What was the Mountbatten Plan ? What was said in the Indian Independence Act ?

a. Mountbatten Plan:

Lord Mountbatten worked out a detailed plan for the transfer of power to the Indian people The salient features of the Mountbatten plan were as follows (1) Muslim-dominated areas may be separated to form a Dominion In that case such a domination would be constituted by a partition of Bengal and the Punjab.

(2) A referendum in North-west Frontier Province would decide whether it should join Pakistan or not.

(3) Similarly the people of Sylhet, in Assam, were also to give their verdict in a referendum whether they were willing to join the Muslim area in Bengal.

(4) A Boundary Commission was to define the boundaries of the Hindu and Muslim Provinces in the Punjab and Bengal (5) The British Parliament was to legislate an Act for the immediate transfer of Power. (6) The representatives of the Muslim-dominated areas could form a separate Constitution-making body or Constituent Assembly.

b. Indian Independence Act :

The word ‘independence” in the Indian Independence Act’ emphasized freedom from the control of the British Parliament and the Crown. However, virtually the provisions of the Mountbatten Plan were incorporated in the Indian Independence Act. 1947.

According to the provision of the Act two Dominions-India and Pakistan were to emerge an independent countries from the date 15 August, 1947. The suzerainty of the British Crown on these two Dominions were to lapse on and from that date.

The Indian Independence Act further provided that pending the adoption of a new Constitution both India and Pakistan were to be governed by the Constituent Assembly of the respective countries i short, the Indian Independence Act had transformed India from a dependency of the Crown to an independent Dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations.