<P> The Partition of India was the division of British India in 1947 which accompanied the creation of two independent dominions, India and Pakistan . The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan is today the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh . The partition involved the division of three provinces, Assam, Bengal and the Punjab, based on district - wide Hindu or Muslim majorities . The boundary demarcating India and Pakistan became known as the Radcliffe Line . It also involved the division of the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury, between the two new dominions . The partition was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, as the British government there was called . The two self - governing countries of Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14--15 August 1947 . </P> <P> The partition displaced over 14 million people along religious lines, creating overwhelming refugee crises in the newly constituted dominions; there was large - scale violence, with estimates of loss of life accompanying or preceding the partition disputed and varying between several hundred thousand and two million . The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that plagues their relationship to the present . </P>

In 1947 the british divided their south asian colony along what lines