Some Observations on Indian Federalism in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The article analyses the form of state of the federal Indian Union, which is rather atypical in the "landscape" of comparative constitutional law. The trend towards centralization of functions and powers, both at federal and state levels, probably constitutes some sort of quasi-federalism, or semi-federalism, or even unionist federalism. Indian pragmatic federalism, which we can mainly characterize as a variant of ethnic federalism, may well lead, in terms of the classification of the forms of state, to consider Indian federalism as unitary federalism, or as the realization of a sui generis unionist state.