Introduction:

Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units. The Constitution of India establishes a federal structure to the Indian government, declaring it to be a “Union of States”. Indian model of federalism is called quasi-federal system as it contains major features of both a federation and union.

Body:

Indian constitution is a blend of federal feature with unitary bias. Some of the federal feature are.

• Dual polity: two government one at the Centre and in states with defined functions and responsibilities.
• Written and Rigid Constitution: Ratification by states for Constitutional amendment involving federal features. E.g. GST passage requiring consent of the states.
• Supremacy of the Constitution – Any law or amendment affecting the federal feature will be struck down by the Supreme Court.
• Division of powers: 7th schedule with 3 lists. States are supreme in their own sphere and have responsible government with law making power to the legislature.
• Bicameral Legislature: Like other Federations, the Constitution of India also provides for a bicameral Parliament consisting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
• Independent judiciary: so that there is no unilateral change in division of power by the Centre.

Yet, Indian federalism deviates from the federal characteristics as below and shows unitary features

• Constitutional amendment procedure- the power to initiate an amendment to the Constitution lies only with the Centre.
• States not indestructible- e.g. Recent Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act without popular government support.
• All India Services- Centre has the ultimate control over the civil servants.
• Emergency provisions: as H V Kamath notes, this single chapter turns the federal character of Indian political setup to unitary. 1975 emergency is a best example.
• President rule under article 356: is a loophole to the federal feature and is misused several times. E.g. Unconstitutional imposition of president rule in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in 2016.
• Governor’s office- Governors appointment and his/her actions in crucial times has been criticized for being biased towards the power at Centre. Eg. Governor of Karnataka and Manipur inviting the second largest party to form the government instead of single largest party. This shows the Centre influence in state government formation.
• No Equality of State Representation- Representation in the legislature in the federal states in United States is on an equal basis, which is also not applicable in case of Indian States. Thus, making the federation in India unequal.
• Deployment of armed forces in states without the consent of states is seen as violation of federal character.

Reasons for a ‘federation with a centralizing tendency’:

•  The framers of the Indian Constitution were influenced, in their task, by a variety of factors.
• The first was, the status of the provinces into which the country stood divided on the eve of constitution-making.
• More important than the status of the provinces and the princely states was the question of the integrity and stability of the country in the years to come.
• India was a vast and populous country with deep diversities of races, religions, languages, traditions, cultures and regions. All of them were contending for recognition and growth.
• The centrifugal forces had always been strong in the country’s history. They did not die down with the attainment of Independence.
• The constitution makers perceived the vital need of a strong central government which would keep in check those disintegrating forces and safeguard the solidarity, sovereignty and integrity of the country.
• The problems created by some of the big princely states and the terms and conditions presented by the Chamber of Princes to negotiate their accession to the Dominion of India firmed up the thinking of the constitution-makers that India should have a strong and powerful government at the center.
• The third factor uppermost in the mind of the makers of the constitution was that the functions and responsibilities of modern welfare state were so vast and complex and the plans of economic reconstruction and development were so much inter-dependent that only a central government equipped with sufficient resources and authority could discharge them with speed and success.
• The founding-fathers of the Indian Constitution were also conscious of the vast responsibilities and obligations which a free India would have to undertake in the international arena. These could not be discharged if India were weak, divided or involved in something like a civil strife.
• In order to avoid all these, it was considered vital that the central government should be strong and powerful.

Conclusion:

The Indian Constitution is neither purely federal nor purely unitary, but it’s a combination of both. Indian Constitution is mainly federal with unique safeguards for enforcing national unity and growth. Also, federalism is not dead in India, as evidenced by the fact that new regions are demanding statehood and union has yielded, thus states like Manipur, Tripura, Goa, etc. have been created.