Secretary of State for India

{{Short description|Former position in British government}} {{More citations needed|date=January 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}} {{Use British English|date=February 2017}} {{Infobox official post | post = Secretary of State for India | body = | native_name = | flag = | flagsize = | flagborder = | flagcaption = | insignia = Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government, 1901-1952).svg | insigniasize = | insigniacaption = Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government | image = | imagesize = | alt = | type = | status = | department = India Office | style = | member_of = British Cabinet Privy Council | reports_to = | residence = | seat = Westminster, London | nominator = | appointer = The British Monarch {{small|on advice of the Prime Minister}} | termlength = At His Majesty's pleasure | constituting_instrument = Government of India Act | precursor = President of the Board of Control | formation = 2 August 1858 | first = Lord Stanley | last = William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel | abolished = 14 August 1947 | succession = | deputy = Under-Secretary of State for India | salary = }}

[[File:The seat of the chairman of the court of directors of the East India Company (c.1730) - BL Foster 905.jpg|thumb|The ceremonial seat of the Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, and subsequently that of the Secretary of State for India]] [[File:John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn - Project Gutenberg eText 17976.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, Secretary of State for India from 1905 to 1910 and again briefly, as acting Secretary, in 1911]] ''' His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India''', known for short as the '''India secretary''' or the '''Indian secretary''', was the secretary of state with responsibility for the India Office in Whitehall that oversaw relations and administration of the India subcontinent under the British Raj. The post was created in 1858 when the East India Company's rule in Bengal ended and India, except for the Princely States, was brought officially under the British Crown from London and the officeholder was a member of the British Cabinet.

In 1937, the India Office was reorganised which separated Burma and Aden under a new Burma Office, but the same secretary of state headed both departments and a new title was established as '''His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India and Burma'''. The India Office and its secretary of state were abolished in August 1947, when the United Kingdom granted independence in the Indian Independence Act, which created two new independent dominions, India and Pakistan. Burma soon achieved independence separately in early 1948.

==Secretaries of state for India, 1858–1937==

{{hatnote|Before the establishment of the British Empire on 2 August 1858, Lord Stanley had served as President of the Board of Control.}}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! colspan=2 | Portrait ! Name ! colspan=2 | Term of office ! Political party ! colspan=2 | Prime Minister |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Edward Stanley, Lord Stanley''' MP for King's Lynn | 2 August 1858 | 11 June 1859 | Conservative | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby |- | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | 75px | rowspan=2 | Sir '''Charles Wood''' MP for Halifax until 1865 MP for Ripon after 1865 | rowspan=2 | 18 June 1859 | rowspan=2 | 16 February 1866<ref>Resigned after being injured in a hunting accident.</ref> | rowspan=2 | Liberal | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | |   Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston   |- | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | John Russell, 1st Earl Russell |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''George Robinson, 3rd Earl de Grey''' | 16 February 1866 | 26 June 1866 | Liberal |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne''' MP for Stamford | 6 July 1866 | 8 March 1867 | Conservative | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 |   Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby   |- | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | 75px | rowspan=2 | Sir '''Stafford Northcote''' MP for North Devonshire | rowspan=2 | 8 March 1867 | rowspan=2 | 1 December 1868 | rowspan=2 | Conservative |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | |   Benjamin Disraeli   |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll''' | 9 December 1868 | 17 February 1874 | Liberal | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | William Ewart Gladstone |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury''' | 21 February 1874 | 2 April 1878 | Conservative | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | Benjamin Disraeli |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Viscount Cranbrook''' | 2 April 1878 | 21 April 1880 | Conservative |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Spencer Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington''' MP for North East Lancashire | 28 April 1880 | 16 December 1882 | Liberal | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | William Ewart Gladstone |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley''' | 16 December 1882 | 9 June 1885 | Liberal |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Lord Randolph Churchill''' MP for Paddington South | 24 June 1885 | 28 January 1886 | Conservative | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley''' | 6 February 1886 | 20 July 1886 | Liberal | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | William Ewart Gladstone |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross''' | 3 August 1886 | 11 August 1892 | Conservative | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley''' | 18 August 1892 | 10 March 1894 | Liberal | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | William Ewart Gladstone |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Henry Fowler''' MP for Wolverhampton East | 10 March 1894 | 21 June 1895 | Liberal | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery |- | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | 75px | rowspan=2 | Lord '''George Hamilton''' MP for Ealing | rowspan=2 | 4 July 1895 | rowspan=2 | 9 October 1903<ref>Resigned.</ref> | rowspan=2 | Conservative | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | |   Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Unionist Coalition)   |- | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 |   Arthur Balfour (Unionist Coalition)   |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Irish Unionist Alliance}}" | | 75px | '''William St John Brodrick''' MP for Guildford | 9 October 1903 | 4 December 1905 | Irish Unionist |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | 75px | rowspan=2 | '''John Morley''' MP for Montrose Burghs until 1908 Viscount Morley of Blackburn after 1908 | rowspan=2 | 10 December 1905 | rowspan=2 | 3 November 1910 | rowspan=2 | Liberal | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=4 style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=4 | H. H. Asquith |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Earl of Crewe''' | 3 November 1910 | 7 March 1911 | Liberal |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn''' | 7 March 1911 | 25 May 1911 | Liberal |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe''' | 25 May 1911 | 25 May 1915 | Liberal |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Austen Chamberlain''' MP for Birmingham West | 25 May 1915 | 17 July 1917<ref>Resigned.</ref> | Conservative | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | H. H. Asquith (Coalition) ---- David Lloyd George (Coalition)

