POLITICAL SCIENCE

FEDERALISM [CLASS X]
WHAT IS FEDERALISM
The division of power among different levels of government i.e. center, state,
local, is a way to share power. This is associated with Federalism. Federalism is a
system of government in which the power is divided between central authority
and various constituent units of the country. A federation has two levels of
government
i. One is the government for the country that is usually responsible for a few
subjects of common national interest.
ii. Second is government at the level of provinces or states that look after
much of the day-to-day administering of their state.

KEY FEATURES OF FEDERALISM

i. There are two or more levels of the government.
ii. Different tiers of the government have their own jurisdiction
regarding legislation, taxation and administration.
iii. The existence of authority of each tier of government is
constitutionally guaranteed.
iv. The changes in the fundamental provisions of the constitution
require the consent of the both levels of government.
v. Court plays a key role to interpret the constitution and the power of
different levels of government. Thus, the supreme court plays a role
of an umpire if disputes arise between different levels of government
in the exercise if their respective power.
vi. Sources of revenue for each level of government are clearly
mentioned to ensure its financial autonomy.
vii. The federal system has dual objectives i.e., to safeguard and promote
unity of the country and also it accommodates regional diversity.
viii. An ideal federal system of government must have mutual trust and
agreement to live together.
BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN CENTRAL AND STATE
GOVERNMENT
The exact balance of power between the central and state government varies
from one federation to another.
Federations are formed in two ways
i. Coming together federation – in this type, states come together on their
own to form a bigger unit and they have equal power and they are equally
strong vis a vis federal government. They are coming together because they
want to maintain sovereignty, identity and security of their own. USA,
Switzerland and Australia are coming together federation.
ii. Holding together federation- in this type, the central government tends to
be more powerful vis a vis the states. Here, a large country decides to divide
its power between the constituent states and the national government.
India, Spain and Belgium are examples of holding together federations. In
this category, very often different constituent units of the federations have
unequal powers. Some units are granted special powers.

FEDEARL SYSTEM VS UNITARY SYSTEM

The levels of the federal governments enjoy their power independent of
each other. In this sense, federations are different from unitary
governments.
In a federal government, the central government cannot pass the orders to
the state government to do something. The state government has power of
its own for which it is not answerable to the people.
Under the unitary system, either there is only one level of government or
the sub-units are subordinate to the central government. The central
government can pass order to the provincial or local governments. Both the
federal and unitary system are separately answerable to the people.

WHAT MAKES INDIA A FEDERAL COUNTRY?

 India had emerged as an independent nation after the partition. The
constitution declared India as a union of states. The Indian Union is based
on the principles of federalism.

TWO- TIER SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

The constitution originally provided a two- tier system of government which
is as follows
i. The Union Government or Central Government
ii. The State Government

THREE- TIER SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

A third tier of federalism was added later in the constitution in the forms of
panchayats and municipalities. The constitution clearly provided a three- fold
distribution of legislative powers between the Union Government and the State
Government. It contains three lists
 Union List – It includes subjects of national importance like defense,
foreign affairs, banking, communications and currency as we need uniform
policies on these matters throughout the country. The Union Government
mentioned in the Union List.
 State List – It contains subjects of state and local importance like police,
trade, commerce, agriculture and irrigation. The State Government alone
can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the state list.
 Concurrent List- It includes subjects of common interest to both the union
and the state government like education, forest, trade unions, marriage,
adoption and succession. Both the Union and State government can make
laws on these subjects. If their laws conflict with each other, the law made
by the Union will prevail.
The subjects which do not include in any three lists and subjects like computer
that came up after the constitution was made, are known as residuary subjects.
Union Government has the power to legislate on these residuary subjects.
STATUS OF UNION TERRITORIES
There are some units of the Indian Union which enjoy very little power. These are
areas which are too small to become an independent state and could not be
merged with any of the existing state.
These areas, like Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, Delhi, are called Union Territories.
These territories do not have the power of a state. The Central Government has
special powers in administering these areas.

