On independence India became a dominion. In which year did the dominion end?

India's 'Dominion' status (1947-1950) meant the country was already fully sovereign and self-governing -- free of the British Parliament's legislative authority -- but it still recognised the British monarch as constitutional Head of State (represented locally by a Governor-General) and had not yet brought its own, indigenously enacted Constitution into force. A Dominion becomes a Republic when its own constitution -- framed and adopted by its people's representatives -- comes into legal force, replacing the monarch/Governor-General with an elected Head of State (President); sovereignty itself does not change at that point, only the constitutional form of the state.

1. On 15 August 1947, India gained independence from British rule but was constituted as a Dominion under the Indian Independence Act, 1947 — the Governor-General represented the Crown as head of state.

2. The Constituent Assembly drafted India's Constitution over nearly three years, publishing a Draft Constitution in 1948 for public debate.

3. The Constituent Assembly formally adopted the Constitution of India on 26 November 1949 — but adoption alone did not bring it into legal force.

4. The Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, at which point India became a sovereign democratic republic with its own President as head of state, formally ending Dominion status.

This is why 26 January is celebrated as Republic Day, marking the Constitution's commencement, while 15 August is Independence Day, marking freedom from British rule rather than the republic. The gap between adoption (November 1949) and commencement (January 1950) is the key distinguishing fact for this question.

Dominion status therefore ended in 1950.