0Federalism is about sharing of power between states and centre. It is one of the foundational concepts of Indian democracy.
The objective of federalism:-
- To accommodate diversity in religion, language, caste, and ethnic group.
Federalism has two concept - one is the government for the entire nation. Second is the government at the state level for its administration.
Features of federalism:- Two or more level; jurisdiction of both levels of govt are specified in the constitution; interpretation by the court in terms of the power of both the level of govt during disputes; sources of revenue are clearly explained; all level of govt govern the same citizen on different matters; dual aim - safeguard and promote unity and accommodate diversity.
Federalism exists on mutual trust and agreement to live together, i.e. in a cooperative way.
Balance of power between centre and state is a must.
2 form of federalism:-
example USA Switzerland Australia - independent states coming together on their own to form a federation where there is an equal share of power.
Second is when a large country divides its power between states and union. Example India, Spain, and Belgium.
Soon after independence, It opted for the union of states based on the principle of federalism. The list is divided into three list categories state -state alone can make laws, union -centre alone can make laws, concurrent- both can make law but in case of conflict centre laws prevail overstate.
This provision can't be changed easily - to change the power-sharing provision it has to go through parliament and then through the state legislature by special majority.
dispute - both HC and SC can make a decision
How it practised
Language policy:- Unlike Srilanka, there is no national language of India. Only 40 % speak the Hindi language; rest speak many languages. It was done to safeguard diversity and multilingual people. It is the official language. Other languages are part of the scheduled language, i.e. 22 languages spoken by the majority of a different region.
Linguistic state - Formation of state based on language:
Initially, some nationalist thought this would not be a good idea. Still, later on, this all, the more strengthened the unity of the nation example - Gujarat out of Maharashtra in 1960, Punjab Haryana.
Centre-state relation-
For a long time same party rule at state and centre so this federalism never became a part of politics as states were under the control of the centre. In 1990 emergence of the regional party - the era of a coalition made a change in the political field. State politics became as relevant as central politics. Thus the centre cannot dismiss state without any reason. It is called Effective federalism.
DECENTRALISATION OF POWER
India needed another tier below state to administer the local level - this was the rationale behind decentralisation.
Need for tier 3:-
- People participation
- Some problems of local level remained unsettled
- Community involvement for the development
- The vital role of the public in decision making
- A habitat of democracy with participation
- Panchayat
- Block
- Zila
Elections to be held regularly, 1/3 seats reserved for women, seats reserved for SC ST OBC, State election commission, state govt have to share power and revenue with local govt.
Conclusion:
Federalism helps to:
- to deepen democracy
- increased women participation and voice
- provision of adequate resources to local govt
It was the most massive experiment on democracy conducted in the world which has an aim of realising self-government.
