BPSC 71st CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 80 of 150

Correct — C, Indian Independence Act, 1947. The Commission's own note on this question says the Act created two separate states, India and Pakistan, which became independent simultaneously, and cites R. C. Agarwal's Constitutional Development and National Movement (S. Chand, 2010, p. 316). The statute says so in its own opening words: its long title is '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.' It was carried through the House of Commons on 15 July 1947, consented to by the Lords the next day, received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and took effect on 15 August 1947. It gave statutory form to the 3 June Plan of 1947 — Mountbatten's plan — accepted by the Congress through Nehru, Patel and Kripalani, by the Muslim League through Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan and Abdur Rab Nishtar, and for the Sikhs by Baldev Singh, after Attlee had announced on 20 February 1947 that Britain would transfer power by June 1948 at the latest. What the Act actually did is a checklist worth memorising: it set up the two dominions from 15 August 1947; partitioned Bengal and Punjab; established a Governor-General in each dominion as the Crown's representative, allowing the same person to hold both offices; conferred complete legislative authority on the two Constituent Assemblies; terminated British suzerainty over the princely states, so that all treaties and obligations lapsed and each state chose a dominion; abolished the office of Secretary of State for India; and ended the title Emperor of India, which George VI formally gave up by proclamation on 22 June 1948. Boundaries were left to a commission appointed by the Governor-General — Sir Cyril Radcliffe's — with referenda deciding the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet. Until the two dominions wrote their own constitutions they continued to be governed by the Government of India Act 1935 as modified by this Act, which is why India's Constitution, adopted in 1950, had to repeal the Indian Independence Act expressly, in Article 395.

• (a)Govt. of India Act, 1919 — It divided subjects, not territory. The Montagu-Chelmsford Act, which received Royal Assent on 23 December 1919, introduced diarchy in the major provinces — reserved subjects such as law and order, finance, land revenue and police kept with the British Governor, transferred subjects such as education, health and local self-government given to Indian ministers — set up a bicameral central legislature and the first Public Service Commission, and promised a statutory review after ten years, the clause that produced the Simon Commission. Nothing in it touches the map.
• (b)Govt. of India Act, 1935 — The intelligent wrong answer, on two counts. It really did detach territory — Burma and Aden were made separate Crown colonies under its scheme — and it really did survive independence, because a version of it modified by the 1947 Act went on governing both dominions until they adopted their own constitutions in 1950 and 1956. But it partitioned nothing between Indians: it abolished provincial diarchy, granted provincial autonomy, introduced diarchy at the Centre, divided powers into Federal, Provincial and Concurrent Lists, created the Federal Court and the Reserve Bank of India, and proposed an All-India Federation that never came into being because the princes would not accede. It reorganised a single empire; it did not end it.
• (d)None of the above — A statistically tempting option that is simply false here, since the correct statute is printed immediately above it. Worth knowing how this paper uses it: across the 150 questions of this booklet 'None of the above' (or 'None of these') is offered eight times and is the correct answer on four of them — Q22, Q40, Q84 and Q85 — so on this paper it is the key on exactly half the questions that offer it, and treating it as an automatic throwaway is a costly habit. Choosing it here means rejecting a correct answer that is on the page.

British constitutional legislation for India runs as a ladder, and each rung has one job — knowing which job belongs to which rung answers most questions in this family. The Government of India Act 1858 transferred rule from the East India Company to the Crown. The Indian Councils Acts of 1861, 1892 and 1909 admitted Indians in slowly widening numbers to legislative councils, with 1909 introducing separate electorates. The Government of India Act 1919 divided provincial subjects into reserved and transferred and called that diarchy. The Government of India Act 1935 was the largest of them all — the Bill ran to 473 clauses and 16 schedules and its debates filled some 4,000 pages of Hansard — and it moved from dividing subjects to dividing powers, with three legislative lists, provincial autonomy, a Federal Court and a federation that never happened. Only the last rung, the Indian Independence Act 1947, transfers sovereignty, and it does so in a peculiar two-layer way that students routinely miss: it did not write a constitution for India. It created two dominions, made each Constituent Assembly a fully sovereign legislature free to write whatever constitution it chose, and in the meantime left the amended 1935 Act running as the interim constitution. India lived under the Government of India Act 1935 for two years and five months after independence, until 26 January 1950. That is why the federal scheme in the Seventh Schedule descends from 1935 while independence itself descends from 1947.

