The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India, was an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations existing between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950. Until its independence, India had been ruled as an informal empire by the United Kingdom. The empire, also called the British Raj and sometimes the British Indian Empire, consisted of regions, collectively called British India, that were directly administered by the British government, and regions, called the princely states, that were ruled by Indian rulers under a system of paramountcy, in favour of the British. The Dominion of India was formalised by the passage of the Indian Independence Act 1947. This same Act also formalised an independent Dominion of Pakistan, which was composed of the two regions of British India that are today Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Dominion of India was also referred to as "India" in common parlance, but it differed from British India in that it was now independent and geographically smaller: large swathes of the former territory now formed the also newly created but now distinct Dominion of Pakistan.