History 364-0-01: Gender and Sexuality in Victorian Britain; Northwestern University, Fall 2014

• Lapel Griffin
  • He passes the exams to enter the Indian Civil Service, the arm of the government
  • He seeks to make arguments against demands of Indian power through various methods of feminization of Indian men
  • Although all Indian men get feminized, some are more feminized than others
  • He states that the London liberals who are coming out to India are not as deeply engraved because they are only on several-year terms, unlike himself
• Bengali Baboo
  • Britain brings in the Hindus into the civil service because there are not enough British men to run the whole thing by themselves
  • The Bengali Baboo are western educated, middle-class elite
  • This group will start pushing for power because they’re educated, they know how the government runs (because they are running it and making the country work)
  • Lapel Griffin pushes right back
  • “Bengali Baboo” came from the phrase “Babu” – Babu is intended as a respectable title, while the version with two Os is not
• Ilbert Bill
  • Allows some Indian magistrates and judges some jurisdiction over the trials of some crimes committed by British men and women
  • If the bill was passed as-is in its original form, the tweak to the law was so minor that it was estimated that, across the next decade, only 9-10 Indian judges would preside over the trials of British men and women
  • The Criminal Procedure Code Amendment Act of 1884
    • The compromise of the bill that is struck, in the actual act that gets passed, says that Indian judges and magistrates are allowed as long as there is also a European who is allowed to request a jury that is at least half European
  • “Indian men can’t be trusted with British women, they can’t even be trusted with their own women”
  • Indian Councils Act of 1892
    • Allows greater Indian middle-class, educated representation in legislative councils, which causes an uproar in British India

• The Ilbert Bill and Indian Councils Act (Handout)
  • The Ilbert Bill, 1883-4
    • Criminal Procedure Code Amendment Act, Jan 1884
    • This bill, proposed by  Member of the Government of India in the Legislative Council by the name of Courtenay Ilbert (he was a legal advisor), proposed to give Indian judges and magistrates – who were Indians working for the colonial administration – very limited criminal jurisdiction over British subjects in certain parts of India. As it was, only white officials were allowed criminal jurisdiction over whites. The idea the Ilbert Bill proposed, that of Indians sitting in judgment over the white British subjects (Anglo Indians), was anathema to most British living in India, who regarded the Bill as a threat to British power.
    • The Bill was introduced in India by Viceroy Ripon but did not pass in its original version. It became law in January of 1884, but was severely compromised. Indian judges and magistrates were granted limited jurisdiction over Europeans in certain areas, but Europeans won the right to demand a trial by jury at least half of whose members were European (i.e. white).
  • The Indian Councils Act of 1892
    • The Act authorized an increase in the size of the various legislative councils in India. Enacted due to the demand of the Indian National Congress (established 1885) to expand legislative councils, the number of non-official members was increased. The non-official members of Indian legislative councils were henceforth to be nominated by the Bengal chamber of commerce and provincial legislative council.
    • It introduced the principle of representation for educated Indian men. For example, council members could now put questions to the government concerning matters of public interest.
  • Sir Lepel Henry Griffin (July 20, 1838 – March 9, 1908) was a British administrator and diplomat in India.