Plz edit and write Federalism in India and Pakistan

Federalism In India 1

Federalism in India

Prachita Uprety

Minnesota State University, Mankato

Federalism in India 2

Introduction

India is a diverse country with a population of 1.3 billion, with people of different religions,

hundreds of ethnicities, thousands of sub-castes many of whom only reside in one state.

Democracy gets unpleasant in a homogenous region, let alone such a diverse nation. To function

properly, India has been divided into 29 states (currently), and the states have their own

government. This paper will discuss the importance and evolution of federalism in a multi-

ethnic, multi-cultural country called India.

Evolution of Federalism in India

Federalism is a specific form of fragmentation of political power. Federations show an

architecture of government with dual structures, driven by a combination of self-rule and shared

rule. In a federal system, both constituent units and the central government have constitutionally

recognized autonomous powers to interact directly with citizens. Both the center and the regions

have their own fiscal bases and are directly accountable through elections. Central governments

enjoy a much stronger institutional position than sub-national governments (Beramendi, 2009).

Regionalization is important in a country as diverse as India as it would be strenuous for the

central government to govern such diverse people. “The first phase of regionalization in India

(1952-1967) started when one-party system was popular, Congress dominated state-based parties

in some states but at an all-India level they played a marginal role. India’s first electoral system

was not taken seriously and had little participation. The initial changes to the Congress Party pre-

eminence came in 1967 when the party was defeated by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

(DMK) in Madras, Tamil Nadu for the first time, where the DMK party opposed the imposition

of Hindi being the sole national language of the country. During this period, Congress Party

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remained unchallenged as the party of government in New Delhi, the capital, but the

competitiveness of politics increased in other regions.

In the second phase (1967-1989) the Congress party was represented by Indira Gandhi. During

this period, Congress with Indira Gandhi were the central pole and opposition parties coalesced.

In the 1980s, newer generation of regional parties opposed Indira Gandhi’s centralized

leadership and intervened in regional conflicts in Assam and Punjab. In 1983, the Telugu Desam

Party defeated Congress in state elections over Andhra Pradesh, in 1977 All India Anna DMK

had defeated Congress in Tamil Nadu. The country’s first non-Congress government formed by

the Janata Party in 1977 also gave space to new regional voices. By the end of this phase, the

issues of central-state relations and demand for more regional autonomy divided political

competition at national level, that led to greater opposition against the Congress Party.

With the third phase (1989-1999) began the post-Congress polity in which regionalization began

to have a clearer impact on the national party system. A more fluid phase of government

formation followed in the 1990s with short-lived coalition governments indicating fragmented

electoral landscape where state parties played more important roles at the center. The lower

castes, esp. Other Backward Classes (OBCs) mobilized to implement the Mandal Commision

recommendations for affirmative action for OBCs. Several parties capitalized on the new social

agendas by integrating with lower castes and OBGs (for instance, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar

Pradesh, Rastriya Janata Dal in Bihar, etc.). Meanwhile, other parties started emerging out of

national parties (for instance, Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, Tamil Maanila Congress in

Tamil Nadu, Janata Dal in Odisha, etc.) This was also the decade in which the BJP won its first

state elections having laid regional roots before becoming a serious contender for power in New

Delhi.

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The fourth stage of (1999-2009) the post Congress polity settled into a more stable system of

national coalition government in New Delhi with the BJP-led NDA and Congress led UPA

alternating in power. The balance of seats and votes shares between national and regional parties

had a recognizable pattern. Though the party system regionalization was increasing the social

participation in India’s democracy, from 1970s to 1990s, social participation decreased in this

period. Though the overall position of national and regional parties remain stable, new political

parties keep forming, so the role of regional parties on national level began to change.

The fifth phase (2009-now) the balance between the position of regional and national parties is

stable in terms of total seats and votes., there has been shift in types of regional party represented

in Lok Sabha and there have been changes in the pattern of national alliance. The importance of

regional parties is that they know what their region needs, caters to that, and has a longer-term

shift.” (Tillin, 2015).

A significant reflection of regionalization was redrawing the internal borders to provide regional

linguistic communities like Andhra Pradesh (1953), Karnataka and Kerala (1956), Gujarat and

Maharasthra (1960) and Haryana and Punjab (1966). The constitution in India does not require

for any state level referendum or approval of state legislative assembly to change any state's

borders that allows Delhi to respond flexibly to demands for recognition and self-governance

made by regionally concentrated linguistic or cultural-nationalist groups. Linguistic

reorganization also took place in the far northeast in the 1970s and 1980s to protect the cultural

autonomy of tribal groups. In 2000, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were created in the

north-central by BJP-led central government which was possible because of the decline in upper-

caste dominance that long held back the separation. Since 1950’s state division has been peaceful

and with the consent of the ‘parent’ state. The linguistic reorganization of state boundaries has

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allowed democracy within individual states to be more pluralistic. When engaging in politics,

people can think of their other identities like caste or religion or their interests. (Tillin 2017, pp.

67-68).

Importance of Regional Government

Some state governments have because of their political leader knowing the state, its resources, its

people have benefitted economically.

Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, who won the seat in the parliament in 1997, and became

the CM in 2000, impressed the state’s elite by assembling a team of accomplished technocrats to

push forward a reformist economic policy, that controlled runaway spending and encouraged

economic growth. Today, Odisha state’s growth averaged close to double digit rates throughout

his term. The small state of twenty million people has become one of the top state destinations

for foreign companies investing in India. Patnaik is focused on exploiting the state’s local

resources for economic growth, mines to produce iron ore and bauxite and steel plants to refine

metals.

Modi was the CM of Gujarat (now PM of India) and is known for aggressively pushing to

develop and industrialize Gujarat. Today, Gujarat generates about 40% of its income from

industry and 15% nationwide. He is widely admired by businesspeople for his efforts to attract

investors and disliked by human rights activists who consider him a Hindu chauvinist complicit

in the riots against the Muslim minority in 2002. (Sharma 2013, pp. 80-82).

“Modi combines the pragmatic and efficient spirit of Gujarat’s entrepreneurs with charismatic

and potentially destructive, divisive and bellicose Hindu nationalism”. (Antholis 2013, pp. 97).

In 2003, Modi launched a trade-oriented confab to market the state to Indian and foreign

investors and 76 investors that amounted to a sum of $14 billion in 2003, amounting to 8000

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investors in 2011 for $450 billion. The foreign investors are Ford, Colgate-Palmolive, Procter,

and Gamble, Nestle, Hitachi, Hyundai, etc. Modi uses his aggressively promotional strategies

making Gujarat’s economy the fourth largest in the country.

Discussion

Federalism has worked out for India. Due to the division of states, the needs and wants of the

people in the states are being listened by the regional leader and fulfilled to some extent. Central

government is unable to fulfill the needs all around India, so having state-based government has

helped develop India’s democracy, because state leaders reside in the state, know the language,

know its people. The public also feels comfortable when someone who identifies as them is a

leader. It has helped the public to choose one less identity (linguistic regionalization) when being

political.