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Dominion of India

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Fowler&fowler (talk | contribs) at 14:35, 27 September 2021 (Reverted good faith edits by Peter Ormond (talk): It is not the same thing; the nehru ministry continued until India's first elections of 1952; the dominion ended in January 1950; please don't make gratuitous edits). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Union of India
1947–1950
CapitalNew Delhi
King 
• 1947–1950
George VI
Governor-General 
• 1947–1948
Lord Mountbatten
• 1948–1950
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
Prime Minister 
• 1947–1950
Jawaharlal Nehru[2]
LegislatureConstituent Assembly
History 
15 August 1947
• Republic
26 January 1950
Area
19503,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi)
CurrencyIndian rupee
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
British Raj
Republic of India
Today part of

The Dominion of India,[3] officially the Union of India,[4] was an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations existing between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950. It was preceded by a pioneering and influential anti-colonial nationalist movement in the British Indian Empire which became a major factor in ending British rule. It came into existence as India both became independent and was beset with religious violence, a large-scale loss of life, and unprecedented migration of refugees. It was formalized by the passage of the Indian Independence Act 1947. A new government was formed led by Jawaharlal Nehru as prime minister, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as Deputy Prime Minister, both members of the Indian National Congress. Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, stayed on until June 1948 as independent India's first Governor-General.

The religious violence soon ended in good part because of the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi, but not before resentment grew among some Hindus, eventually costing Gandhi his life. To Patel fell the responsibility of integrating the princely states of the British Indian Empire into the new India. Lasting through the remainder of 1947 and the better part of 1948, integration was accomplished by the means of inducements, and on occasion threats. It went smoothly except in the instances of Junagadh State, Hyderabad State and Kashmir, the last leading to a war between India and Pakistan and to a dispute that has lasted until today. During this time, the Constitution of India was drafted, based in large part on the Government of India Act, 1935 of the British Raj, but also on elements of the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Ireland. Acknowledging painful aspects of India's own past, the Constitution abolished untouchability and derecognized caste distinctions. The Dominion of India lasted until 1950, whereupon India became a republic within the Commonwealth with a president as head of state.[5]

History

Background: 1946

Main article: Partition of India

By the early 1920s, the Indian National Congress had become the principal leader of Indian nationalism.[6] Led by Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress was to lead India to independence from the United Kingdom,[c][7][d][8] and powerfully influence other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.[e][9] The Congress's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism, led by the All-India Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which demanded a separate homeland for the Muslims of British India.[10]

Clement Attlee left with King George VI on the grounds of Buckingham Palace after Labour Party's victory in the general elections, 26 July 1945.

In the 1945 general elections in Britain, Labour Party won. A government headed by Clement Attlee, with Stafford Cripps and Lord Pethick-Lawrence in the Cabinet, was sworn in. Many in the new government, including Attlee, had a long history of supporting the decolonization of India. Late in 1946, the Labour government, its exchequer, and population, moreover, exhausted by the Second World War, [11][12] decided to end British rule in India, and in early 1947 Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June 1948.[13]

Earlier in 1946 elections had been called in India.[14] The Congress had won electoral victories in eight of the eleven provinces.[15] The negotiations between the Congress and the Muslim League, however, stumbled over the issue of a division of India. Jinnah proclaimed August 16, 1946 "Direct Action Day" with the stated goal of peacefully highlighting the demand for a Muslim homeland in British India. The following day Hindu-Muslim riots broke out in Calcutta and quickly spread throughout India. Although the Government of India and the Congress were both shaken by the course of events, in September a Congress-led interim government was installed, with Jawaharlal Nehru as united India’s prime minister.[16]

Independence: 1947

Lord Mountbatten swearing in Jawaharlal Nehru as the first prime minister of independent India on 15 August 1947

As independence approached, the violence between Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal continued. With the British army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, advanced the date for the transfer of power, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence.[17] In June 1947 the nationalist leaders, including Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad on behalf of the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, B. R. Ambedkar representing the Untouchable community, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to a partition of the country along religious lines in opposition to Gandhi's views.[13] The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to the new nation of Pakistan; the plan included a partition of the Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal.[18]

