Federalism · Class 10 Political Science: quick revision, 70 bites

From Vertical Division to Federalism

This chapter is one form of power sharing, close up.

The previous chapter named four forms of power sharing. The second — power shared among governments at **different levels** — is what this chapter is about, and its name is **federalism**.

Takeaway. Federalism is the vertical division of power, studied on its own.

What Federalism Is

The definition, in the book's own words.

Takeaway. Two levels, each holding its power in its own right.

Can the Centre Give an Order?

One question tells you which system you are looking at.

Takeaway. Ask whether the centre can give an order. Yes means unitary.

Both Levels Answer to the People

Answerable to whom?

Under federalism a state holds powers in its own right and **owes the centre no account for them**. **Each government answers separately to the people instead.**

Takeaway. Neither level answers to the other; both answer downward.

What Actually Changed in Belgium in 1993

The example answers get wrong most often.

The existence of regional governments did not change. **Where their powers came from** did.

Takeaway. A power the centre grants, the centre can take. A constitutional power, it cannot.

Still Unitary

And Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka **remains unitary in everything but name — the national government still holds every power there is**.

Takeaway. The two chapters are one argument: what the Tamils asked for was federalism.

Coming Together and Holding Together

Two routes, two different balances of power.

Takeaway. The direction power travels decides where it settles.

Come Together, Hold Together

Keeping the two routes straight.

Small units **COME** together to make a big one. A big one **HOLDS** its parts together.

Takeaway. Two words, and the balance of power follows from each.

Why Federations Differ

The balance is not the same everywhere.

Where exactly the balance falls between centre and states is **different in every federation**, and what mostly decides it is **the circumstances in which that federation came into being**.

Takeaway. There is no single federal template — the founding bargain sets the balance.

The Dual Objective

Two aims that pull against each other.

The two pull in opposite directions, permanently. That is not a flaw in the design; it is the design.

Takeaway. Unity and diversity together — neither alone.

Mutual Trust and Agreement to Live Together

Rules are not enough.

Rules without trust is a document nobody honours. Trust without rules lasts only as long as goodwill does.

Takeaway. Both halves, or the federation works only on paper.

Jurisdiction

A word with two senses, and both are used.

Takeaway. A jurisdiction can be a place or a list of subjects.

Twenty-Five Countries, Forty Per Cent of the World

Few federations, a lot of people.

Federations are rare and enormous: **25 countries out of 193**, holding **40 per cent of everybody alive**. Nearly all the very large countries are federal.

Takeaway. Federalism is rare among countries and common among people.

What Gets Asked on This Topic

The four things examiners test here.

Takeaway. Two definitions, one date and two lists carry most of the marks.

A List That Is Really an Argument

Not seven arbitrary points.

The seven features look like a list to memorise. They are better read as a sequence in which **each feature closes a gap the one before it leaves open**.

Takeaway. Each feature exists because the previous one is not enough on its own.

Two or More Tiers

Feature 1.

**There are two or more levels (or tiers) of government.**

Takeaway. The starting point, and the weakest claim in the list.

Same Citizens, Different Jurisdictions

Feature 2, and the clause students reverse.

Takeaway. Same people, different subjects — and three kinds of jurisdiction, not one.

Written Into the Constitution

Feature 3 — the one Belgium acquired in 1993.

The jurisdictions of the respective tiers are **set down in the constitution**, so that the **existence and authority** of every tier is **constitutionally guaranteed**.

Takeaway. This is exactly what Belgium's regions gained in 1993.

And Not Rewritable by One Side

Feature 4 closes the hole feature 3 leaves.

No level may **rewrite the basic provisions on its own**. Altering them takes the **agreement of both**.

Takeaway. Written down, and not rewritable alone — two halves of one protection.

Features 3 and 4 Are Not One Feature

The commonest lost mark on this topic.

Takeaway. They carry separate marks because they do separate jobs.

Courts Interpret, the Highest Court Umpires

Feature 5 does two things, not one.

Both halves earn marks. An answer that mentions only dispute-settlement has given half the feature.

Takeaway. Interpretation is continuous; umpiring happens when levels actually clash.

Neither Side Can Judge Its Own Case

Why an outsider is structurally necessary.

A dispute between two levels **cannot be settled by either of them**. If the centre decided, the centre would win every time; if the state decided, the reverse.

Takeaway. The courts are not a courtesy in a federation; they are a requirement.

Money of Its Own

Feature 6 — the gap everything else leaves.

