Sovereignty as the Basic Element of the State

Before 15 August 1947, British India had a population, a defined territory and an organised government — everything on the checklist except one thing. It still was not a State, because final authority sat in London, not Delhi. That missing ingredient is sovereignty, and it is the one element every other element in this module depends on.

In two minutes

Sovereignty is the supreme, final authority of the State — internally unchallenged by any rival power within its territory, and externally independent of any authority outside it — and it is what turns a merely governed population into a State.

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