On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan came into being, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah sworn in as its first Governor-General in Karachi. The following day, 15 August 1947, the Dominion of India (officially the Union of India), became an independent country with official ceremonies taking place in New Delhi, and with Jawaharlal Nehru assuming the office of the prime minister, and the viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, staying on as its first Governor General.[19]

Partition: 1947

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, left, prime minister of Bengal (1946–1947) and later prime minister of Pakistan, and Mahatma Gandhi during their 73-hour fast in Calcutta to stop religious violence in the days after India's independence day

The Radcliffe Commission, tasked with assigning each district to either Pakistan or India, announced its award on 17 August 1947, two days after the transfer of power.[20] It divided the Sikh-dominated regions of the Punjab in equal proportion between the two dominions.[20] Sikh groups, which had feared the worst, had been preparing to mount a vigorous opposition to the award.[20] To counter the expected violence, the British Raj government had formed a 50,000-strong Indian Boundary Force. When the violence began, the Force proved ineffectual. Most units, which had been recruited locally, had stronger ties to one or other of Punjab's three religious groups, rendering them unable to maintain neutrality under stress.[20] In a matter of days, Sikhs and Hindus of the East Punjab were suddenly and unexpectedly attacking the Muslims there, and in the West Punjab, Muslims were returning the violence and the ferocity on the Sikhs.[20] Trains taking the refugees to their new lands were stopped, their occupants slaughtered regardless of age and gender.[20] Long lines of humans and ox-carts travelling East and West to their new dominions were intercepted and overwhelmed.[20]

The Hindu refugees from the west Punjab arriving in Delhi ended up tearing away the Muslim community there from their established cultural patterns and values, and temporarily destabilized the new government.[20] The death toll in the partition violence may never be known, but Judge G. D. Khosla, in Stern Reckoning thought it to be about 500,000.[20] In addition there was what historian Percival Spear has called "an involuntary exchange of population," which might be been of the order of five and a half million travelling each way across the new border.[20] From Sind, some 400,000 Hindus migrated to India, as did a million Hindus from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to West Bengal province in India.[20] Migrations coming in the wake of the massacres severely taxed the strength of the new government.[20]

Settling the refugees

Lady Edwina Mountbatten visiting a refugee camp just outside Delhi in June 1947.

The religious killings had abated by the Autumn of 1947, but the government was weighed down with the responsibility of settling the refugees.[21] In the Punjab, there was land available recently vacated by the Muslims; in Delhi, there was a glut of incoming Hindu and Sikh refugees: many more were arriving there than were Muslims departing for Pakistan.[21] The refugees were settled in several enclosed areas on the outskirts of Delhi. But they had overflowed into the streets and even occupied mosques. They attempted to take possession the Purana Qila, or Old Fort—ruins from the Delhi Sultanate—which were milling with Muslims waiting to be expatriated to Pakistan.[21] Religious passions were running high; a pogrom of the remaining Muslims in Delhi was feared.[21]

His mission of quelling the violence in Bengal accomplished, Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Delhi in October 1947.[21] His new mission was to bring back the peace in the city, and this entailed standing up for the embattled Muslims.[21] He chose to direct his activities from the scheduled caste (or "untouchables') "Balmiki Temple" in the Gole Market area of the city. (Eventually, as the temple was requisitioned for sheltering the incoming refugees, Gandhi moved to two rooms in Birla House, a large mansion in central Delhi.) Some groups within the Indian government opposed Gandhi's activities.[21]

Soon another issue sprouted up.[21] The partition of India had not just been a division of the land of British India; it had also involved a division of its assets.[21] Assets whose amounts had been negotiated earlier needed to be transferred from India (where the treasury was) to Pakistan. The Indian government had withheld this payment in order to pressure Pakistan over the burgeoning crisis in Kashmir; India feared an onslaught from Pakistan during the dreaded winter months.[21]

On 12 January 1948, Gandhi, who had turned 78 the previous October went on a hunger strike. The preconditions of its ending were the full payment of the cash assets, the signing of a peace accord in Delhi, and the evacuation of the mosques.[21][22] When the Government of India relented and agreed to transfer the assets on 18 January 1948, and the peace accord stood signed, Gandhi ended his fast.[21]

War over Kashmir

See also: Kashmir
The map of Kashmir showing the regions controlled by India and Pakistan. The Line of Control, the approximate successor of cease-fire line of 1949, separates the two regions. The Aksai-Chin region in the northeast is now controlled by China.

