Indian Independence Act 1947: The Final Step In Transfer Of Power

With India's 79th Independence Day just around the corner, it's a good time to revisit one of the most defining chapters in modern history: the Mountbatten Plan and the Indian Independence Act 1947. Together, these events reshaped the subcontinent and set the course for its future.

The Mountbatten Plan was the final blueprint for the transfer of power from the British to the people of the subcontinent. Proposed by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy, it sought to hasten the end of colonial rule in British India.

Mountbatten arrived in India in March 1947. He announced the Partition Plan on June 3, stating that the British would transfer power to the Indian and Pakistani governments by mid-August that year. The announcement intensified violence, as uncertainty over the future triggered the largest forced migration in history.

This plan became the foundation for the Indian Independence Act 1947, passed by the British Parliament on July 5, 1947, and granted Royal Assent on July 18, 1947.

An official document dated July 18, 1947, called it, "An Act to make provision for the setting up in India of two independent Dominions, to substitute other provisions for certain provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, which apply outside those Dominions, and to provide for, other matters consequential on or connected with the setting up of those Dominions."

The legislation provided for the creation of two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, effective from August 15, 1947.

"As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan," the Act declared.

Under the terms of the Indian Independence Act, the provinces of Bengal and Punjab were to be divided, creating East Bengal (later Bangladesh) and West Bengal, as well as West Punjab in Pakistan and East Punjab in India.

"The Province of Bengal, as constituted under the Government of India Act, 1935, shall cease to exist, and there shall be constituted in lieu thereof two new Provinces, to be known respectively as East Bengal and West Bengal," the legislation stated.

While it heralded freedom, the plan was overshadowed by the immense human cost. The partition plan of 1947 triggered the largest mass migration in recorded history outside of war or famine, displacing millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs and leaving a deep scar on the region.

Today, the history of the Indian constitution traces its roots to this legislation, which formally dismantled the British and set the stage for the sovereign republics we know today.