International Journal of Social Research and Development

authors
Vishakha Gupta

abstract
Worldwide the governments are classified into two i.e., unitary government and the federal government. This classification is based on the division of power between national government and the regional government. By definition, a unitary government is one in which all the powers are vested in the hands of the national government (central government) and on the other hand the federal government is one in which all the powers are divided between the national government (central) and the regional government (state). Therefore, India is a parliamentary democracy which adopts constitution as a supreme law of the nation. Although Indian constitution is federal in structure but there are different views about the nature of the constitution. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar the chairman of the drafting committee clarifies that the Indian constitution is federal in structure but some constitutional experts find it unitary in nature. K.C. Wheare called Indian constitution a Quasi-federal constitution. As said above, Federalism is one of the features of the Indian democratic system that has given rise to the democratic politics in India. India has been assimilated with various types of federal systems like directive federalism, centralized or unitary federalism, negotiating or bargaining federalism, and cooperative federalism. Many ways of federalization are visible in the federalist trend, one major way of federalism is seen especially during the era of the 90s, in which the introduction of green federalism is being felt. This Research paper forms a Historical Background of Indian Federalism. Along with the analysis of federal politics since independence to till date, it even provides the challenges faced by it and it tries to focus more on the centre state relationship. The changing nature of centre-state relationship defines different types of federalism in India. Before analysing the term federalism, if we follow the trends of federal politics, it appears that the terminology itself works behind federal politics. Actually, the word 'federalism' has been used in different contexts from time to time. The literal and ideological usage has distorted its meaning. A state federalization is that organizational form in which there is both national unity and regional unity within society. An autonomous balance is established between national and regional unity. It is a process in which some independent, political units manage a way in which they can solve common problems. They solve such problems by making joint policies and taking joint decisions. In other words, Federalism is a constitutional mechanism to achieve common national objectives of the state by incorporating the opposite forces of the central and divisional tendencies, where unity in diversity is ensured.