The princely state of Kashmir was created in 1846, after the defeat of the Sikh empire by the British in the First Anglo-Sikh War. Upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, became the new ruler of Kashmir. The rule of his descendants, under the paramountcy (or tutelage) of the British Crown, lasted until the Partition of India in 1947. Kashmir was connected to India through the Gurdaspur district in the Punjab region. However, its population was 77% Muslim and it shared a border with what would later become Pakistan. A significant portion of its economic activity had taken place down the Jhelum river with the Punjab region of Pakistan. Gulab Singh's descendant, Hari Singh, who was the reigning Maharaja of Kashmir in August 1947, had signed a "standstill agreement" with Pakistan to facilitate trade and communication. According to historian Burton Stein,

It was anticipated that he would accede to Pakistan when the British paramountcy ended. When he hesitated to do this, Pakistan launched a guerrilla onslaught meant to frighten its ruler into submission. Instead the Maharaja appealed to Mountbatten[23] for assistance, and the governor-general agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India. Indian soldiers entered Kashmir and drove the Pakistani-sponsored irregulars from all but a small section of the state. The United Nations was then invited to mediate the quarrel. The UN mission insisted that the opinion of Kashmiris must be ascertained, while India insisted that no referendum could occur until all of the state had been cleared of irregulars.[24]

In the last days of 1948, a ceasefire was agreed under UN auspices. However, since the plebiscite demanded by the UN was never conducted, relations between India and Pakistan soured,[24] and eventually led to two more wars over Kashmir in 1965 and 1999.

Death of Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi's ashes on a carriage being drawn by soldiers of the Indian army for immersion in the Triveni Sangam, Allahabad, February 1948

Some Indians were incensed by Gandhi's last fast and accused him of being too accommodating to both Muslims and Pakistan. Among them was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, a member of the political party Hindu Mahasabha as well as a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu paramilitary volunteer organization.[25][26][27] On 30 January 1948, Godse assassinated Gandhi in Birla House as Gandhi was on his way to his evening prayer meeting there, shooting Gandhi in the chest three times.

Later that evening, Nehru addressed the nation by radio:[28]

Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.[28]

Gandhi was mourned around the world. The British prime minister Clement Attlee said in a radio address to the United Kingdom on the night of 30 January 1948:

Everyone will have learnt with profound horror of the brutal murder of Mr Gandhi and I know that I am expressing the views of the British people in offering to his fellow-countrymen our deep sympathy in the loss of their greatest citizen. Mahatma Gandhi, as he was known in India, was one of the outstanding figures in the world today, ... For a quarter of a century this one man has been the major factor in every consideration of the Indian problem.[29]

After the mourning period was over, the finger of blame was firmly pointed at the Hindu extremists who had plotted the assassination, bringing not only them into disrepute, but Hindu nationalism in general, which did not recover its political reputation until many decades later.[21] The Deputy Prime Minsiter, Sardar Patel, who was also the Home Minister, was reproached for inadequate security arrangements.[21]

Gandhi's loss had the effect of giving Nehru more power.[21] According to historian Percival Spear, "The government was really a duumvirate between him (Nehru), who represented the idealism and left wing tendencies of the party, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the realist and party boss from Gujarat who leaned to authoritarianism, orthodoxy, and big business."[21] At Gandhi's pressing, Patel had twice put off claiming the prime ministership.[30] It was thought he might assert his claim now, but Gandhi's loss had affected him equally deeply, and although there was still some discord between him and Nehru, he buried himself resolutely in his work on the integration of the princely states. By the year's end, this was complete.[30] Patel died in 1950, and thereafter, Nehru ruled without any opposition.[30]

Political integration of princely states

Sardar Patel (centre) leaving the Durbar Hall in Jaipur after the inauguration of the Rajasthan Union in 1949. On the right is Man Singh II, the Maharaja of Jaipur and the first Rajpramukh of the Union; on the left is the Maharaja of Kotah

Two matters had been left unsettled from the Raj years: the integration of the princely states and the drawing up of a constitution and were addressed in that order.

