INDIAN HERBARY OF FEDERAL BLOSSOMS Suvidutt M. S.

(This article was originally published in a Delhi based Law Journal AB INITIO) ALPHA OF INDIAN FEDERALISM India is a territory of vastness and variety having unity in diversity which is not a verbal connotation but an expression in real. When country is colossal, culture opulent in diversity, and religious, ethnic and linguistic pluralism robust, flexible federalism is an imperative process of political structural engineering. India, from antique times, has been a domicile of waves of civilization, of divergent streams of people coming with their heritage, military conquests, political tenure and ensconce of empires making for a salmagundi of cultures, religions and regional amplifications. Greek, Roman, Persian, Mogul and British influx over long periods did harvest a geo-political pluralism and cultural mosaic creating conditions mellow for a federal system of government. Prof. M.V. Pylee observes A country like India with gigantic proportions-vast area and huge population, racial, religious, linguistic, and cultural diversities can solve its political problem only under a system which admits unity in diversity. Such a system, any impartial observer will admit, can be achieved only through the effective application of the principles of federalism.1 The biography of India, in its political protuberance has had no congruent federal or confederal polity. One need not unearth those ancient epochs of kingdoms, chieftainship empires and religious rulers with varying features of isolation, localism, military alliances and disintegrations. There was, however, a broad unity of culture despite self-governing principalities, belligerent monarchies and incidental insurrection of peoples. However, the cataclysm of the sinking Mogul empire and the docking of the Europeans imprint the modern period of Indian politics. Springing up along with of feudal and colonial politico was Indian nationalism, not as chauvinistic impetuosity and
1

The Federal Court of India- M.V. Pylee (page 33-34).

passionate patriotic frenzy of an amorphous rebellion, but as a manumission of the people with democratic developmental potential for all people regardless of caste, creed, race, religion and other dissimilitude. The ingress of East India Company made a qualitative alteration in Indian political affairs and when in 1858 the crown took over India from the company, foreign occupation became a repugnant reality and the crumpling of the Mogul Empire a dawdling certainty. The Charter Act of 1833 buttressed centralization of power in the Governor General of India in council. The revolutionary mutiny by the Indian people way back in 1857 was a realization of loosing freedom, a struggle to overthrow foreign rule and a protest against autocracy and irresponsive administration. The brutish sequence and harsh consequence of an exceedingly centralized system of administration stirred the claim for decentralization; and a novel course of devolution in some limited measure to the province came to agenda. The resolution for Provincial Autonomy of 1911 and the transfer of the Capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi marked a new drift. World War 1 made an immense impact on the Indian query in British attention and the policy of plodding maturity of autonomous institutions came to be devised. The Mont ford Report, the Government of India Act, 1919 and the introduction of diarchy in the provinces marked a measure of devolution of authority. Subjects of all-India importance were central and those of predominantly local interest were provincial. Principle of federalism was not espoused in the scheme of division of powers between centre and the provinces but the federal zeitgeist caught the mind's eye of the populace. The Simon Commission of 1927 and its Report of 1930 only engendered more antagonism. British statesmanship had to respond to Indian agitation and the 1935 constitution came into being after the two Round Table Conferences. This constitution, forged in Westminster, had a federal fascia with perplexing prolixity and was voluminous but not luminous. In outline, the unitary government suffered suspended death sentence; and autonomous provinces, within a federal constitutional framework, came into being. With all its blemishes, the 1935 Act made federalism a feasible makeup. The partition of India, with its fall-out of mammoth

budge of populations and communal carnage, dazed the designers of our constitution into an allergy towards separatism and into a realization that a brawny central power was indispensable. The poltergeist of centralism and Viceregal authority in Delhi whitewashed the thinking of those who fashioned the constitution and even Gandhi, the apostle of nonviolence whose voice and noise was for the decentralized democracy. Our constitution, terminologically federal but truly unitary, leaves the inkling that Delhi is India- not the people nor the parish nor the autonomous classes and communities whose glorious identities and cultures made unity in diversity a pride and precious legacy. We, the people of India, was fine rhetoric but dubious politics. Old provinces, megapolitan prejudice and western replica of development were obsessions of the leading lights in the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly debates and the then milieu set the tone for the need of future federalism. Dr. Ambedkar who piloted the Draft Bill dwelt at length on federal structure of the Indian system, after discarding the unitary pattern. He acknowledged the dual polity and articulated a caveat: Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realize that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic.2 Undeniably, this trepidation proved right and the ensuing alienation of weaker pluralist groups and minorities was a fall out of the deviances from constitutional morality by those who steered the wheels of power. People will battle for their identity and for equality. The struggle will go on until thro dynamic decentralism power vests where it belongs. DISSECTION AND DYNAMICS Flowers of many colours, held together by a common stem, or, if one may change the metaphor, sweet notes of music mellifluously merging into a song, preserving the exquisite identity of each sound but blending to make a magnificent symphony. 3 When we dissect these blossoms and corollas we could fathom the subsequent truth in its bizarre rhythm.
2 3

Speech of Dr. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly on 4/11/1948. Indian Federalism- Dialectics and Dynamics- V.R. Krishna Iyer.

