High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The office of Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was created in 1858 when Company rule in India ended and British India was brought under direct British administration (a period often called the British Raj). The Secretary of State was the political head of the India Office, a new British government department responsible for the government of India, and was a member of the cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 1935, following the Government of India Act 1935, a new Burma Office was created, in preparation for the establishment of Burma as a separate colony, but the same Secretary of State headed both Departments and was styled the Secretary of State for India and Burma. The India Office came to an end in 1947, when the Partition of India resulted in the creation of two new independent dominions, the Union of India and the dominion of Pakistan. Burma achieved independence separately early in 1948.