George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon was a British politician who served in every Liberal cabinet since 1861. Lord Ripon is his given name. During his tenure as Viceroy, Lord Ripon instituted numerous reforms to alleviate the plight of local Indians. The introduction of local self-government, the first of its kind in British India, was the most significant of these reforms. He is known as the "Good Viceroy of India" as a result of this. This article will provide additional information about Lord Ripon in the context of the IAS Exam.

Lord Ripon

• Lord Ripon was the second son of Prime Minister F.J. Robinson and Lady Sarah Hobart, born on October 24, 1827. He received his education privately, as he did not attend school or college. Oxford University bestowed an honorary degree on him.
• Lord Ripon was elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal party in 1852.
• Under Palmerston, he was appointed Privy Counsellor and Secretary of State for War, with a seat in the cabinet. When Palmerston died in 1865, Lord Russell became Prime Minister, and he served as Secretary of State for India under Russell from February to June 1866.
• He served as Lord President of the Council during William Gladstone's first administration (1868–1873). During this time, he served as chairman of the joint commission charged with drafting the Treaty of Washington with the United States regarding the Alabama Claims. In recognition of this, he was created Marquess of Ripon in the County of York in 1871.

Viceroy of India

• In 1880, William Gladstone appointed Lord Ripon as Viceroy of India.
• One of his first acts was to introduce the IIbert Bill, which would have given Indians more legal rights, including the right of Indian judges to judge Europeans in court. Despite being a progressive step, the bill was vehemently opposed by Europeans who were horrified at the prospect of being judged by native Indians.
• One of his other efforts was to introduce a Bengal land tenancy bill, which became the Bengal Tenancy Act 1885, in order to improve the condition of peasants. In addition, Lord Ripon repealed the unpopular Vernacular Press Act of 1878.
• Lord Ripon is best known for the Resolution of 1882, which granted Indians the right to local self-government. The scheme of local self-government would develop municipal institutions that had previously been directly under the control of the British Crown.
• A series of laws would establish local self-government bodies in both rural and urban areas. He is known as the "Father of Local-Self Government in India" as a result of this.
• Lord Ripon's other reforms included the Hunter Commission, led by William Wilson Hunter, which called for large-scale educational reforms at both the primary and secondary levels of education, and the First Factory Act of 1881, which reduced the working hours of local factory workers and sought to improve their working conditions.
• Lord Ripon was also instrumental in the reorganization of the Madras Forest Department and the expansion of systematic forest conservation in India.

Resolution of 1882

• Lord Ripon is credited with giving Indians their first taste of liberty by instituting Local Self Government in 1882.
• His scheme of local self-government established the municipal institutions that had grown up in the country since the British Crown occupied India. He oversaw a series of enactments that granted greater powers of local self-government to rural and urban bodies, as well as expanded voting rights to the electorate.
• In India, Lord Ripon is known as the "Father of Local Self Government." This was not enacted by any act, but rather by a resolution passed in 1882.

Hunter Education Commission

• Lord Ripon established the Hunter Commission in 1882, led by William Wilson Hunter.
• William Wilson Hunter was a statistician, compiler, and Indian Civil Service member who later became Vice President of the Royal Asiatic Society.
• In 1862, he was appointed as a Magistrate in the Bengal Presidency, and it was only from there that he began compiling local traditions and records.
• The Hunter Commission exposed the country's neglect of primary and secondary education.
• Primary education should be entrusted to local and municipal bodies, according to the panel. The following were the most important suggestions:
• Primary education should be expanded by the government in a determined effort.
• Both literary and vocational instruction should be included in secondary education.
• The commission found that the country lacked adequate facilities for female education.

Parts of the proposals were implemented, and the number of secondary schools in the country gradually expanded.

Illbert Bill

• The Ilbert Bill is named after Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, a legal adviser to the Council of India.
• .Viceroy Ripon introduced the bill in 1883, with the intention of removing racial prejudice from the Indian Penal Code. Ripon proposed amending the country's existing laws to give Indian judges and magistrates the authority to try British offenders in criminal cases at the District level. It was never previously permitted.
• As a result, Europeans living in India saw it as a humiliation, and the bill's introduction sparked fierce opposition in both Britain and India (by the British residents). As a result, it was withdrawn, but reintroduced and enacted in a severely weakened form in 1884.
• The amended bill stated that Europeans would be conferred on both European and Indian District Magistrates and Sessions Judges. In all cases, however, a defendant would have the right to a jury trial, with at least half of the members being European. Thus, this enactment stated that European criminals would only be heard by Indian Judges "aided by European Judges."
• The passage of this bill opened Indians' eyes and deepened antagonism between the British and Indians. The result was increased nationalism and the formation of the Indian National Congress the following year.
• The amended Ilbert Bill was passed as the Criminal Procedure Code Amendment Act 1884 on January 25, 1884.

Conclusion

Lord Ripon's tenure as Viceroy came to an end in 1884, and he returned to England. He held a number of important positions, including honorary Colonel of the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Prince of Wales' Own and Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1873 to 1906. He was also a Freemason for a time, serving as Provincial Grand Master of the West Riding and Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1861 to 1869, and eventually as Grand Master from 1870. From 1904 until his death in 1909, he was also Chancellor of the University of Leeds. He was laid to rest in St Mary's Church, Studley Royal, and was succeeded by his only son, Frederick. Ripon Street in Calcutta was named after him. The Ripon Club in Mumbai, which was founded in 1884 by Parsis for the benefit of their community members, was named after him.