Key Points

Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country, such as states or provinces. It typically has two or more levels of government.

In a federal system, state governments have their own powers and are not answerable to the central government. In a unitary system, there is only one level of government or the sub-units are subordinate to the central government.

Federalism includes two or more tiers of government, separate jurisdictions, constitutional guarantees of power, consent of both levels for fundamental changes, and courts acting as umpires in disputes.

The federal system aims to safeguard and promote national unity while also accommodating regional diversity. This requires mutual trust and an agreement to live together.

Federations are formed either by 'coming together' (independent states forming a larger unit, like the USA) or 'holding together' (a large country dividing its powers, like India).

The Constitution of India declares it a 'Union of States', based on the principles of a 'holding together' federation. The central government tends to be more powerful than the state governments.

The Constitution provides for a three-fold distribution of legislative powers through the Union List (for central government), State List (for state governments), and Concurrent List (for both).

Subjects that are not in any of the three lists, like computer software, are known as 'residuary' subjects. In India, the Union Government has the power to make laws on these subjects.

Not all states in the Indian Union have identical powers. Some states have a special status (Article 371), and Union Territories have limited powers controlled by the Central Government.

After independence, many states were created on the basis of language to ensure that people who spoke the same language lived in the same state. This has strengthened national unity.

India's Constitution did not give the status of a national language to any one language. Hindi is the official language, and there are 22 other Scheduled Languages to protect diversity.

After 1990, the rise of regional parties and coalition governments at the Centre led to a new culture of power-sharing and greater respect for the autonomy of State Governments.

Decentralisation is the process of taking power away from Central and State governments and giving it to local government. This created a third tier of government in India.

In 1992, a major constitutional amendment made local government more powerful. It mandated regular elections, reservation of seats for SC, ST, and women, and the creation of State Election Commissions.

The rural local government system is known as Panchayati Raj. It includes the Gram Panchayat at the village level, Panchayat Samiti at the block level, and Zilla Parishad at the district level.

In urban areas, local government bodies are Municipalities in towns and Municipal Corporations in big cities. They are controlled by elected bodies of people's representatives.