Lord Lytton was an English statesman and poet (under the pen name Owen Meredith). He served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880, during which time Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.
An accomplished and popular diplomat, Lytton was afforded the rare tribute – especially for an Englishman – of a state funeral in Paris, although as Viceroy of India he has been criticised for his handling of the Great Famine of 1876–78 and the Second Anglo-Afghan War. His son Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, who was born in India, returned as Governor of Bengal and was briefly acting Viceroy.
In 1877, Lord Lytton convened a durbar (imperial assembly) in Delhi which was attended by around 84,000 people including princes and title holders. In 1878, he promulgated the Vernacular Press Act, which empowered him to confiscate the press and paper of a local language newspaper publishing 'seditious material'. The act resulted in public outcry in Calcutta led by the Indian Association and Surendranath Banerjee.
His son-in-law, and one of Britain's most outstanding architects, Edwin Lutyens, played a major role in the creation of New Delhi.
