Moments from Indian independence

On 15 August 1947, India became independent with UK Parliament passing Indian Independence Act 1947. (Photo: AP/AFP)

On 20th February 1947, the British Prime Minister announced that India would be granted freedom by June 1948 to the latest. Attlee also said that the future of Princely States would be decided after the date of final transfer is decided. (Photo: AP)

Viceroy of India Lord Louis Mountbatten, right, speaks with Muslim League leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah during conferences on India's division in New Delhi. Jinnah appealed to Indians to carry out peacefully the British plan for dividing the country. The Muslim League formally adopted the plan on the night of June 9. (AP Photo/Max Desfor, File)

Muslim refugees, evacuated from areas of unrest in New Delhi, take shelter in the corners of the ancient walls of Purana Qila, the old fort, in New Delhi, India. When the British ended two centuries of colonial rule on the Indian subcontinent in August 1947, they left a jigsaw legacy _ the vast country of India flanked on either side by a newly created Pakistan split in two parts. Excitement over independence was quickly overshadowed by some of the worst bloodletting the world has ever seen, leaving up to 1 million people dead as gangs of Hindus and Muslims slaughtered each other. (AP Photo/Max Desfor, File)

In this September 1947, file photo hundreds of Muslim refugees crowd on top a train leaving New Delhi for Pakistan. After Britain ended its colonial rule over the Indian subcontinent, two independent nations were created in its place _ the secular, Hindu-majority nation of India, and the Islamic republic of Pakistan. The division, widely referred to as Partition, sparked massive rioting that killed up to 1 million, while another 15 million fled their homes in one of the world’s largest ever human migrations. (AP Photo, File)

On the midnight of 14 August and 15 August 1947, India and Pakistan came into existence. By August 15, India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabbhai Patel’s efforts had brought over 560 princely states in the India Union with exceptions of Junagarh, Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir. (Photo: AFP)

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru looks down on the crowd during India's Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort, New Delhi, India, Aug. 15, 1947. (Photo: AP)

This AP-photo shows the new Indian flag, a horizontal tricolour of saffron, white and green, flying from the minaretted battlements of the historic red fort at Delhi, India on August 16,1947, after being hoisted by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,the first prime minister of India. (Photo: AP)

Jawaharlal Nehru salutes the flag as he becomes independent India's first prime minister on August 15, 1947 during the Independence Day ceremony at Red Fort, New Delhi, India. (Photo: AP)