RAS question
Which Viceroy introduced the system of decentralization of finances in India?
Correct answer: (A) Lord Mayo.
Lord Mayo introduced the system of financial decentralisation in India by giving provincial governments defined revenue sources and responsibility for managing their expenditure.
Explanation
Lord Mayo, Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872, is associated with the start of financial decentralisation in India. His system gave provincial governments certain sources of revenue and required them to manage their own expenditure. Panchayati Raj System In India, RD (Panchayat) Department, Government of Tripura links this with Mayo's Resolution of 1870, describing it as financial decentralisation and connecting it with local taxation and the transfer of departments. This is why Mayo, not a later viceroy, is treated as the initiator: the reform shifted selected fiscal responsibilities away from the centre and towards provincial and local administration. Mayo was also the first Viceroy to be assassinated, at the Andaman Islands in 1872.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Lord Lytton is linked in the question data with the Vernacular Press Act and the Delhi Durbar, not with the initial system of financial decentralisation.
- (C) Lord Ripon extended decentralising reforms, but the initial financial decentralisation step identified here began with Lord Mayo.
- (D) Lord Curzon is linked in the question data with the partition of Bengal, not with introducing financial decentralisation.
Concept
This tests administrative and financial reforms under British viceroys, a recurring RAS theme because chronology decides many close modern-history questions. Mayo's reform is important because it marks the early move towards decentralised fiscal responsibility in colonial administration.