There were 362 princely states in India.[f] The premier 21-gun salute state of Hyderabad had an area of 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi). Its population was 17 million.[30] At the other end of the spectrum, some two hundred states had an area of less than 25 km2 (10 sq mi).[31][32] The British had revoked their treaty rights and advised them to join in a political union with India or Pakistan.[30] For a short time the Nawab of Bhopal and some British political agents attempted to form a third "political force," but the princes were unable to trust each other.[30] By 15 August, all but three had acceded.[30]

Even after accession, there remained the question of deciding the place of the princes in the new political union.[30] Sardar Patel and his assistant V. P. Menon employed a combination of threats and inducements, the latter including special privileges and tax-free pensions.[30] Within a few months, all the states that had acceded in August 1947 had been blended in some fashion into a new federal union.[30] Baroda State and Kathiawar were combined to form the new federal unit of Saurashtra; and the states of Rajputana were united to form Rajasthan.[30] The princely states of Travancore and Cochin became Kerala.[33] Mysore being large in extent and population became a federal unit by itself.[33] Hundreds of small states were absorbed and soon became lost within larger federal units.[33]

Some former princes such as those of Mysore and Travancore were given titular leadership roles, called "Rajpramukh" (lit. "state leader"), in the new federal units, but their former power was absent, and the political structure was invariantly democratic.[33] Other former princes went into public service or private business.[33] After 1950, they survived as historical vestiges but were no longer political determinants in the new India.[33]

Except for Kashmir, where a major military conflict had begun in October 1947, two states, Hyderabad, and Junagadh had remained independent.[33] Junagadh was a small state on the coast of the Kathiawar peninsula, but its land border was with India.[33] It had a majority Hindu population but with a Muslim Nawab.[33] The Nawab acceded to Pakistan after independence. Within a few weeks, Indian troops marched into Junagadh. A plebiscite took place and was declared for India.[33] Although Pakistan protested, it took no further action.[33]

Hyderabad was in a different class. Although it had an 85%-Hindu population, its Muslim rule had begun during the Mughal period.[33] The ruling Nizams had proclaimed themselves to be equal allies of the British rather than subordinates.[33] But the state was landlocked, surrounded on all sides by India.[33] "No Indian government," according to Percival Spear, "could afford to have a block of land so placed independent and perhaps hostile."[33] The Nizam had rejected generous terms for accession brokered by the British.[33] Eventually, when he allowed the power of an extremist organization, the Razakars, to grow within his state, India militarily invaded the state in what was called a "police action," incorporating Hyderabad into its federal structure.[33]

Framing of the Constitution of India

The preamble of the Constitution of India.

The final achievement of the period of transition was the new constitution.[34] It was drafted by the Constituent Assembly with uncommon speed and absence of irregularities between 1946 and 1949.[34] The Government of India Act, 1935 was used as a model and framework.[34] Long passages from the Act were included. The constitution describes a federal state with a parliamentary system of democracy.[34] The federal structure is conspicuous for the strength of the central government, which has exclusively exercised control of defence, foreign affairs, railways, ports, and currency.[34] The President, the constitutional head of government, has reserve powers for taking over the administration of a state.[34] The central legislature has two houses, the Lok Sabha whose delegates are directly elected by the people in general elections every five years, and the Rajya Sabha, whose members are nominated by the elected representatives in the states.[34]

There are also features not to be found in the Act of 1935. The definition of fundamental rights is based on the Constitution of the United States, and the constitutional directives, or goals of endeavour, are based on the Constitution of Ireland.[35] An Indian institution recommended by the constitution is the panchayat or village committees.[35] Untouchability is illegal (Article 17) and caste distinctions are derecognized (Articles 15(2) and 16(2)).[35] The promulgation of the Indian constitution transformed India into a republic within the Commonwealth.[35]

Government and politics

The plan of the Constituent Assembly of India was drawn up during the British Raj, following negotiations between nationalist leaders and the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India. Its members were elected by the new provincial assemblies formed after the 1946 Indian provincial elections held in January. The Constituent Assembly had 299 representatives, consisting of 200 men and nine women.

