Federalism
How federalism is practised
Explain how linguistic states, language policy and coalition politics strengthened federalism.
Rules on paper are not enough. The Constitution's provisions are needed, but they do not guarantee success. Federalism has worked in India because of the way democratic politics worked: respect for diversity and the wish to live together became shared ideals. Three tests show how.
Test 1: linguistic States. After Independence, many state boundaries were redrawn so that each language group could live together in one State. A few States were made for other reasons: culture, ethnicity or geography, such as Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand. At first, some national leaders feared language-based States would break up the country, and the Centre resisted for a while. In fact they made India more united and made it easier to govern.
Test 2: language policy. India has no national language. Hindi is the official language, but only about 44 per cent of Indians have it as their mother tongue. So other languages are protected:
- 21 other Scheduled Languages are recognised; you can take Central Government exams in any of them;
- each State has its own official language.
English was meant to stop being used officially in 1965. Non-Hindi States protested, violently in Tamil Nadu, so the Centre let English continue alongside Hindi. Critics say this helped the English-speaking elite. The government still promotes Hindi, but promoting is not forcing it on States. This flexibility kept India out of a Sri Lanka-like crisis.
Test 3: Centre-State relations. For a long time one party ruled the Centre and most States, so States did not act as free federal units. When a rival party won a State, the Centre often misused the Constitution to dismiss that State government. That went against the spirit of federalism. After 1990 things changed:
- regional parties grew strong in many States;
- no party won a clear Lok Sabha majority, so coalition governments at the Centre needed regional parties' support;
- a Supreme Court judgement made it hard for the Centre to dismiss State governments as it pleased.
So power sharing is more real today than in the early years.
How many languages? The 2011 Census recorded more than 1300 mother tongues. They were grouped into 121 major languages (Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Rajasthani and others were counted under Hindi). Of these, 22 are in the Eighth Schedule: the Scheduled Languages. No single language is the mother tongue of a majority: Hindi is the largest at about 44 per cent, and even adding those who know it as a second or third language, the total was under half. English is the mother tongue of only 0.02 per cent; another 11 per cent know it as a second or third language.
Practise this lesson
Questions that get harder as you improve, a Tutor that helps without giving the answer away, and progress you can see. Free for every learner.
No account, no email address. Opens the real product.