The Governor-General was empowered to invite different bodies in India to elect, select or delegate their representatives and to make regulations for their nomination.

[2] After being presented to the House of Lords in 1890, the Act was passed in 1892 in response to nationalist movements beginning to surface across British India.

[citation needed] This scheme would be overturned by the passage of the Indian Councils Act 1909 – also called the Morley-Minto reforms – which introduced indirect elections to Indian councils along with special electoral preferences for muslim minorities and various commercial and functional interests.

[citation needed] The universities, district board, municipalities, zamindars and chambers of commerce were empowered to recommend members to provincial councils.

[2] Thus, while failing to answer calls for direct elections, the principle of representation was introduced[citation needed].