ABSTRACT
This chapter considers that the historical review is till independence. Nationalist leaders in India seized the opportunity to demand self-rule and independence. The British had called upon Indians to co-operate in the war efforts for the sake of saving democracy and free institutions from autocracy and bureaucracy. The dominant attitude in British official circles was that Indians were not yet ripe for full independence and self-rule, and needed training in governance through local self-government. The Indian Statutory commission on Local Self-Government, popularly known as the Simon Commission, was appointed in 1927 to review working of local self-government particularly since Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms and suggest measures for improving the system. The Simon Commission made distinction between decentralisation proper and mere 'deconcentration', and observed that the latter had characterised the pre-reforms period. Lord Mayo's Resolution introduced a scheme of financial decentralisation which was notable step in making local self-government a little more meaningful than before, both in urban and rural areas.
