On 11 May 1947 Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the Indian National Congress, sent this note to Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. In it, Nehru writes of his concerns over Mountbatten’s initial draft plan for the Partition of India. He condemns the plan as ‘dangerous’ and says it would threaten Britain and India’s future relationship. Nehru argues that Mountbatten’s plan would allow for the ‘Balkanisation’ of India: the term alludes to the division of the Balkan peninsula in South-East Europe into many small states following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the end of the First World War. It has deeply negative connotations and usually implies that a country has become subdivided into mutually hostile states. Nehru maintains that Mountbatten’s draft plan would provoke conflict, lead to a breakdown in central authority and demoralise the Army. Mountbatten took some of Nehru’s concerns on board and devised the Indian Independence Act, which he announced on 3 June 1947. 

What was the Indian Independence Act of 1947?

The Indian Independence Act, also known as the 3 June Plan, declared that British India would be divided into India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947, with each country creating its own constitution. It determined that the British monarch would no longer use the title ‘Emperor of India’ and that each country would establish the office of a governor-general, with Jinnah as Pakistan’s and Nehru as India’s. 

About the India Office Records

The India Office Records is a vast collection of archives relating to the administration of the East India Company (1600–1858) and its successor the India Office (1858–1947). The collection includes hundreds of official publications and records, manuscripts, photographs, maps and private papers. These archives document the complex story of British trade with the East, politics, the development of the British Empire and the road to Indian independence.