RAS question
The Mountbatten Plan (June 3, 1947) proposed:
Correct answer: (C) Partition of India into two dominions - India and Pakistan.
The Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947 proposed the partition of British India and the transfer of power on a Dominion-status basis to India and Pakistan.
Explanation
The plan announced in Parliament on 3 June 1947 moved away from the hope of a united constitutional settlement and accepted partition as the workable route for transfer of power. It provided for successor authority or authorities, with power to be transferred on a Dominion-status basis. The procedure included separate decisions by the Muslim-majority and non-Muslim-majority parts of Bengal and Punjab, Boundary Commissions if partition was chosen, and referendums in the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet. Princely states were to accede to one of the dominions, and the arrangement was given legal effect through the Indian Independence Act, 1947. Therefore, the central proposal was the creation of two dominions: India and Pakistan.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) A united India with only provincial autonomy does not fit the plan, because the announcement accepted that areas unwilling to join the existing Constituent Assembly could move through a separate constitutional route leading to partition.
- (B) The plan was not limited to separating only Muslim areas; it led to two successor dominions and required decisions on Bengal, Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet.
- (D) Continued British rule was the opposite of the plan, which proposed legislation in the current session to transfer power that year on a Dominion-status basis.
Concept
This tests the transfer-of-power phase of Modern Indian History, especially how the Mountbatten Plan converted the partition question into a constitutional and territorial procedure. RAS often returns to this point because it links high politics, provincial votes, referendums and the Indian Independence Act, 1947.