The Interim Government of India was formed on 2 September 1946 from the newly elected members of the Constituent Assembly. The Indian National Congress secured 69 percent of all of the seats, whereas the Muslim League had a smaller number, but significantly all of the seats were reserved for Muslims. There were also lesser numbers from other parties, such as the Scheduled Caste Federation, the Communist Party of India, and the Unionist Party. In June 1947, members from the provinces of Sindh, East Bengal, Baluchistan, West Punjab, and the North West Frontier Province withdrew to form the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, which met in Karachi. On 15 August 1947, all the members of the Constituent Assembly who had not withdrawn to Karachi came to constitute India's Parliament. Only 28 members of the Muslim League finally joined the Indian Assembly. Later, 93 members were nominated from the princely states. The Congress secured a majority of 82%.

Jawaharlal Nehru took charge as Prime Minister of India on 15 August 1947. Vallabhbhai Patel served as the Deputy Prime Minister. Lord Mountbatten, and later C. Rajagopalachari, served as Governor-General until 26 January 1950, when Rajendra Prasad was elected as the first President of India.[36] [37] Nehru's cabinet of 15 included one woman.

Portfolio Minister Took office Left office Party
Prime Minister
Minister of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations
Minister of Scientific Research		15 August 194726 Januar 1950 INC
Deputy Prime Minister15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Home Affairs and States
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Information and Broadcasting
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
15 August 19471949 INC
194926 January 1950 INC
Minister of Finance15 August 19471949 INC
194926 January 1950 INC
Minister of Law15 August 194726 January 1950 SCF
Minister of Defence15 August 194726 January 1950 Panthic Party
Minister of Railways and Transport
John Mathai
15 August 194722 September 1948 INC
22 September 194826 January 1950 INC
Minister of Education15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Food and Agriculture15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Industries and Supplies15 August 194726 January 1950 HM
Minister of Labour15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Commerce15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Communications15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Health15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Works, Mines and Power15 August 194726 January 1950 INC
Minister of Relief and Rehabilitation15 August 194726 January 1950 INC

Demographics

The major demographic effort in the period was directed at measuring the effects of the Partition of India. The creation of Pakistan decisively depended on the proportionally high percentages of Muslims in certain geographical areas of the subcontinent. In the 1941 census, 24.3% of pre-independent India was recorded to be Muslim. In addition, 76 of the 435 districts in India had Muslim majority populations. These districts were home to 60% of the 94.4 million Muslims.[40] The Muslim population was clustered in two regions: the northwest, which included the Punjab, and the east, which included a large part of Bengal. These Muslim-majority districts were to constitute the western and eastern half of Pakistan that came into being in 1947.[40] But there was also a fairly large and spatially spread out minority population of Muslims in India, and a minority of Hindus in eastern Pakistan. It was therefore expected that there would be an exchange of the populations involving migration of Muslims into West and East Pakistan and migrations of non-Muslims (mainly Hindus, but also Sikhs in the northwest) from Pakistan into India.[40]

  • India: the prevailing religions, 1909, Imperial Gazetteer of India.
    India: the prevailing religions, 1909, Imperial Gazetteer of India.
  • 1909 Percentage of Hindus.
    1909 Percentage of Hindus.
  • 1909 Percentage of Muslims.
    1909 Percentage of Muslims.
  • 1909 Percentage of Sikhs and others.
    1909 Percentage of Sikhs and others.

