Indian Independence Act 1947

The Indian Independence Act 1947 received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and was enacted by the British Parliament to give legislative effect to the Mountbatten Plan (the "3 June Plan") of 1947. Drafted on the recommendation of the Cabinet Mission's failure to preserve a united India and the Congress–League deadlock, the Act translated the partition scheme into law within a remarkably short span. It was based on the principles agreed between Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Indian National Congress (Jawaharlal Nehru), the Muslim League (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and was steered through Parliament by Prime Minister Clement Attlee's Labour government. The appointed date for the transfer of power was fixed as 15 August 1947.

The Act's principal provisions created two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, each with its own Constituent Assembly possessing full power to frame and adopt any constitution. It abolished the office of Secretary of State for India and the suzerainty (paramountcy) of the British Crown over the princely states, leaving the roughly 560 states free to accede to either dominion or remain independent — a lapse Patel and V.P. Menon used to engineer accession. The Crown ceased to be the source of authority; the title "Emperor of India" was dropped from the royal style. Until each dominion framed its own constitution, the Government of India Act 1935 would serve as the interim constitution, with the Governor-General acting as constitutional head. Each dominion's legislature became sovereign, and the British Parliament's power to legislate for the dominions ended. The provinces of Bengal and Punjab were partitioned, with boundaries fixed by the Radcliffe Commission under Sir Cyril Radcliffe.

Mountbatten became the first Governor-General of independent India, while Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor-General of Pakistan and Lord Mountbatten its first; Jawaharlal Nehru became India's first Prime Minister and Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan's. The Act extinguished British treaty obligations with tribal areas and provided for the division of the armed forces, civil services and assets. India's Constituent Assembly (already functioning from December 1946) continued, and the Act was eventually repealed in India by Article 395 of the Constitution that came into force on 26 January 1950, when India became a sovereign republic; Pakistan adopted its first constitution in 1956. Provisions like the dropping of "Dominion" status and the British monarch's role were thus transitional.

For the exam, this Act is high-frequency across multiple papers. In UPSC Modern History it is tested as the culmination of the freedom struggle alongside the Mountbatten Plan, Cabinet Mission and the partition. In UPSC Indian Polity it appears as the legal bridge between the Government of India Act 1935 and the Constitution, especially the lapse of paramountcy and dominion status. In CSS Pakistan Affairs it is central to Pakistan's founding, with questions on the 3 June Plan, Radcliffe Award, and Jinnah's role as Governor-General. Typical question angles ask candidates to enumerate the Act's key provisions, distinguish "dominion" from "republic", and explain how princely state integration followed the lapse of paramountcy.