Although the word ‘federal’ is not defined anywhere in the constitution, article 1 of the Indian Constitution states that “India, that is Bharat, shall be the union of the states”

Federalism primarily mentions the division of the power between the union and the state for the legislation or the formulation of the laws in the country.  It is important to note, that the united states of America have a federal form of government Whereas, on the other hand, the unitary form of government states that there is a centralization of power at the union. The United Kingdom has a unitary form of government, as the power is centralized in the hands of the monarch.  

1. Written constitution: in a federal form of government, there must be a written constitution. India has the biggest constitution in the whole world with about 448 articles, 12 schedules, and that makes it about to be the lengthiest constitution in the whole world.
2. Rigidity: Rigidity relates to the amendments made in the constitution. One of the most intriguing fact to mention is that the constitution of the U.S.A, was evolved in the year of 1770 and since then, the provisions mentioned in the constitution has only been amended 26 times till the current date. On the other hand, the Indian constitution was incepted in, the year 1950, and to the current date, the Indian constitution has been amended 104 times, with its latest amended back in January 2020.
3. Dual citizenship: the concept of dual citizenship refers to the fact that any individual residing in the country where federalism is adopted in its essence, then they would be entitled to dual citizenship. Further elaborating, the individuals would be recognized as a citizen of the nation as well as a citizen of the state. For example, in a man being born in Texas, United States of America. Then, he will be regarded as a citizen of the united states of America, and In addition to that, he will also be regarded as a citizen of Texas. On contrary, in India, there is no concept of dual citizenship. Any individual residing in India will only be rendered as a citizen of India, and not the respective state they reside in.
4. Dispersion of powers: one of the most striking features of federalism is the dispersion of powers, which further means that the center, as well as the state, have the power to legislate laws regarding the matters which are granted to them by the constitution. In India, schedule VII of the Indian constitution, mentions 3 lists namely:
   1. Union list: under this list, all those subject matters are mentioned on which the central government has the sole authority to legislate laws.
   2. State list: all the subjects mentioned under state list, then only the state government has the sole authority to legislate laws on those subject matter
   3. Concurrent List: the subject matter mentioned in the concurrent list gives power to both unions as well as the state list to legislate laws on. If there is any conflict between the union and the state government regarding legislation of a law, then the decision made by the union government would always prevail.

The majority of the Supreme Court judges in Kesavananda Bharati v. the State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461, were of the view that the federal features form the basic structure of the Indian Constitution.

In Ganga Ram Moolchandani v. State of Rajasthan the Supreme Court reiterated: ‘Indian Constitution is basically federal in form and is marked by the traditional characteristics of a federal system, namely supremacy of the Constitution, division of power between the Union and States and existence independent judiciary.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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