A Study of the Growth of Federalism in India and the Impediments Lying Ahead

Article 1 of the Indian Constitution declares India as a “Union of States”. Answering the question as to why India is a “Union” and not “Federation of States”, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar stated in the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948, that though India was to be a federation, the federation was not the result of an agreement by the States to join in a federation. The federation is a Union because it is indestructible. Some political analysts have termed it as “holding together”. However, this federal system has survived India for over seventy years and is still thriving. But of late, this indigenous concept of federalism is facing criticism from various quarters, and on varied grounds. These are of three types, namely, a Constitutional claim of autonomy, a demand for fairer distribution of taxes, and an assertion of linguistic and cultural rights. Sometime ago, the Prime Minister of India termed federalism as “cooperative federalism” and also, as “competitive federalism”. Factually, the growth of federalism depends upon the trust between its various constituent units. If a set of states develop the perception that the policies of the Central Government have the tendency to create obstruction in their path of progress in any manner, the bogey is raised to get more autonomy which does not go away with the idea of federalism under Indian Constitution. This paper tries to go to the roots of various dissenting voices against federalism in India and explore the possible solutions.