 Eventually , in February 1947 , Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that the British government would grant full self @-@ governance to British India by June 1948 at the latest . On 3 June 1947 , the British government announced that the principle of division of British India into two independent states was accepted . The successor governments would be given dominion status and would have an implicit right to secede from the British Commonwealth . Viceroy Mountbatten chose the second anniversary of Japan 's surrender in the World War II as the date of power transfer . He chose 14 August as the date of the ceremony of power transfer to Pakistan because he wanted to attend the ceremonies in both India and Pakistan . 
