Federalism

• Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country
• A federation typically has two levels of government: one for the entire country responsible for subjects of common national interest, and others at the provincial or state level for day-to-day administration
• The federal system aims to safeguard and promote unity of the country while accommodating regional diversity
• There are two routes through which federations are formed: 'coming together' federations where independent states join to form a bigger unit, and 'holding together' federations where a large country divides power between constituent states and the national government
• In a federal system, the central government cannot order the state government to do something, and both levels of government are separately answerable to the people
• Key features of federalism include multiple levels of government, each with its own jurisdiction, specified in the constitution, and with the power to interpret the constitution and resolve disputes between levels of government
• The Indian Union is based on the principles of federalism, with a two-tier system of government (Union Government and State governments) and later adding a third tier with Panchayats and Municipalities
• The Indian Constitution provides for a three-fold distribution of legislative powers between the Union Government and State Governments through the Union List, State List, and Concurrent List
• Some states in India, like Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram, enjoy special powers under Article 371 of the Constitution due to their unique social and historical circumstances
• Union Territories are areas too small to become an independent State but could not be merged with any existing States
• Union Territories like Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and the capital city of Delhi do not have the powers of a State
• The Central Government has special powers in running Union Territories
• Sharing of power between the Union Government and State Governments is basic to the structure of the Constitution
• Changes to power sharing arrangement require approval from both Houses of Parliament with at least two-thirds majority and ratification by legislatures of at least half of the total States
• Judiciary oversees the implementation of constitutional provisions and procedures
• High Courts and the Supreme Court make decisions in case of disputes about the division of powers
• Union and State Governments have the power to raise resources by levying taxes
• Formation of linguistic States was a major test for democratic politics in India
• Linguistic States were created to ensure that people who spoke the same language lived in the same State
• Some States were created based on culture, ethnicity, or geography rather than language
• Language policy in India did not give national language status to any one language
• Hindi was identified as the official language, but there are 21 other languages recognized as Scheduled Languages
• States have their own official languages
• Central Government agreed to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes due to demands from non-Hindi speaking States
• Centre-State relations have been restructured to strengthen federalism in practice
• Ruling parties and leaders following constitutional arrangements for power sharing impact how it works in reality
• Rise of regional political parties and coalition governments at the Centre have led to a new culture of power sharing and respect for State autonomy
• Supreme Court judgement made it difficult for the Central Government to dismiss State governments arbitrarily
• Federal power sharing is more effective today than in the early years after the Constitution came into force
• India has more than 1300 distinct languages mentioned as mother tongues, grouped into major languages
• 22 languages are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as Scheduled Languages
• India is perhaps the most diverse country in terms of languages
• No one language is the mother tongue of the majority of the Indian population
• Hindi is the mother tongue of about 44% of Indians
• English is recorded as the mother tongue by only 0.02% of Indians
• Scheduled Languages of India include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and others
• Federal governments have two or more tiers of governments
• India cannot be run only through the two tiers of government
• India has a three-tier system of government: Central government, State governments, and local government
• India's vast size and diversity require power sharing within States