Each level is told **exactly where its money may come from**, and the purpose of saying so is to give it **financial independence**.

Takeaway. Authority without revenue is authority on paper.

Feature 7 Says What It Is All For

One word marks the seventh out.

The seventh feature turns on the word **thus**. The first six describe machinery; the seventh states the purpose that machinery serves.

Takeaway. Six structural features, one statement of purpose.

The Seven at a Glance

All seven, in the textbook's order.

Takeaway. Seven short phrases, then expand each in the answer.

Tiers, Jurisdiction, Written, Alone, Umpire, Money, Aims

Seven phrases, in order.

**Two Tiers · Own Jurisdiction · Written Down · Not Alone · Courts Umpire · Own Money · Two Aims.**

Takeaway. A seven-item list becomes seven short phrases.

Using the List as a Diagnostic

Which feature is missing?

Takeaway. Run an arrangement against all seven and the weak point shows itself.

Answering on the Seven Features

How a features question is marked.

Takeaway. Most lost marks here come from merging two features or halving one.

A Union of States

The word the Constitution avoided.

The Constitution declared India a **Union of States**. **It did not use the word federation** — yet the Indian Union is based on the principles of federalism, and all seven features apply to its provisions.

Takeaway. Federal in substance, without the word.

Partition and the Princely States

The circumstances it had to settle.

Independence came to India out of a **partition that was violent and deeply painful**, and in the period just afterwards **a number of princely states were brought into the country**.

Takeaway. The federal structure was built under pressure, not at leisure.

The Tiers of Indian Federalism

Two tiers at the start, three now.

Takeaway. Two tiers by design, three by amendment.

The Union List

List one: what must be the same everywhere.

Subjects of **national importance**: **defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications and currency**.

Takeaway. Five examples, and the reason they belong together — uniformity.

The State List

List two: what should vary locally.

Subjects of **State and local importance**: **police, trade, commerce, agriculture and irrigation**.

Takeaway. Five examples, all of them things that differ from place to place.

The Concurrent List

List three, and the rule that settles a clash.

Subjects of **common interest to both**: **education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption and succession**. Both the Union and the State Governments can make laws on them.

Takeaway. Both may legislate; the Union wins a conflict.

Ask What the Subject Needs

Sorting a subject into its List.

And where both have a real stake — education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption, succession — the subject sits on the **Concurrent List**.

Takeaway. Uniformity or local fit decides the List far more reliably than memory does.

Residuary Subjects

What about subjects nobody thought of?

Where a constitution puts residuary power shows which level it treats as the default — and India's sits with the Union, exactly as you would expect of a holding-together federation.

Takeaway. New subjects go to the Union, by a rule settled in advance.

Special Status Under Article 371

Not every State holds the same powers.

**Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram** enjoy special powers under **Article 371**, because of their **unusual social and historical background**.

Takeaway. Unequal powers are normal in a holding-together federation, not an exception to it.

Union Territories

Not small States.

Takeaway. A different category, not a smaller version of a State.

The Double Lock on Changing the Arrangement

Parliament cannot do it alone.

Takeaway. Two-thirds of both Houses, then half the States.

The Courts and the Division of Powers

Who decides when levels clash in India?

Seeing that the constitutional provisions and procedures are actually followed is the judiciary’s work. Any argument about how powers are divided is decided by the **High Courts and the Supreme Court**.

Takeaway. Feature 5 of the last topic, in India's own form.

The Power to Levy Taxes

And the money?

Both the Union and the States may **levy taxes to fund themselves**, because each has to pay for the government it runs and the duties it has been given.

Takeaway. Financial autonomy — feature 6 — is provided for at both levels.

Four Things to Get Exactly Right

Where marks go on this topic.

Questions here are often built by reversing one of these four.

Takeaway. Four precise points, each with a tempting wrong version.

Necessary, But Not Sufficient

The provisions were not the reason it worked.

The real success of federalism in India is attributed to the **nature of democratic politics**, which made the spirit of federalism, respect for diversity and the desire for living together into shared ideals.

Takeaway. Rules set the frame; politics decides what is done inside it.

Linguistic States

Test one, and why the map changed.

Redrawing the States on language lines was the **first serious test** Indian democratic politics had to pass. After Independence a number of old boundaries were moved **so that a language community and a State would cover the same ground**.

Takeaway. One purpose behind the redrawing — one language, one State.

Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand

Three States that were not made on language.

The three named are **Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand**. Putting them among the linguistic States is a marked error.

