2017-07-18 Tue

Today in 1947 the Indian Independent Act, which was passed by the British Parliament on July 5, 1947, received the Royal assent. Two hundred years of slavery was ending and India was going to rise to a new dawn.

This Act was based on the 3rd June Plan or the Mountbatten Plan. This plan was last plan before independence and Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Governor General of India Lord Mountbatten formed legislation with the agreement of Indian national congress, Muslim League, and the Sikh community to form this plan which included the principle partition of India. It was accepted by British government and successor government would be given dominion state.

According to this plan, two dominions of India and Pakistan came into existence from the Indian-subcontinent under British rule. This all thing started with Attlee's announcement on 20 February 1947, according to which the British Government would grant full self-government to British India by June 1948 at the latest and the fate of the Princely state would be decided afterward.

The main features of this Act were as follows:

Two Dominion States of India and Pakistan were formed.
The boundaries between these two states were determined by a boundary commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliff.
The authority of the British Crown over the Princely states ceased and they were free to join India or Pakistan or remain independent.
The Constituent Assemblies of both the states were free to make constitutions of their respective countries.

On August 7, 1947, Mohammad Ali Jinnah left for Karachi. He was elected as President on 11th August 1947 by the Constituent Assembly and days later the Governor General. On the midnight of 14th and 15th August 1947, the Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan came into existence. In India Lord Mountbatten was elected Governor General of India and a new cabinet headed by Jawaharlal Nehru was sworn into position.

But the price of partition was heavy and thousands of people lost their lives and way of living. They left their property and came to these new countries in hope of new life.

The above show images contain the one rupee silver coin of King George V issued in 1947 and a commemorative stamp depicting Tri-colour. This silver coin indicated India slavery for 200 years and the flag is the symbol of her freedom struggle and the pride of its people.