Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
India's last Viceroy released a plan on the country's independence from the British on June 3, 1947. The plan came to be celebrated as the 'last plan for independence'. He was appointed Viceroy to India to speed up the process of transfer of power by the then British Prime Minister Clement Atlee.
hindustantimes.com, June 3, 2021 [edited]
(i) Identify the Viceroy. Mention any two terms of his plan with reference to the Princely States.
(ii) Mention any three reasons given by the Congress to justify the acceptance of the plan.
(iii) Mention any four provisions of the Indian Independence Act of 1947.
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(i) The Viceroy referred to in the passage is Lord Mountbatten.
Two terms of his plan with reference to the Princely States were:
- The treaties which the British had made with the Princely States would come to an end, i.e., British paramountcy over them would lapse.
- The Princely States would be free to associate themselves with either of the two Dominions — India or Pakistan — or to remain independent.
(ii) Three reasons given by the Congress to justify the acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan were:
- The large-scale communal riots that engulfed the whole country convinced the leaders that the only solution to the communal problem lay in the Partition of India.
- The Muslim League had joined the Interim Government to obstruct and not to cooperate. The experience of working with the League had convinced the Congress that it could not have a joint administration with it.
- The only alternative to Partition was a federation with a weak Centre. The leaders felt that a smaller India with a strong central authority was better than a bigger State with a weak Centre, and that any further delay in the transfer of power could find India in the midst of a civil war.
(iii) Four provisions of the Indian Independence Act, 1947 were:
- Two New Dominions — India would be partitioned and two independent Dominions, India and Pakistan, would be created from August 15, 1947. The exact boundaries of the two Dominions would be determined by a Boundary Commission.
- Governor-General for Each Dominion — There would be a Governor-General for each Dominion, appointed by the British King on the advice of the Cabinet of the concerned Dominion. This arrangement would work till the framing of the Constitutions.
- Constituent Assemblies to Serve as Central Legislatures — The Constituent Assemblies of both the Dominions were to act as the Central Legislatures with full powers to make laws for their respective Dominions, and would act as sovereign bodies for legislative purposes.
- End of the Jurisdiction of the British Parliament — The legislative authority of the British Parliament would cease from August 15, 1947, and the British monarch would give up the use of the title 'Emperor of India'.