FEDERAL EXPRESS
The BJP’s rise to power and the consolidation of its dominance, both at the national and regional levels, mark a profound departure from a decades-long process of political decentralisation in India. Since 2014, the central government has asserted its pre-eminence over states in multiple instances, such as demonetisation, the introduction of GST and the early dissolution of the Planning Commission of India. The recent bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the demotion of the two new entities to the status of Union territory is yet another manifestation of the Centre’s predilection for a unilateral top-down approach to decision-making that does away with the necessity of discussing or negotiating such consequential decisions. In this backdrop, Louise Tillin’s Indian Federalism, part of the mostuseful Oxford Short Introduction series, provides a timely context to the debate on political centralisation in India.
In four chapters, Tillin covers key aspects of federalism in India. Chapter one covers the origins of India’s federal model, rooted in the aftermath of Partition. The Constituent Assembly, anxious to build a system capable of preserving India’s newfound unity, designed a ‘cooperative’ model of federalism based
on the idea of interdependence between the Centre and the states, albeit skewed towards the former. Tillin describes a unique system that is strongly centralised by design, but not rigid to the point of cracking under regional pressures. The argument is that the pre-eminence given to the Centre vis-à-vis the states has historically enabled it to introduce major institutional reforms with greater ease than a more conventional interlocked model of federalism would have allowed for. These landmark reforms, such as the creation of new states or the drawing of linguistic boundaries, have always been initiated by the Centre on its own terms and on its own calendar.
Chapter two deals with the question of diversity and is another illustration of the inbuilt flexibility of India’s centralised model of federalism. The strong prerogatives of the Centre have enabled it to accommodate various forms of social and political identities over time, although with significant limitations, such as in Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the Northeast, where adhesion to the Union had to be secured by coercion rather than by persuasion.
Chapters three and four detail how India’s federal system has evolved under pressures from political and economic change. Successive transformations of the party system—from one-party dominance under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi to a phase of alternation in the 1980s and the subsequent fragmentation of the political landscape from the 1990s—have pushed India towards decentralisation, a movement compounded by the gradual opening up of the economy, which also encouraged competition between states.
Tillin argues that over time, India’s federal system has proven to be compatible not only with various configurations of party systems but also with contrasting forms of exercise of power, which oscillate between centralisation and cooperation. The original design has proven to be remarkably resilient as well as flexible, stabilising India’s tumultuous tryst with democratic politics.
The book’s conclusion, however, leaves the reader wishing for greater elaboration on today’s situation. The author hints that the success of India’s responses to its current social, political and economic challenges will depend on the ability of the Centre and the states to collaborate and learn from each other, rather than in the current unitary, imaginary and centralising tendencies of today’s BJP. The book falls short of substantiating this view.
Indian Federalism is a remarkably clear and well-written account of India’s unique model of federalism and a fitting tribute to the imagination of its makers. Students, scholars and citizens alike will find it both useful and enlightening. ■
The author is co-director of the Trivedi Centre for Political Data, Ashoka University
Our social, political and economic challenges, the book argues, need a Centre-states collaboration rather than centralisation