Who said ‘India is a Quasi-Federal State’?

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Q – Who said ‘India is a Quasi-Federal State’?

(a) Lord Bryce

(c) H.J. Laski

(b) Ivor Jennings

(d) K.C. Wheare

U.P.P.C.S. (Pre) 2019

Ans. (d)

Explanation – K.C. Wheare said that ‘India is a Quasi-Federal State’.

Federal System with Unitary Bias
The Constitution of India establishes a federal system of Government. It contains all the usual features of a federation, viz.,
  • two Government,
  • division of powers,
  • written Constitution,
  • supremacy of Constitution,
  • rigidity of Constitution,
  • independent judiciary and
  • bicameralism.
However, the Indian Constitution also contains a large number of unitary or non-federal features, viz.,
  • a strong Centre,
  • single Constitution,
  • single citizenship,
  • flexibility of Constitution,
  • integrated judiciary,
  • appointment of state governor by the Centre,
  • all-India services,
  • emergency provisions and so on.
Moreover, the term ‘Federation’ has nowhere been used in the Constitution. Article 1, on the other hand, describes India as a ‘Union of States‘ which implies two things:
  • one, Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states; and
  • two, no state has the right to secede from the federation.
Hence, the Indian Constitution has been variously described as:
  • ‘federal in form but, unitary in spirit’, ‘quasi-federal’ by K.C. Wheare,
  • ‘bargaining federalism’ by Morris Jones,
  • ‘co-operative federalism’ by Granville Austin,
  • ‘federation with a centralising tendency’ by Ivor Jennings and so on.

Source : Indian Polity – M Laxmikanth.

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