The majority of the population movement associated with the Partition occurred in the period immediately before and after August 1947. Although many people did die in the religious violence, many also perished for reasons only indirectly related to violence.[40] According to historical demographer Tim Dyson:

It is damning that the British authorities made few preparations to cope with vast numbers of refugees. Many people died from exhaustion, starvation, crowding, and in epidemics.[40]

The systems of administration of the Punjab and Bengal were disrupted not only because of the turmoil but also the boundary changes. As a consequence, the systems in place for the registration of populations in the censuses were affected severely. Analysis of birth statistics in India suggests that most research on the demographic effects of the Partition are based on the 1931 and 1941 censuses of British India and some incomplete information from the 1951 censuses of India and Pakistan in both of which citizens were queried about Partition-related migrations.[41] In addition, census data based on comparison of the 1941 and 1951 censuses, showed only long term effects; for example, in Bengal, it proved difficult to separate the effects of the Bengal famine of 1943 and the 1947 Partition. Still, one study by Bharadwaj, Khwaja, and Mian using 1951 census data has suggested that during the period 1947–1951 the Partition caused approximately 14.5 million people to migrate into (i.e. arrived in) India or Pakistan.[42] The authors also estimated that during the same period 17.9 million people left India to go to Pakistan or vice-versa, suggesting a figure of 3.4 million missing people. Refugee movement across the border in Bengal was a third of that in the northwest. 25% of Pakistani Punjab's population had come from India; 16% of Indian Punjab's population had come from Pakistan. In contrast, only 2% of the population of East Pakistan (as recorded in the 1951 census) had migrated from India. The disparity was chalked to the greater perception of the threat of violence in the Punjab.[42]

Another study by Hill and colleagues suggested that migrants tended to focus on districts with a high proportion of co-religionists, leading to more religiously homogeneous populations on either side of the newly drawn borders after Partition. In the Indian Punjab, districts that were 66% Hindu in 1941 became 80% Hindu in 1951; those that were 20% Sikh became 50% Sikh in 1951. In Pakistani Punjab, the districts became exclusively Muslim by 1951.[43]

As for mortality, Bharadwaj and his colleagues divide the 3.4 million missing people by assigning 2.1 million to the northwest and 1.3 million to the east. Hill and colleagues suggested a mortality range of 2.3–3.2 million people. However, according to Dyson, the population losses may have also resulted in part because of fallen birth rates and also by the inadequacies in the 1951 census (especially in Pakistan).[44]

Summing up Tim Dyson says,

The sudden refugee flows related to Partition may at the time have been unsurpassed in modern world history. It is likely that at least 14–18 million people moved. Previous assessments of the mortality associated with Partition have varied between 200,000 and 1 million. The first figure, attributed to Mountbatten (the last Viceroy) smacks of a number that—conveniently from an official perspective—minimizes the loss of life. However, the figure of 1 million may also be too low. The data, however, do not allow for a firmer judgement.[44]

Economy

Gallery

  • Emergency trains crowded with desperate refugees
    Emergency trains crowded with desperate refugees
  • B. R. Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India presenting the final draft to Rajendra Prasad, president of the Constituent Assembly of India, 25 November 1949
    B. R. Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India presenting the final draft to Rajendra Prasad, president of the Constituent Assembly of India, 25 November 1949
  • The Indian contingent marching at the 1948 London Olympics. India won the gold medal in Field Hockey
    The Indian contingent marching at the 1948 London Olympics. India won the gold medal in Field Hockey
  • Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his 'Tryst with Destiny' speech at Parliament House in New Delhi during the midnight session of the Constituent Assembly on 14–15 August 1947
    Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his 'Tryst with Destiny' speech at Parliament House in New Delhi during the midnight session of the Constituent Assembly on 14–15 August 1947
  • The 3 1⁄2 annas stamp showing the tricolour Flag of India (for foreign surface mail) issued 15 August 1947
    The 3 1⁄2 annas stamp showing the tricolour Flag of India (for foreign surface mail) issued 15 August 1947
  • Prime ministers of the Commonwealth with King George VI (5th fr left), London 13 October 1948; Don Stephen Senanayake, Ceylon (2nd fr left); Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan (3rd fr left); C. R. Attlee (UK, 5th fr right) and Jawaharlal Nehru of India (far right).[45]
    Prime ministers of the Commonwealth with King George VI (5th fr left), London 13 October 1948; Don Stephen Senanayake, Ceylon (2nd fr left); Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan (3rd fr left); C. R. Attlee (UK, 5th fr right) and Jawaharlal Nehru of India (far right).[45]
  • Nehru being received at the Washington National Airport by the President Harry S. Truman, 11 October 1949
    Nehru being received at the Washington National Airport by the President Harry S. Truman, 11 October 1949
  • Governor-General Rajagopalachari declares India a Republic at Darbar Hall on 26 January 1950
    Governor-General Rajagopalachari declares India a Republic at Darbar Hall on 26 January 1950

