Induction machines are becoming the most popular workhorses in industry replacing DC machines because of their advantages such as reduced cost, reliability and lack of commutators which makes them to fit some unfriendly conditions and lower maintenance requirement. However, higher order models of AC machines, nonlinearities in model equations, uncertainties in parameters and load disturbances makes induction motor difficult to control than that of DC motors. In this paper, a robust control strategy considering recent advances in technology is proposed employing input output feedback linearization for exact decoupling of electromagnetic torque and rotor flux using fractional order sliding mode controller for the outer speed loop. Sliding mode observer is also designed to extract the rotor flux from DC input voltage of inverter and stator current measurements. Finally comparison between the commonly used PID controller and proposed fractional order sliding mode controllers is made and conclusion is reached.