We, the people of India accent on the people meaning every human inhabitant of this land. Be he/she humble, handicapped, an associate of minority or awakened community, a bonded labourer or belonging to a prejudiced gender, every individual (or collective) who had Indian personhood, Indian title to share in the sovereignty of the republic. Instead of the paramountcy and supremacy of the people in India-today its the national political parties who are paramount whether in power or in the opposition who are more like undertakers of peoples aspirations for autonomy rather than underwriters of a federal union. Alas, the machinists who control state power, the elitist minions and political cohorts for self-aggrandizement and moneyocracy corrupts the entire system of administration betraying the fiduciary obligation to Indian humanity of weaving the fine-spun garment of federalism. Currently, the gun for gun governs, phoenix-like rising and ruling terrorism and midgetry in administration which vacillates, wails and fails to have faith in itself to initiate dialogue and breakthroughs with a new vision of Indian federalism. And now, our ancient land, which swanked of far more than democracy has by a fondle of aggressive amnesia, forgotten ahimsa and resolved to jostle into service khaki as better than khadi, taking leave of the naissance notion that unity lives in the recognition of diversity. Once the sagacity of multiplicity and mutual esteem is broken, Indian ness will evaporate and later the restoration of humanness, comprehensiveness and cohesiveness would be an intricate one. Bear in mind that no one lives if India dies. In view of the insinuation of Article 356 of the constitution which, if the text be read literally, is a set of provisions calculated to take care of the failure of the constitutional machinery at the state level, a situation of emergency designed to salvage democracy derailed by unconstitutional developments. Dr. Ambedkar, a prophetic jurist suggested that I may say that I do not altogether deny that there is a possibility of this Article being abused or applied for political purposes. But that objection applies to every part of the constitution which gives power to the centre to override the provinces. In fact, I share the sentiments expressed yesterday that the proper thing we ought to expect is that such Article will never be called into operation and that they would remain a dead

letter.4Justice Sarkaria, in his Report, cautions: imposition of presidents rule thus brings to an end, for the time being, a government in the state responsible to the State Legislature. Indeed, this is a very drastic power. Exercised correctly, it may operate as a safety mechanism for the system. Abused or misused, it can destroy the constitutional equilibrium between the Union and the States.5 Nonetheless, this report does not argue for obliteration in total but recommends severely restricted user of the power. This emergency power is abridged to a comedy and a tragedy making constitutional democracy a mockery and a perennial menace to state-level popular government, whichever the party in provincial power. In Gandhi country, where decentralized democracy is a fundamental faith, the reverse process, ultimately vesting all power in one person, is the reality of the Administration. Isnt this a disgrace for the doctrine of Gandhism? Arent Emergency provisions an impediment on the path of federal fairness? Isnt federal politics with democratic cosmetics under damage since unwarranted concentration of power at centre which negates devolution and local self-government? EARNEST EXHORTATIONS Our federal destiny can be won only if India is one. And India can be one only if Indian fraternity, thro constructive constitutional engineering and principled political restructuring fulfill the reality of diversity in its rich pluralism.
6

To-day, shortsighted

politics and the cupidity for power have made statesmen with foresight an imperiled species. We yearn for a new coterie of principled political euphemisms and insist on 24 carat democracy which includes provincial autonomy without hide and seek. Creative statesmanship, not wooden obtuseness, can innovate federal mechanisms flexible enough to weld together sovereign nationhood and limited self-determination of nationalities. Political obscurantism about parochial nationalism, chauvinist patriotism, and an allpowerful central despotism deserve to be sloughed off; and an effervescence of new thinking must cicerone the womb of time.
4 5

Speech of Dr. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly. Commission on Centre-State Relations Report-Part 1- At Page 171. 6 Indian Federalism- Dialectics and Dynamics- V.R. Krishna Iyer.