Notes

  1. ^ See Sino-Indian War of 1962.
  2. ^ See territorial exchanges between India and Bangladesh (India–Bangladesh enclaves).
  3. ^ "South Asian parties include several of the oldest in the post-colonial world, foremost among them the 129-year-old Indian National Congress that led India to independence in 1947"[7]
  4. ^ "The organization that led India to independence, the Indian National Congress, was established in 1885."[8]
  5. ^ "... anti-colonial movements ... which, like many other nationalist movements elsewhere in the empire, were strongly infuenced by the Indian National Congress."[9]
  6. ^ The numbers were higher if "estates" were included.

References

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Related articles
  1. ^ "Press Communique' - State Emblem" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India - Archive. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 February 2018. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 8 August 2017 suggested (help)
  2. ^ As Prime Minister of India until 1964.
  3. ^ Multiple sources:
  4. ^ *Winegard, Timothy C. (2011), Indigenous Peoples of the British Dominions and the First World War, Cambridge University Press, p. 2, ISBN 978-1-107-01493-0 Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and Newfoundland were afforded the designation in September of that same year, followed by South Africa in 1910. These were the only British possessions recognized as Dominions at the outbreak of war. In 1922, the Irish Free State was given Dominion status, followed by the short-lived inclusion of India and Pakistan in 1947 (although India was officially recognized as the Union of India). The Union of India became the Republic of India in 1950, while the became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.”
  5. ^ Winegard, Timothy C. (2011), Indigenous Peoples of the British Dominions and the First World War, Cambridge University Press, pp. 2–, ISBN 978-1-107-01493-0
  6. ^ "Information about the Indian National Congress". www.open.ac.uk. Arts & Humanities Research council. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  7. ^ a b Chiriyankandath, James (2016), Parties and Political Change in South Asia, Routledge, p. 2, ISBN 978-1-317-58620-3
  8. ^ a b Kopstein, Jeffrey; Lichbach, Mark; Hanson, Stephen E. (2014), Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order, Cambridge University Press, p. 344, ISBN 978-1-139-99138-4
  9. ^ a b Marshall, P. J. (2001), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, Cambridge University Press, p. 179, ISBN 978-0-521-00254-7
  10. ^ Khan, Yasmin (2007). The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. Yale University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-300-12078-3. Retrieved 1 September 2013. Quote: "the Muslim League had only caught on among South Asian Muslims during the Second World War. ... By the late 1940s, the League and the Congress had impressed in the British their own visions of a free future for Indian people. ... one, articulated by the Congress, rested on the idea of a united, plural India as a home for all Indians and the other, spelt out by the League, rested on the foundation of Muslim nationalism and the carving out of a separate Muslim homeland." (p. 18)
  11. ^ Brown 1994, p. 330India had always been a minority interest in British public life; no great body of public opinion now emerged to argue that war-weary and impoverished Britain should send troops and money to hold it against its will in an empire of doubtful value. By late 1946 both Prime Minister and Secretary of State for India recognized that neither international opinion nor their own voters would stand for any reassertion of the raj, even if there had been the men, money, and administrative machinery with which to do so.
  12. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 212More importantly, though victorious in war, Britain had suffered immensely in the struggle. It simply did not possess the manpower or economic resources required to coerce a restive India.
  13. ^ a b Dr Chandrika Kaul (3 March 2011). "From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858–1947". History. BBC. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  14. ^ Judd 2004, pp. 170–71
  15. ^ Judd 2004, p. 172