SHARING OF POWER BETWEEN UNION AND STATE

GOVERNMENTS
Our constitution determines the extent of the sharing of power between Union
and State Government and it is the basic structure of the Constitution.
The Parliament alone cannot make changes to this power sharing arrangements.
For any change, it has to be first passed by both the Houses of Parliament with at
least of two- third majority. Then, it has to be ratified by the legislatures of at least
half of the total states.
In case of any dispute regarding the division of powers, the High Courts and the
Supreme Court make a decision.
Both Union and State Governments have the power to raise resources by levying
taxes in order to carry on the government and the responsibilities assigned to
each of them.

HOW IS FEDERALISM PRACTICED?

Constitutional provisions are necessary for the success of federalism, but these
are not sufficient.
The real success of federalism in India can be attributed to the nature of
democratic politics in our country.
To follow the spirit of federalism, respect for diversity and desire for living
together in harmony should become shared ideals in our country.

LINGUISTIC STATES
The creation of linguistic states was the first and a major test for democratic
politics in our country.
In 1947, the boundaries of several old states were changed in order to create to
new states. This was done to ensure that the people spoke the same language
lived in the same state.
Some states were not created on the basis of language. They were recognized by
differences based on culture, ethnicity and geography. These include states like
Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.
Some national leaders resisted the demand of new states on the basis of language
as they thought this would lead to the disintegration of the country. But later, the
formation of linguistic states actually made the country more united and
administration becomes easier.

LANGUAGE POLICY
The second test for the Indian Federation is the language policy. The Indian
Constitution did not give the status of national language to any of the languages.
Hindi was identified as the official language but it is the mother tongue of only 40
per cent of Indians. The Central Government has not imposed Hindi on states
where people speak a different language.
Besides Hindi, there are languages recognized as scheduled languages by the
Indian Constitution. In an examination conducted by the Central Government,
candidates may take the examination in any of these languages.
States too have their own official languages. The maximum work of the
government takes place in the official language of that concerned state.
The use of English as official language was proposed to be stopped in 1965. But
many non- Hindi speaking states fear that this was the attempt to impose Hindi on
them. So, Central Government withdraw the proposal and English along with
Hindi was continued for official purposes.

CENTRE – STATE RELATIONS

Restructuring the Centre- State relations is one more way in which federalism has
been strengthened in practice.
Indian Constitution has demarcated the powers of the Union and the State
Governments, but it depends to a large extent on how the ruling parties and
leaders follow these arrangements.
The state government did not exercise their rights as autonomous federal units
when the same party ruled both at the center and the states. But when different
parties ruled center and the states, the center tried to undermine the power of
the states.
In the past, many times, the Central Government misused the constitution to
dismiss the State Government that were ruled by rival parties. This undermined
the spirit of federalism.
The Indian scenario has changed after 1990. This was the beginning of the era of
Coalition Governments at the centre.
Since, no single party got a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the major national
parties had to enter into an alliance with many parties including several regional
parties, to form a government at the centre. It led to a new culture of power
sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Governments.
The Supreme Court made it difficult for the Central Government to dismiss the
State Governments in an arbitrary manner.

DECENTRALISATION IN INDIA
India is a vast country and cannot be run only through be run through a two – tier
system. States of India are very large and internally very diverse. States in India are
as large as independent countries of Europe.
Federal power sharing in India needs another tier of government, below that of
the state governments. Thus, there is a need for power sharing within each state.
When power is taken away from Central and State government and given to the
local government it is called decentralization.
The basic idea behind decentralization is that there are a large number of
problems and issues which are best settled at the local level.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The third- tier government is called local government. This local government
includes Panchayats in villages and Municipalities in urban areas.
Elections to the local government were not held regularly and local governments
did not have any power or resource of their own.
A major step towards decentralization was taken in 1992 when the constitution
was amended to make the third – tier government more powerful and effective.
The provisions made in the constitution for effective local government are
i. It is constitutionally mandatory to hold regular elections to local
government bodies.
ii. Seats are reserved in the elected bodies and the executive heads of these
institutions for the scheduled caste (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other
backward classes (OBCs), besides women.
iii. At least one- third of all positions are reserved for women.
iv. The state election commission (SEC) has been created in each state to
conduct Panchayat and Municipal elections.
v. The State governments are required to share some powers and revenue
with local government bodies. The nature of sharing varies from state to
state.