Three of the four options are genuine statutes and each of them did something substantial, so recognition will not settle this. Test each Act by asking what it divided. The 1919 Act divided SUBJECTS — reserved and transferred lists inside every major province. The 1935 Act divided POWERS — Federal, Provincial and Concurrent Lists between a Centre and its units — and, separately, detached Burma and Aden as Crown colonies. Only the 1947 Act divided the COUNTRY. The single word that clinches it is 'dominions', which the stem borrows from the statute itself. Dominion status is a specific constitutional form: self-governing, owing allegiance to the Crown through a Governor-General, with a legislature Britain no longer controls. The 1935 Act never conferred it — its proposed federation remained part of the Indian empire, and the King remained Emperor of India until the 1947 Act ended the title. The trap is option (b), and it is a real one for candidates who remember that the 1935 Act separated Burma and that it kept operating after 1947. Hold the distinction firmly: continuing to govern two new countries is not the same as creating them. If the stem says 'two new dominions', or names Pakistan, or dates itself to 1947, the answer is the Indian Independence Act; if it asks where the Union, State and Concurrent Lists came from, the answer is 1935.

• The Indian Independence Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6, c. 30) passed the Commons on 15 July 1947, was consented to by the Lords the next day, received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and commenced on 15 August 1947. Its long title provides for 'the setting up in India of two independent Dominions'.
• It enacted the 3 June Plan of 1947, agreed with Mountbatten by the Congress (Nehru, Patel, Kripalani), the Muslim League (Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Abdur Rab Nishtar) and Baldev Singh for the Sikhs; Attlee had told Parliament on 20 February 1947 that Britain would grant full self-government by June 1948 at the latest.
• Its core provisions: two dominions from 15 August 1947; partition of Bengal and Punjab; a Governor-General in each dominion as the Crown's representative, with the same person permitted to hold both offices; complete legislative authority conferred on each Constituent Assembly; and, under section 7(1)(b), the lapse of the Crown's suzerainty over the princely states with all treaties and obligations.
• It abolished the office of Secretary of State for India and ended the title 'Emperor of India', which George VI formally renounced by royal proclamation on 22 June 1948. Boundaries were left to a commission appointed by the Governor-General, and referenda decided the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet.
• Until the two dominions framed their own constitutions they were governed by the Government of India Act 1935 as modified by this Act. India's Constitution accordingly repealed the Indian Independence Act, 1947 expressly, by Article 395.
• For Bihar the appointed day carries a second date worth holding: Sri Krishna Sinha, who had been Premier under the 1935 Act, became the State's first Chief Minister on 15 August 1947, and the foundation stone of the Martyrs' Memorial outside the Patna Secretariat was laid the same day.

• Choosing the Government of India Act 1935 because it detached Burma and Aden or because it kept governing India after 1947 — separating a province and outliving independence are not the same as creating two dominions
• Assuming the 1947 Act wrote India's constitution — it did the opposite, leaving the amended 1935 Act in force and handing constitution-making to the Constituent Assembly
• Dismissing 'None of the above' on reflex — on this paper it is offered eight times and IS the key on four of them, so rule it out on the facts here rather than on habit

BPSC asks it flat — one Act, one date, one mark — and pads the option list with the two other Government of India Acts plus a 'None of the above' escape hatch, which is a recognition test rather than a reasoning test. UPSC treats the answer as too obvious to ask and inverts it: the Indian Independence Act appears in UPSC papers as a DISTRACTOR, in 2004 against the Montagu-Chelmsford Report and in 2012 against the source of the Centre-State distribution of powers, where the correct answers are the 1919 and 1935 Acts. When UPSC does approach 1947 it goes through the machinery instead, as in 2014 with the Radcliffe Committee's mandate.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Indian Independence Act, 1947, the suzerainty of the British Crown over the Indian princely states

  • (a)was transferred to the Dominion of India
  • (b)lapsed, together with all treaties and agreements then in force
  • (c)continued until the Constitution of India came into force in 1950
  • (d)was transferred jointly to the Dominions of India and Pakistan

  Answer(b) lapsed, together with all treaties and agreements then in force — section 7(1)(b) ended the Crown's suzerainty from 15 August 1947, which is why each state had to sign an Instrument of Accession with one dominion or the other rather than simply carrying its old treaty over.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following statements about the period between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950 is correct ?

  • (a)India was governed under the Indian Independence Act, 1947 alone
  • (b)India was governed under the Government of India Act, 1935 as modified by the Indian Independence Act, 1947
  • (c)India had no written constitutional instrument in force
  • (d)India was governed under the Government of India Act, 1919 as amended

  Answer(b) India was governed under the Government of India Act, 1935 as modified by the Indian Independence Act, 1947 — the 1947 Act left the 1935 framework running as the interim constitution while the Constituent Assembly drafted its own, and Article 395 of that Constitution then repealed the 1947 Act.