India Office

See also: British Raj

The western or park end of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's building in 1866. It was then occupied by the Foreign and India Offices, while the Home and Colonial Offices occupied the Whitehall end.

The India Office was a British government department in London established in 1858 to oversee the administration of the Provinces of India, through the British viceroy and other officials. The administered territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of the Indian Subcontinent as well as Yemen and other territories around the Indian Ocean. The India Office was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, who was formally advised by the Council of India.[1]

Upon the independence of India in 1947 into the new independent dominions of India and Pakistan, the India Office was closed down. Responsibility for the United Kingdom's relations with the new countries was transferred to the Commonwealth Relations Office (formerly the Dominions Office).

  1. ^ Kaminsky, 1986.