1. “Modern Indian federalism owes its origin to the dual legacies of colonial administration and structure of Indian society.” Elaborate.

Answer:

 Dual legacy –

♤ colonial administration

– highly centralized administration

– this centralized tendency is evident in modern Indian federalism having a unitary bias, for example –

o use of word ‘union’ not ‘federation’

o Central bias w.r.t. distribution of legislative powers, Governer’s veto

o distribution of legislative subjects – 3 list of subjects – Union having upper hand in concurrent list

o Residuary powers to the Union (Art. 248)

o Strong central bias w.r.t. distribution of administrative and financial powers

o Emergency provisions

o States don’t have separate constitution (except J&K)

o Union can alter state’s boundaries (Art. 4)

o No double citizenship

o No dual court system

♤ structure of Indian society – highly plural, diverse and decentralised

The effect of plural character of Indian society is visible in modern Indian federalism, for example-

o considerable autonomy to states on state subjects

o provision of representation of states in Rajya Sabha

o democratic decentralisation through panchayati Raj

o 22 official languages

o Rights to minorities

o socialist, secular, democratic republic