What makes India a federal country?
The Constitution of India declared India as a Union of States. Although it did not use the word federation, the Indian Union is based on the principle of federalism. The Constitution originally provided for a two-tier system of government, the Union government or what we call the central government representing the union of India and die State governments. The Constitution clearly provided a three¬fold distribution of legislative powers between the Union government and the State governments. Thus it contains three lists: (a) Union List includes subjects of national importance such as the defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications and currency. They are included in this list because we need a uniform policy on these matters throughout the country. The Union government alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the Union List. (b) State List contains subjects of state and local importance such as police, trade, commerce, agriculture and irrigation. The State governments alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the State List. (c) Concurrent list includes subjects of common interest to both the Union government as well as the State governments, such as education, forest, trade unions, marriages, adoption and succession. Both the Union as well as the State governments can make laws on the subjects mentioned in this list. If their laws conflict with each other, the law made by the union government will prevail.4. According to the Indian constitution, the Union government has the power to legislate on ‘residuary’ subjects.
