Indian Federalism: Examining the Debate
9 Pages Posted: 5 Nov 2009
Date Written: November 5, 2009
Abstract
Federalism in India is a debatable issue, while some people call it “quasi-federal”, “competitive federalism”, “co-operative federalism” or the bigger debate underlying is whether India is actually a federal state. P.K. Tripathi, a distinguished Professor and Member of Law Commission of India in his article, "Federalism: The Reality and the Myth" criticized the Indian federation. He compared Indian federation with the three different senses and concluded that India is not a "true" federation. The third sense or the “mythical” sense of federalism as called by P.K. Tripathy that is, “the Constitution in this third situation, does not satisfy the essential and indispensable requirements of federalism…and the use of the expression federal or federalism, in this third sense, is really speaking spurious .The conscious object or purpose of this spurious use is…to metamorphose a non-federal constitution into a federal one.” The main objective of this short article is to give an overview over this debate and get a better understanding of the real scenario. The article concludes that there is a clash between the “orthodox school” of federalism and “dynamic progressive school” of federalism. However, in light of the discussion and the existing framework, it can be justified that India is a federal state which is a model of its own and should not be compared with other federal states.
Keywords: Federalism, Indian Constitution, India
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