Law and You > Constitutional Law > Success of Federalism in India
The real success of federalism in India can be attributed to the nature of democratic politics in the country. This ensured that the spirit of federalism, respect for diversity and desire for living together became a shared ideal in the country. Following are the reasons for the success of the federalism in India.
Success of Federalism in India
Linguistic States:
The creation of Linguistic States was the first and a major test for democratic politics in India. In 1947, the boundaries of several old States of India were changed in order to create new States. This was done to ensure that people who spoke the same language lived in the same State.
When the demand for the formation of States on the basis of language was raised, some national leaders feared that it would lead to the disintegration of the country. Hence the Central Government resisted linguistic States for some time. But the experience has shown that the formation of linguistic states has actually made the country, more united. It has also made the administration easier.
Some States were created not on the basis of language but to recognize differences based on culture, ethnicity or geography. These include States like Nagaland, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand.
Language Policy:
A second test for Indian federation is the language policy. Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language. Hindi was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 percent of Indians. Besides Hindi, there are 21 other languages recognized as Scheduled Languages by the Constitution.
A candidate in an examination conducted for the Central Government positions may opt to take the examination in any of these 22 languages. States have their own official languages. Much of the government work takes place in the official language of the concerned State. For e.g. Marathi is an official language of Maharashtra. Kannada is an official language of Karnataka.
8th schedule of the constitution gives lists 22 languages namely, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Assamese, Sanskrit, Nepali, Urdu, Sindhi, Konkani, Manipuri, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santhali.
The Central Government also decided to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes. Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of the Government of India. Promotion does not mean that the Central Government can impose Hindi on States where people speak a different language.
Center-State Relations:
Restructuring the Centre-State relations is one more way in which federalism has been strengthened in practice. The constitutional arrangements for sharing power work depends to a large extent on how the ruling parties and leaders follow these arrangements.
For a long time, the same party ruled both at the Centre and in most of the States. This meant that the State governments did not exercise their rights as autonomous federal units. As and when the ruling party at the State level was different, the parties that ruled at the Centre tried to undermine the power of the States. In those days, the Central Government would often misuse the Constitution to dismiss the State governments that were controlled by rival parties. This undermined the spirit of federalism.
The Situation during One Party (Congress) Monopoly:
For a major period; after independence; same party (Congress) was in power in both the Centre and States in most parts of the country. In those days, the Central Government often undermined the rights of the state governments.
As and when the ruling party at the State level was different, the parties that ruled at the Centre tried to undermine the power of the States. Many states were brought under President’s rule at the slight pretext of assertiveness from the state government.
The Situation in the Era of Coalition Government:
After 1989 there was a rise of regional political parties in many states of the country. This was also 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.
This led to a new culture of power-sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Governments.
This trend was supported by a major judgment of the Supreme Court that made it difficult for the Central Government to dismiss state governments in an arbitrary manner.
As a result, a new culture of power-sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Governments has developed. It can be said that now the federalism is more developed in India.
The Linguistic Diversity of India:
As per the latest Census Report, 1991 of India held in 1991 there are 1500 distinct languages. Of these 22 languages are now included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and are therefore called ‘Scheduled Languages’. Others are called ‘non- Scheduled Languages’. In terms of languages, India is perhaps the most diverse country in the world.
Failure Of Federalism in India:
The failures of Indian federalism must include five separatist insurgencies: Nagaland, Mizoram, and Assam in the Northeast and Punjab and Kashmir in the North. But the important fact is that none of the remaining states, currently 28, has ever raised the banner of secessionary revolt. Second, at no point did more than two insurgencies rock the polity simultaneously. The worst year was 1990 when the insurgency in Punjab hadn’t quite died out and it had recently burst on the scene in Kashmir. Even at that moment, a mere 3.5 percent of the national population, spread over these two states, was affected. In other instances, the affected percentages were considerably lower. It is the federalism helped to control insurgency in the state of Punjab.