Secretary of State for India in the context of "Imperial Legislative Council of India"

The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire.

The colonial secretary never had responsibility for the provinces and princely states of India, which had its own secretary of state.

The Indian Civil Service (abbreviated as ICS, officially known as the Imperial Civil Service) was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.

Its members administered more than 300 million people in the presidencies and provinces of British India and were ultimately responsible for overseeing all government activity in the 250 districts of British India. They were appointed under Section XXXII(32) of the Government of India Act 1858, enacted by the British Parliament. The ICS was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet. At first, almost all the top thousand members of the ICS, known as "Civilians", were British and had been educated in the best British schools.

The Council of India (1858 – 1935) was an advisory body to the Secretary of State for India, established in 1858 by the Government of India Act 1858. It was based in London and initially consisted of 15 members. The Council of India was dissolved in 1935 by the Government of India Act 1935. It is different from the Viceroy's Executive Council based in India, which was the advisory body and cabinet of the Governor-General of India/Viceroy, which was originally established in 1773 as the Council of Four.

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (/ˈɡæskɔɪn ˈsɪsəl/ GASK-oyn SISS-əl; 3 February 1830 – 22 August 1903), known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen years. He was also Foreign Secretary before and during most of his tenure. He avoided international alignments or alliances, maintaining the policy of "splendid isolation".

Lord Robert Cecil, later known as Lord Salisbury, was first elected to the House of Commons in 1854 and served as Secretary of State for India in Lord Derby's Conservative government 1866–1867. In 1874, under Disraeli, Salisbury returned as Secretary of State for India, and, in 1878, was appointed foreign secretary, and played a leading part in the Congress of Berlin. After Disraeli's death in 1881, Salisbury emerged as the Conservative leader in the House of Lords, with Sir Stafford Northcote leading the party in the Commons. He succeeded William Ewart Gladstone as prime minister in June 1885, and held the office until January 1886.

The India Office was a British government department in London established in 1858 to oversee the administration of the Provinces of India, through the British viceroy and other officials. The administered territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of the Indian Subcontinent as well as Yemen and other territories around the Indian Ocean. The India Office was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, who was formally advised by the Council of India.

Upon the independence of India in 1947 into the new independent dominions of India and Pakistan, the India Office was closed down. Responsibility for the United Kingdom's relations with the new countries was transferred to the Commonwealth Relations Office (formerly the Dominions Office).

The Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms or more concisely the Mont–Ford Reforms, were introduced by the colonial government to introduce self-governing institutions gradually in British India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State for India from 1917 to 1922, and Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of India between 1916 and 1921. The reforms were outlined in the Montagu–Chelmsford Report, prepared in 1918, and formed the basis of the Government of India Act 1919. The constitutional reforms were considered by Indian nationalists not to go far enough though British conservatives were critical of them. The important features of this act were that:

1. The Imperial Legislative Council was now to consist of two houses: the Central Legislative Assembly and the Council of State.
2. The provinces were to follow the Dual Government System, or diarchy.

The Government of India Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 101) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India. The act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, and the Viceroy, Chelmsford. The act covered ten years, from 1919 to 1929. This act began the genesis of responsible government in India. It was set to be reviewed by the Simon Commission in 10 years.

The act received royal assent on 23 December 1919. On the same day the King-Emperor issued a proclamation which reviewed the course of parliamentary legislation for India and the intent of the act: