Mention any three provisions of the Indian Independence Act of 1947.

(1) Two independent Dominions, INDIA and PAKISTAN, were to come into existence from 15 AUGUST 1947, each free to remain in or leave the Commonwealth. (2) The office of the Secretary of State for India was ABOLISHED, British paramountcy over the Princely States LAPSED, and each State was free to accede to either Dominion. (3) The Constituent Assemblies of the two Dominions were free to frame their own constitutions and would act as their central legislatures until then; until the new constitutions were framed each Dominion would be governed under the Government of India Act of 1935, the Governor-General acting on the advice of the Dominion ministry.

One mark per provision. The date 15 August 1947 is the one the examiner looks for first. Show the chain in a phrase if you have room: the Act received royal assent on 18 July 1947 and gave legal effect to the Mountbatten Plan of 3 June — plan, Act, independence. The lapse of paramountcy is the provision that links to the Princely States and to Sardar Patel’s work of integrating them.