ABSTRACT
The constitutional position in India at the outbreak of war in 1939 was the consequence of the India Councils Act (the Morley-Minto Reforms) of 1909, and the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935. There was now an elected Indian Assembly to which the central Government of India was responsible in all but defence and foreign affairs; and in the provinces there was already responsible government, though provincial governors in special circumstances retained the power to veto legislation. It had been intended in 1935 to create a federal structure for the whole sub-continent, but the Indian Princes would not co-operate. They thus remained technically outside British India, but subject by treaty to the Government of India as the 'paramount power'.
