Committee on Indian Students (Lytton Committee)

This series contains some of the evidence, both oral and written, collected by the Committee on Indian Students, along with corrected summaries of oral evidence and correspondence relating to the work of the Committee

The Committee on Indian Students was appointed by the Secretary of State for India, in a Minute dated 11 May 1921, to report and make recommendations on the arrangements in India for facilitating the access of Indian students to the UK, the ways in which the Secretary of State's control should be exercised as distinct from the work of administration undertaken by the High Commissioner, and the work necessary to provide for the admission of Indian students and the provision of special or technical training. It consisted of the Earl of Lytton (Chairman), Sir Deva Prasad Sarvadhikary, Diwan Bahadur M Ramachandra Rao, C E W Jones, Sir Murray Hammick, Sahibzada Aftab Ahmad Khan, Ernest Barker, A P M Fleming, M N Chatterjee and L M Brooks. S K Datta joined the Committee in June 1921 on the resignation of M N Chatterjee. The Secretaries to the Committee were E G Howarth of the Universities Branch of the Board of Education, and R E Reid of the Indian Students' Department of the Office of the High Commissioner for India. The Committee, except for Sir D P Sarvadhikary and Diwan Bahadur M Ramachandra Rao, met at the India Office on 11 May 1921, where it drew up a memorandum of the lines along which its enquiries would be directed for publication and distribution to those invited to give evidence before it. The first meeting of the full Committee was held on 18 May 1921 at the India Office. The Committee subsequently undertook a tour of the United Kingdom, visiting Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle, with evidence being taken in London at 42 Grosvenor Gardens in rooms lent by the High Commissioner for India. Oral or written evidence was taken from 260 witnesses representing Indian students, Universities, Colleges and other educational institutions, Industry and Trades Associations and Federations, Indian Students' Department and certain departments of the India Office, and unofficial organisations concerned with the welfare of Indian students, and also from private individuals interested in Indian students. From the beginning of its enquiries, the Committee had felt that it was necessary for it to travel to India to complete its investigations, and arrangements had been made accordingly. However, when the Indian Legislative Assembly refused to vote the funds needed to meet the expenses, the Committee's visit to India had to be abandoned. The Secretary of State asked the Committee to prepare its report containing such tentative recommendations as were possible from its investigations in the UK, and the Committee agreed to do so. Its report was signed on 14 September 1922.

The series has been arranged into the following five sub-series: Q/10/1 Correspondence relating to the work of the Committee; Q/10/2 Written Evidence submitted to the Committee; Q/10/3 Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee on Indian Students at 42 Grosvenor Gardens, London, and at Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne; Q/10/4 Corrected summaries of oral evidence; Q/10/5 Other papers

Unrestricted

The Report of the Committee, with appendices and evidence, can be found in the Official Publications at IOR/V/26/864/13. Files on furniture and electric fans for the Committee at Grosvenor Gardens can be found at IOR/L/SUR/6/22/21 and IOR/L/SUR/6/22/49. Further papers relating to the Committee on Indian Students can be found in the Public and Judicial Department Annual Files (IOR/L/PJ/6).

Report of the Committee on Indian Students 1921-22 (London: HMSO, 1922)