Takeaway. Three names, and the three grounds on which they were made.

Feared to Divide, Found to Unite

The prediction that turned out backwards.

Takeaway. Confident predictions about national unity are not self-evidently right.

Official Language, Not National Language

The most commonly marked-wrong sentence in the chapter.

Takeaway. Two words that are not interchangeable, and the difference carries marks.

Hindi and the Scheduled Languages

Why safeguards were needed at all.

Takeaway. Twenty-one others, so twenty-two altogether — a favourite trap.

English After 1965

A deadline in the Constitution that was not kept.

Takeaway. One date, one State, one concession, one criticism.

Promotion Is Not Imposition

The difference between promoting and imposing.

**Promoting Hindi is still the declared policy** of the Government of India. But promoting a language is **not** the same as **forcing it**, and the Centre may not press Hindi on States that speak something else.

Takeaway. A policy may be pursued without being forced on anyone.

India's Flexibility Against Sri Lanka's Act

The comparison the whole chapter builds towards.

Takeaway. Same problem, opposite decision, opposite outcome.

Centre-State Relations, Before

Test three: what the Centre did before 1990.

Takeaway. Rules can be followed to the letter and defeated in practice.

After 1990

What changed, and it was not the Constitution.

Takeaway. Federal power sharing is more effective today than in the early years.

Coalition Government

Define it precisely.

Takeaway. At least two parties, an alliance, and a common programme.

The Arithmetic Behind the New Culture

Why a national party started respecting States.

Because no single party won a clear majority, the major national parties had to **ally with several regional parties** to form a government at the Centre.

Takeaway. Needing someone's votes is a powerful argument for respecting their powers.

What Gets Marked Wrong

The four traps on this topic.

Takeaway. Four precise points, each with a plausible wrong version.

States the Size of Countries

Why two tiers could not be enough.

**India's States rival independent European countries in size.** In population, **Uttar Pradesh is bigger than Russia** and **Maharashtra is a match for Germany**, and many States are internally very diverse.

Takeaway. The argument for local government starts from scale.

Decentralisation

Define it precisely.

The third tier that results is called **local government**.

Takeaway. Power moving downward from both higher levels, not just one.

Why Settle Things Locally

Two of the five arguments are not about better decisions.

Takeaway. The last two arguments are about what taking part does to the people who take part.

Why It Did Not Work Before

Local bodies were not invented in 1992.

Panchayats and municipalities had been **set up in all the States** long before. And yet there was **very little decentralisation in effective terms**.

Takeaway. The bodies existed; the decentralisation did not.

What the 1992 Amendment Did

Five changes, one year.

Takeaway. Elections, Reservations, Women, Commission, Powers.

The Clause the Difficulties Come From

Four firm changes, and one that was left open.

Four of the five changes are firm. The fifth requires States to share powers and revenue, but **the nature of sharing varies from State to State**.

Takeaway. What a constitution can mandate happened; what it left to States mostly did not.

Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha

The two most confused terms in the chapter.

Takeaway. The panchayat decides; the sabha is everybody, and watches.

Approve the Budget, Review the Performance

What the gram sabha actually does.

The gram sabha is required to sit **two or three times a year at minimum**, to **pass the gram panchayat’s yearly budget** and to **look over how it has performed**.

Takeaway. Every voter in the village sits where the accounts are read.

The Rural Ladder

Village, block, district.

Takeaway. Each rung is built from the one below it.

Municipalities and Corporations

And in towns and cities.

Both are controlled by **elected bodies consisting of people's representatives**.

Takeaway. Chairperson for a municipality, mayor for a corporation.

Thirty-Six Lakh Representatives

The largest of its kind anywhere.

This system is the **biggest democratic experiment anywhere on earth**. There are about **36 lakh elected representatives** in the panchayats and municipalities — **bigger than the population of many countries**.

Takeaway. Scale and representation are the two real achievements.

Three Difficulties

The chapter does not stop at the achievement.

The **ideal of self-government remains some distance off**.

Takeaway. What was mandated happened. What was left to States mostly did not.

Porto Alegre, and Kerala

Where decentralisation went further.

**Porto Alegre** in **Brazil** combined decentralisation with **participative democracy**. Its nearly **13 lakh** people help make the **budget for their own city** through sector meetings like a gram sabha, and about **20,000 people** take part every year.

Takeaway. Concrete outcomes, from ordinary residents deciding a budget.

What Gets Marked Wrong

Four traps on this topic.

Takeaway. Four precise points, each with a tempting wrong version.