Ilbert Bill

The Ilbert Bill was a law by George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, was the then Governor-General and Viceroy of India proposed in 1883. It provided for an expansion of the rights of the Indian population in British India. Among other things, it should allow that in British India and Indians could sit on Britons to court. The introduction of this new law resulted both in British India and the United Kingdom to strong protests. It protested especially the British who lived in India because they refused to submit to the jurisdiction of those they considered not equivalent. The law was introduced in 1884 in a heavily watered-down form. The guided with great bitterness discussion exacerbated the tensions between the British and Indians and is one of the causes that led to the founding of the Indian National Congress.

Points for discussion

The strongest opposition to the Ilbert Bill came by British plantation owners, who feared that Indian judges other than British judges did not want to tolerate the abuse of its plantation workers. Another point of argument made ​​reference to the Indian rebellion of 1857, while the allegedly numerous British women and girls had been raped by Indian sepoys. For British women it turned on the perspective of the British colonialists is a great humiliation if they had to appear in a rape case against an Indian judge. In the British press has been suggested that Indian judges would abuse their power to fill their harem with white girls and women.

This propaganda contributed significantly to the rejection of this law. British women who publicly used against the bill argued that Bengali women were mistreated and scorned by their husbands.