ABSTRACT
The demand for truly representative local self-government, operated under an elective system, was made by middle-class liberals, both Indian and British, soon after the establishment of municipalities in India in the 1860s. The more articulate sections of the citizenry voiced their discontent in public meetings and through petitions to the government. The local officials who were asked to form such bodies invariably selected people who were not only influential and wealthy but loyal to government. Thus in Dacca the members of the Nawab family, leading bankers and businessmen, and native government officials were always selected as municipal commissioners and consulted at times on matters of state. The passing of Act II of 1873, which provided for the election of the commissioners, vice-chairman and chairman at the discretion of the government gave the critics their opportunity. In Bengal, the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Rivers Thompson, certainly made no secret of his opposition to the Viceroy's proposals for local self-government reform.