PANCHAYATI RAJ SYSTEM

In India, rural local government is popularly known as Panchayati Raj. Each
village or a group of villages in some state has a Gram Panchayat. This is a
council consisting of several ward members called a Panch and a President
(Sarpanch).
The members of Panchayat are directly elected by the adult population of
that ward or village. Panchayat works under the supervision of Gram Sabha.
Gram Sabha meets at least twice a year to approve annual budget and
review the performance of Gram Panchayat.
A few Gram Panchayats are grouped together to form a Panchayat Samiti or
block or mandal.
The members of Panchayat Samiti are elected by all the Panchayat
members in that area.
ZILLA PARISHAD
All the Panchayati Samitis in a district together constitute the Zilla(district)
Parishad. Most of the members of Zilla Parishad are either elected
members of Lok Sabha, MLAs of the district or some other officials at
district level bodies. The Chairperson of Zilla Parishad is its political head.
MUNICIPALITIES
These are set up in towns. In big cities, Municipal Corporation are set up.
Both these Local government bodies are controlled by elected bodies
consisting of people’s representatives.
The Chairperson of a Municipality is the political head of the Municipality.
The political head of municipal corporation is Mayor. Overall there are
about 36 lakh representatives in the Panchayats and Municipalities and one
– third of them are women, which increased women’s role in our
democracy.
AGRICULTURE
Agriculture is the very backbone of the Indian
economy. Two- thirds of the Indian population is
engaged in agricultural activities. Agriculture, a
primary activity, produces almost all the food
humans have. It is responsible for producing the
raw material for various industries.
Agricultural products like tea, coffee, spices are
also exported.

TYPES OF FARMING
Agriculture is one of the most ancient economic
activities in India. Despite some changes in the
cultivation methods have changed significantly
depending upon the characteristics of physical
environment, technological understanding of
socio- cultural practices.
Farming varies from subsistence to commercial
type. Different types of farming practiced are:
PRIMITIVE SUBSISTENCE FARMING
1.This type of farming is practiced in small
patches of land with the help of primitive
tools like hoe, dao and digging sticks, and
family/community labor.
2.It depends upon monsoon, natural fertility
of soil and sustainability of other
environmental conditions for a good yield.
3.It is a ‘slash and burn’ agriculture.
4.Farmers produce cereals and other food
crops to sustain their family.
5.Farmers shift and clear a fresh patch of land
after one patch loses its fertility.
This can be called the natural way of
replenishing the fertility of soil through
natural processes; land productivity is low
as the farmer does not use fertilisers or
other modern inputs.
INTENSIVE SUBSISTENCE FARMING
1)It is practiced in regions of high
population pressure on land. it is a
labour intensive farming , where high
doses of biochemical inputs and
 irrigation are used for obtaining higher
production.
2)Land- holding size is uneconomical but
farmers are able to achieve maximum
output from the limited land in the
absence of alternative sources of
livelihood.
3)There is enormous pressure on
agricultural land.
COMMERCIAL FARMING
1)It uses higher doses of modern inputs
like high yielding variety (HYV) seeds,
chemical fertilisers, insecticides and
pesticides in order to obtain higher
productivity.
2)The degree of commercialization of
agriculture varies from one region to
another.
PLANTATION FARMING
1)Plantation is also a type of
commercial farming.
2)A plantation is a place where a
single crop is grown on a large area.
3)The plantation has an interface of
agriculture and industry.
4)They covers large tracts of land