The partition displaced between 10 and 20 million people along religious lines, creating overwhelming refugee crises in the newly constituted dominions.
The two self-governing independent Dominions of India and Pakistan legally came into existence at midnight on 15 August 1947. The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, i.e.
The partition also saw the division of the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. The partition involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and Punjab, based on district-wide non-Muslim or Muslim majorities. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The Partition of India was the division of British India in 1947 into two independent Dominions: India and Pakistan. British India is shaded pink, the princely states yellow.
British Indian Empire in The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909.