  16. ^ Sarvepalli Gopal (1976). Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography. Harvard University Press. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-674-47310-2. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Indian Independence". British Library: Help for Researchers. British Library. Retrieved 2 August 2014. portal to educational sources available in the India Office Records
  18. ^ "The Road to Partition 1939–1947". Nationalarchives.gov.uk Classroom Resources. National Archives. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  19. ^ Stein 1998, p. 365.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Spear 1990, p. 238.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Spear 1990, p. 239.
  22. ^ Brown (1991), p. 380: "Despite and indeed because of his sense of helplessness Delhi was to be the scene of what he called his greatest fast. ... His decision was made suddenly, though after considerable thought – he gave no hint of it even to Nehru and Patel who were with him shortly before he announced his intention at a prayer-meeting on 12 January 1948. He said he would fast until communal peace was restored, real peace rather than the calm of a dead city imposed by police and troops. Patel and the government took the fast partly as condemnation of their decision to withhold a considerable cash sum still outstanding to Pakistan as a result of the allocation of undivided India's assets because the hostilities that had broken out in Kashmir; ... But even when the government agreed to pay out the cash, Gandhi would not break his fast: that he would only do after a large number of important politicians and leaders of communal bodies agreed to a joint plan for restoration of normal life in the city."
  23. ^ Viscount Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, stayed on in independent India from 1947 to 1948, serving as the first Governor-General of the Union of India.
  24. ^ a b Stein, Burton. 2010. A History of India. Oxford University Press. 432 pages. ISBN 978-1-4051-9509-6. Page 358.
  25. ^ Cush, Denise; Robinson, Catherine; York, Michael (2008). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Taylor & Francis. p. 544. ISBN 978-0-7007-1267-0. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013. Quote: "The apotheosis of this contrast is the assassination of Gandhi in 1948 by a militant Nathuram Godse, on the basis of his 'weak' accommodationist approach towards the new state of Pakistan." (p. 544)
  26. ^ Markovits 2004, p. 57.
  27. ^ Mallot 2012, pp. 75–76.
  28. ^ a b Sen, Julu; Sharma, Rahul; Chakraverty, Anima (2020), "Reading B: 'The light has gone out': Indian traditions in English rhetoric", in Janet Maybin; Neil Mercer; Ann Hewings (eds.), Using English, Abington, OX and New York; Milton Keynes: Routledge; The Open University, pp. 79–, ISBN 978-1-00-011605-2
  29. ^ CBC News Roundup (30 January 1948), India: The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Digital Archives, retrieved 29 November 2019
  30. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Spear 1990, p. 240.
  31. ^ Markovits, Claude (2004). A history of modern India, 1480–1950. Anthem Press. pp. 386–409. ISBN 9781843310044.
  32. ^ The India Office and Burma Office List: 1945. Harrison & Sons, Ltd. 1945. pp. 33–37.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Spear 1990, p. 241.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g Spear 1990, p. 242.
  35. ^ a b c d Spear 1990, p. 243.
  36. ^ Krishna, Ananth V. (2011). India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian Politics. India: Pearson Education India. pp. 34–36. ISBN 9788131734650. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  37. ^ Ramachandra Guha, "India After Gandhi", Picador India, 2007. ISBN 978-0-330-39610-3
  38. ^ "[1]". {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)[2] (RAJYA SABHA MEMBERS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 1952 – 2003: D)
  39. ^ http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/BDGqZmHMQlGbEuUT7jdObK/Dj-View--The-Chetty-affair.html
  40. ^ a b c d e Dyson 2018, p. 187.
  41. ^ Dyson 2018, pp. 187–188.
  42. ^ a b Dyson 2018, p. 188.
  43. ^ Dyson 2018, pp. 188–189.
  44. ^ a b Dyson 2018, p. 189.
  45. ^ Capie, David (2012), "Asia and New Zealand - War, empire and the new Commonwealth", Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, retrieved 19 September 2021

Bibliography

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