federalism is a system in which the governmental power is divided between a central authority and its various constituent units for example federal form of government whereas countries like Sri Lanka and the UK have a unitary system of government under the unitary system there is only one level of government there may be subunits like state governments but they are under the absolute subordination of the central government system there are two or more tiers or levels of government government the state government exception in India oh dear or local self-government however in federalism each deer has its own jurisdiction in specific matters of legislation and administration jurisdiction is the legal authority and can be defined in terms of geographical area federalism provides constitutional guarantees for the existence and authority of each tier of government in addition the basic provisions of the Constitution cannot be unilaterally changed by one tier of government such changes require the approval of both tears of the government every level is free in its own way to impose taxes and raise funds through remunerative enterprises however the sources of revenue for each tier are also clearly specified an independent judiciary is the very essence of federalism the Constitution and the powers of the different tiers of government the highest court of the land acts as an arbitrator in of a dispute between different tiers of government federalism has the dual objectives of promoting unity of the country and recognizing regional diversity by way of mutual trust and agreement of living together and state governments can vary from Federation to Federation it depends mainly on the historical context in which the Federation was formed there are two ways in which Federation's can be formed durations and holding together Federation's in the coming together Federation's independent states come together on their own to form a bigger unit that by pooling sovereignty and retaining identity they can increase their security USA Switzerland and Austria our examples of coming together Federation's in these countries all the constituent states usually have equal power and our strong visa be the federal government on the other hand in holding together Federation's sites to divide its power between the Constituent States and the national government India Spain and Belgium are examples of holding together Federation's in this type of Federation the central government tends to be more powerful with to the States the different constituent units of the Federation to and equal powers for example Jammu Kashmir in India has been granted special status India is a union of states based on the principles of federalism our country has a three-tier system of government namely the Union government state governments and the local government that consists of gram panchayats and municipalities the indian union is based on the ideology of holding together Federation whereby the power is divided between the respective states and the central government however this power sharing can vary across different units of the Federation for example Jammu and Kashmir enjoys more power than other states on the other hand the union territory is virtually dependent on the center these unique power sharing ways make the Indian system of governments quasi federal in nature the Constitution provides a three fold distribution of legislative power between the central and the state governments therefore there are three lists namely the Union list state list and and list the union list includes 97 subjects of national importance such as defense atomic energy Foreign Affairs railways banking and Telegraph's a uniform policy throughout the country and I've hence included in this list Lauzon these union lists subjects can solely be made by the Parliament the second list is the state list that consists of 66 subjects of state and local importance such as police trade commerce agriculture and irrigation legislative alone can make laws related to subjects mentioned in the state list the third list is the concurrent list which includes subjects of common interest to both the Union and state government for example forests trade unions Union and state governments can make laws on the concurrent list but in case of conflict the laws by the Union government are given more importance there are some subjects that do not fall under any of the lists or came up after the Constitution was made these are known as the residuary the union government has powers to make laws on these residual subjects for example computer hardware and software holding together Federation does not give equal powers to its constituent units which means that all states of the Indian Union do not have identical powers states like Jammu and Kashmir enjoy a special status with its own Constitution and many provisions of the Indian Constitution are not applicable to the state on the other hand there are some units of the Indian Union which enjoy very little powers like Chandigarh like schwa deep or the capital city of Delhi these are known as territories since they are too small to be independent states or even merged with existing states the union territories are governed directly by the central government it is very difficult to make changes in India's power-sharing arrangement as any change has to be approved by a one-third majority in both the houses of parliament and then by the Legislature's of half of the total number of states another important aspect that makes India a federal country is the judiciary the judiciary administers both Union and state laws and in case of any dispute about the division of power the High Court and Supreme Court make a decision hence the judiciary acts as the guardian of Indian federalism the real success of federalism in India can be attributed to the nature of democratic politics in our country that is spirit of freedom secular outlook versity and the urge to live together the most important tests success with the creation of linguistic states language policy and center state relations at the time of Independence in 1940 there were many states that had more than one local language however in 1956 under the state reorganization Commission the states were created on the basis of language during this time many small states disappeared and new ones came into existence did you know Bellus food was an independent state till 1954 after which it was merged as a district in the state of Himachal Pradesh in 1966 haryana was created from the state of Punjab similarly the 16 northern telugu-speaking districts of madras state became the new state of Andhra some states like muggle and backand and Jharkand were created to recognize their cultural and ethnic differences the formation of linguistic states has made the country more United and easier to administer another test for the success of the Indian Federation was the framing of the language policy in a multi linguistic country the census of India held in 1991 identified 1,500 distinct languages and drooped them under 114 major languages out of these 114 major languages our Constitution recognizes 22 sheduled languages hindi is the official language although there are some states that conduct official work in their own local language according to the Constitution the use of English as an official language was to stop in 1965 however this did not happen due to the opposition and agitation of non-hindi speaking States the official language Act states that English would remain the official language of the country so long as non-hindi speaking states desire restructuring and division of powers between the center and States is another factor that contributed to the success of federalism in India at the time of Independence the central government and the state governments were ruled by the same political party namely the Congress after 1967 when some political parties from the opposition came to power in different states the relations between the center and States began to change misused powers and dismissed the state governments led by the rival parties this was against the spirit of federalism after 1990 all this changed when a coalition government was formed at the center regional parties became more powerful in the States and different parties formed an alliance for example pa and the NBA under this arrangement the culture of power sharing and respect for the autonomy of state governments spread in India the Supreme Court also made it difficult for the central government to dismiss the state governments in an arbitrary manner result with the era of the coalition government structure is more effective today than it was when the Constitution came into force due to the massive diverse population India has a three-tier system of government where the local government forms the third tier in order to manage and resolve issues and problems of people at the local level and keep them united power sharing within the state is essential the process of taking away power from the central and state government and giving it to the local government is known as decentralization to strengthen the local government and make decentralization more effective several amendments have been made in the Constitution concerning the panchayati raj and the Nagar Palika or municipality according to these amendments it is mandatory to hold regular elections for local government bodies seats are reserved in the elected bodies for the Scheduled Castes Tribes and Other Backward Classes and 1/3 of all positions are reserved for women an independent state Election Commission has been created in each state to conduct panchayat and municipal elections moreover the state governments are share some powers and revenue with local government bodies let's now take a look at the local governments that exist in rural and urban India government popularly known as the panchayat raj consists of the Zilla Parishad one type the gram panchayat is a decision-making body present in each village or group of villages consists of ward members called Bunch and a president called serpents they are directly elected by the adults of the ward or village the gram panchayat works under the vision of the gram sabha that consists of all the voters in the village it meets twice or thrice in a year to approve the annual budget of the gram panchayat and to review the panchayats performance the gram panchayats together form a panchayat Samiti also known as a block or Mandell the members of this body are elected by the members of the panchayat in that area the panchayat Samiti is together from the Zilla Parishad members of the Lok Sabha and members of the Legislative Assembly along with some other officials are members of the Silla Parishad the urban local government or nugget Palika comprises the municipal committees in towns and municipal corporations in big cities are elected by the people the three-tier system of government is the largest experiment in democracy conducted anywhere in the world a few problems for instance gum Saba's are not held regularly resources are not given to local bodies cases Ones have not transferred power to local governments yet system has 36 lakh representatives in the rural and urban local governments and a significant participation of women despite certain problems the of local governments and decentralization of power has helped strengthen democracy in the country [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you