The Indian union
On 3 June 1947,
Viscount Louis
Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General
of India, announced the partitioning of British India into India and Pakistan. With the speedy
passage through the British Parliament of the Indian
Independence Act 1947, at 11:57 on 14 August 1947 Pakistan
was declared a separate nation, and at 12:02, just after midnight, on 15 August 1947,
India also became a sovereign and democratic nation. Eventually, August 15
became the Independence Day for India, due to the ending of British rule over
India. On that August 15, both Pakistan and India had the right to remain in or
remove themselves from the British Commonwealth. In 1949, India decided to
remain in the commonwealth.
Violent clashes
between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims followed. Prime
Minister Nehru and deputy prime minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
invited Mountbatten to continue as Governor General
of India. He was replaced in June 1948 by Chakravarti
Rajagopalachari. Patel took on the responsibility of bringing into the
Indian Union 565 princely states, steering efforts by his "iron fist in a
velvet glove" policies, exemplified by the use of military force to
integrate Junagadh and Hyderabad State into
India (Operation Polo).
On the other hand, Pandit Jawahar
Lal Nehru kept the issue of Kashmir
in his hands.
The Constituent
Assembly completed the work of drafting the constitution on 26 November 1949;
on 26 January 1950, the Republic of India
was officially proclaimed. The Constituent Assembly elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the
first President of
India, taking over from Governor General Rajgopalachari. Subsequently the
French ceded Chandernagore
in 1951, and Pondichéry
and its remaining Indian colonies in 1954. India invaded and
annexed Goa and Portugal's other Indian enclaves in
1961, and Sikkim voted to
join the Indian Union in 1975.
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