The rudiments of Indian demography, in the fairness and fullness of its democracy, will flower forth as a federal flower provided there is candid avowal of the right of nationalities and ethnic communities with territorial density to authentic autonomy. Our democratic system must practice a hale and hearty squaring off between regionalism and nationalism, unity and diversity, jingoistic sexism and cluster autonomy. A re-orientation of federal dogma, a radicalization of justice to groups with separate cultural identities and a wholehearted goodbye to centralized despotism- that is the desideratum. This is a paradigm shift of federalism simplified to costume the challenges of change. Indian federalism can earn essence and come of age, our constitutional order may spell constancy and hold out the promised haven, our people will become sovereign in a polity structured to provide pluralist status and decentralized empowerments, only if the fundamentals of federalism are unreservedly honored and we vow to bear true reliance to the superlative values inscribed in the preamble to our constitution. People used in the preamble, must obtain a distributive semantic shove to envelop homogenous groups. The soul force and political source of power pounce from the people, and therefore Indian pluralism desiderates political decentralism, not as top-vinaigrette but as soul profound power streamlining. The relations between the states and the centre, the domain and degree of autonomy and the manifestation of self-expression of waterlogged communities, tribes and ethnic groups cannot be static. The dialectics of challenges and the dynamics of changes covert in federalism must be documented and new shapes and silhouettes of political severance must receive fulfillment- greeted, not gunned down. We have to push further the new frontiers of devolution of powers. We cannot any longer pledge by the past nor shoot down change. Our people are aware and ask for federal and distributive justice, even if it will deprive Delhi of its power to some extent in favour of provincial self-government. It is the destiny of our generation to struggle and accomplish political justice to those who have been shorn of it in the past, economic justice to groups who have botched to be fed and clothed, social justice to whole nationalities dear to Bharat.

Overall, the DNA of Indian Federalism needs genetic mutations and metamorphosis in its creative potential. OMEGA ORATIONS Bharatiya sanskar, in its social spiritual epitome, is the process of perceiving the numerous in the single and the single in the numerous. Devoid of this sublime acuity federalism will turn phony or pretense. More than a billion people of India must bear in mind that our culture is cooperative, not combative, and hunt for appeasement, not argument. But truth to tell, the seeds of sub-national status in Bharat are spouting, the roots are going deep which is palpable from the Rajamannar Report to the Sarkaria Report and the subsequent struggles in various parts of the country for statehood and more admirable autonomy. Neither party nor parliament can douse the flames and fumes of the demands for statehood in the name of brotherhood. Indeed, the Telugu Desom Party, the DMK and AIDMK, the Jharkand parties, the Akali Dal, the AGP and others of their ilk prove beyond sensible doubt the halcyon days of 1950 are gone and tumults and thunderstorm of to-day are not trivial or transient. The Army is not the gadget to eliminate these popular pressures and pandemonium. A federally picturesque India, with soulful autonomy and without central bullying, is the movement that needs inaugural ceremony now. The Indian federal odyssey with all the exploits and experiences over five decades entitles us to make India, that is Bharat a fresh blossom with the petals as peoples regardless of race, religion, region and other differentiating factors may bring together all nationalities, sub-nationalities and diverse groups into a one blissful Union. It is the sacred obligation of those of our generation to accomplish the assignment of decentralized democracy for which the Mahatma and millions of others gallantly fought. Before it, the people, party and politicians will have to answer by pondering few questions like- why do we have Presidents Rule under Article 356, more than hundred times, making state autonomy a ubiquitous absentee and constitutional mockery? Why

are we having the military and para-military forces omnipresent, as it were, in the land of Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence and father of nation? Why are fidgety, and until now suppressed, people organizing upsurges, although otherwise they are patriots? Why is the statute book of India gory with terrorist laws like TADA, POTO, POTA and the like? Why are regional parties springing up like tigers from the jungles and with power to threaten even the Centre? Why federalism is fading and autonomy is in anathema? Where is the soul of India and Indians? The answer is- the rediscovery of India, which is Bharat, must begin again. That is the dialectic of contemporary history, if federal India is to bloom in dazzling colours tomorrow. Let us think mutually to liquidate violence and activate justice to miscellaneous categories entitled to separate political status without risking disintegration of the union. Candidly, the hour is late therefore beware. Bibliography 1. A History of India- Percival Spear 2. Reports of the Sarkaria Commission on Centre- State Relations, Part 1 3. Constitutional Law of India- Seervai H.M. 4. Federalism and Centre-State Relations in India- O.P. Tiwari 5. The Federal Court of India- M.V. Pylee 6. Indian Federalism Dialectics and Dynamics- V.R. Krishna Iyer