Constitutional development & the transfer of power

Answer: (c) delimit the boundaries between India and Pakistan

Cyril Radcliffe chaired the boundary commissions that drew the new borders between India and Pakistan in 1947. They divided Punjab and Bengal, so the task was to delimit the India–Pakistan boundary.

• ✓ (c) Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer unfamiliar with India, was given just five weeks to draw the new borders. The result was the Radcliffe Line, which split Punjab and Bengal.
• ✗ (a) The Radcliffe task was territorial: drawing borders. It was not a mechanism for resolving the problem of minorities.
• ✗ (b) The Indian Independence Act, 1947 was passed by the British Parliament. Radcliffe's commissions were confined to fixing the boundaries in Punjab and Bengal, not to giving effect to the Act as a whole.
• ✗ (d) Radcliffe was not appointed to enquire into riots. His work was to demarcate boundaries in Punjab and Bengal.

Remember · Radcliffe = chairman of the Boundary Commissions for Punjab and Bengal (1947). The Radcliffe Line is the India–Pakistan border.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2014, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The Proclamation of 1 November 1858 announced that the Crown was taking over the government of India from the East India Company. It also assured the Indian princes that their treaties would be respected and that the Crown wanted no territorial expansion. It had nothing to do with regulating the Company's trade.

• ✓ 1. The Queen declared: 'We desire no extension of Our present territorial Possessions.' She also announced to the Native Princes that all treaties and engagements made with them by the Company were accepted and would be scrupulously maintained. This was a clear disclaimer of any intention to annex Indian States, aimed at calming the princes after 1857.
• ✓ 2. The Queen declared that she had resolved to take upon herself the government of the territories in India 'heretofore administered in trust' for the Crown by the East India Company. This placed Indian administration directly under the British Crown and ended Company rule.
• ✗ 3. The Proclamation dealt with the transfer of government to the Crown, assurances to the princes, non-interference in religion and pardon for rebels. It did not regulate the Company's trade. The Charter Act of 1833 had already ended the Company's commercial activities.

Remember · Queen's Proclamation, 1 November 1858: Crown takes over from the Company, treaties with princes honoured, no further annexation, religious non-interference, and pardon for most rebels.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2014, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error