It is a system of government in which the governmental power is divided between a central authority and its various constituent units.
In India the Constitution divides all subjects under three types of constitutional lists. These are: (i) Union List, (ii) State List and (iii) Concurrent list].
(i) In the unitary form of government there is only one central government for the whole country. While, in the federal form there is one central government and separate governments in the provinces.
(ii) In the federal form of government, the whole country is divided into some political units but in the unitary form the whole country is a single unit.
(iii) In the unitary form, all the powers are vested in one central government. While there is a division of powers between the federal and the state government in the federal form.
(iv) In the federal form of government mostly the constitution is written and as well as rigid while it is not so in case of a unitary state.
The exact balance of power between the Central and the State governments and within various state governments varies from one federation to another. This balance depends mainly on the historical context in which the federation was formed. There are two kinds of routes through which federations have been formed.
The first route involves independent states coming together on their own to form a bigger unit so that by pooling sovereignty and retaining identity they can increase their security.
This type of ‘coming together’ federations include USA, Switzerland and Australia. In this first category of federations, all the constituent states usually have equal powers and are strong vis-a-vis the federal government.
In the 1947, the boundaries of several old states of India were changed in order to create new states. This was done to ensure that people who spoke the same language lived in the same state. Some states were created not on the basis of language but to recognise differences based on culture, ethnicity or geography. These include states like Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.
When the demand for the formation of states on the basis of language was raised, some national leaders feared that it would lead to the disintegration of the country. The Central Government resisted linguistic states for sometime. But the experience has shown that the formation of linguistic states has actually made the country more united and stronger. It has also made administration easier .
Language policy of India:
1. Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language. Hindi was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 per cent of the Indians. Therefore, there were many safeguards to protect other languages.
2. Besides Hindi, there are 21 other languages recognised as scheduled languages by the Constitution.
3. A candidate in an examination conducted for the national government positions may opt to take the examination in any of these languages. States too have their own official languages. Much of the government work takes place in the official language of the concerned state.
4. Unlike Sri Lanka, the leaders of our country adopted a very cautious attitude in spreading the use of Hindi. According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965.
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