Nature of Federalism in India: An Overview

The basic feature of “Federalism” consists in the division of powers between the Union and the Constituting units as well as the local governing bodies functioning within the units. Thus, decentralization power is the basic aspect of federation. The Constitution of India possesses the basic features of a federal system but at the same time unlike other federations of the world, the federal system in India is tilted towards the Centre. Along with this, a considerable amount of power and freedom are accorded to the States their allotted domain. The word “Federation” is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution of India and the federation existing in India is not the result of any agreement between the States and the States have no right to secede from the Union. It is an indestructible Union of destructible units and the Union Parliament is empowered under the Constitution to create new States by separating a territory from existing States, merge two or more states and alter the boundaries or names of the States. But India is a cradle of diverse social, cultural, religious and geographical conditions and so it is not possible for the Union Government to single handedly make laws for all the States keeping in mind their peculiar needs. So the States are also empowered to make laws to suit their social, cultural and geographical needs. In India the federal structure changes into unitary structure to deal with national crisis and to curb separatist tendencies. But at the same time various efforts are also being made to increase cooperation between the Union and the States to make the federal structure function smoothly. Thus, it can be said that India is a cooperative or collaborative federation with a strong Centre to uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the nation.