a joint electorate - the arrangement the Constitution later adopted in Articles 330 and 332. The Constituent Assembly abolished separate electorates altogether, judging that they had entrenched communal division. That history is why India uses reserved constituencies today, in which all voters vote and only candidature is restricted.
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