|- | style="background-color: {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Edwin Montagu''' MP for Chesterton until 1918 MP for Cambridgeshire after 1918 | 17 July 1917 | 19 March 1922 | Liberal |- | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | 75px | rowspan=2 | '''William Peel, 2nd Viscount Peel''' | rowspan=2 | 19 March 1922 | rowspan=2 | 22 January 1924 | rowspan=2 | Conservative | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | Bonar Law |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | Stanley Baldwin |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier''' | 22 January 1924 | 3 November 1924 | Labour | style="background-color: {{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}" | | Ramsay MacDonald |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead''' | 6 November 1924 | 18 October 1928 | Conservative | rowspan=2 style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | rowspan=2 | Stanley Baldwin |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''William Peel, 2nd Viscount Peel''' | 18 October 1928 | 4 June 1929 | Conservative |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''William Wedgwood Benn''' MP for Aberdeen North | 7 June 1929 | 24 August 1931 | Labour | style="background-color: {{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}" | | Ramsay MacDonald |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | Sir '''Samuel Hoare''' MP for Chelsea | 25 August 1931 | 7 June 1935 | Conservative | style="background-color: {{party color|National Labour Organisation}}" | | Ramsay MacDonald (1st & 2nd National Min.) |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | 75px | '''Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland''' | 7 June 1935 | 28 May 1937 | Conservative | style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}" | | Stanley Baldwin (3rd National Min.) |}

==Secretaries of state for India and Burma, 1937–1947==

==Secretaries of state for Burma, 1947–1948==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! colspan=2 | Portrait ! Name ! colspan=2 | Term of office ! Political party ! colspan=2 | Prime Minister |- | style="background-color: {{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}" | | | The Right Honourable '''William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel''' | 14 August 1947 | 4 January 1948 | Labour | style="background-color: {{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}" | | Clement Attlee |}

{{Uk-fco-history}}

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * St. John, Ian. "Writing to the Defence of Empire: Winston Churchill’s Press Campaign against Constitutional Reform in India, 1929–1935". In: C. Kaul, (ed) ''Media and the British Empire'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) pp.104-124[https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230205147_7 online]

* Williams, Donovan. "The Council of India and the relationship between the home and supreme governments, 1858-1870." '' English Historical Review'' 81.318 (1966): 56-73. [https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/LXXXI/CCCXVIII/56/410771 exzcerpt]

==External links== {{Commons category|Secretaries of State for India}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secretary Of State For India}} Category:1858 establishments in the United Kingdom India Category:Government of British India Category:Defunct ministerial offices in the United Kingdom Category:1947 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Category:1858 in India * Category:India Office

Secretary of State for India

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