Ans) One feature in the practice of federalism in India that is similar to that of Belgium is that there is power sharing between the central government and state government. Feature in the practice of federalism in India that is different from Belgium is that India has no community government while Belgium has a community government in addition to the central and state government.

Ans) A major step towards decentralisation was taken in 1992. The constitution was amended to make the third tier of democracy more powerful and effective.

1. Now it is constitutionally mandatory to hold regular elections to local government bodies.
2. After amendment, at least one third of all positions are reserved for women. It was not reserved earlier.

Ans) There are two kinds of routes through which federation forms:-

1. The first route involves independent states coming together on their own to form a bigger unit, so that by pooling sovereignity and retaining identity they can increase their security. This type of ‘coming together’ federations include the USA. Switzerland and Australia. In this category of federations, all the constituent states usually have equal power.
2. The second route is where a large country decides to divide its power between the constituent states and the national government. India, Belgium and Spain are examples of this kind of ‘holding together’ federations. In this second category, the central government tends to be more powerful vis-a-vis the states. Very often different constituent units of the federation have unequal power. Some units are granted special power.

Ans) There are reasons for unity in India inspite of having diversities:-

1. All have rights for religious, educational, cultural freedom.
2. Schedule castes and schedule tribes have seats reserved and they do represent themselves.
3. No discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, region or religion.
4. Right to equality.

Ans) Federal Form of Government – There is power sharing between union and state government. Examples – India is a federal country with union government at the centre and state governments at state level and Panchayati Raj at the local levels.

Unitary Form of Government – The power is centralised with the union
government and there is no role of state government. Examples – In Sri Lanka, the national government has all the powers.

Ans) The form of government in which the constitution concentrates all power in the single central government is known as a unitary government. The existence local governments and their powers depend solely on central government.

According to Garner, “This is that system of the administration where the whole power of government is conferred by the constitution upon a single central organ and local governments take all their powers and freedom from central. Their existence solely depends on central government.”

Ans) The demerits/flaws of unitary system are as follows:-

1. In this system, all the powers are conferred upon central government so there is a doubt/fear that central government may do arbitrariness in all the areas.
2. The success of democratic governance depends on political awareness of citizens but this political awareness does not develop properly in unitary system.
3. In unitary system, people do not get a chance of active participation in any of the level of governance therefore the governance power lies only in the hands of government people and the arbitrary rule of bureaucracy establishes.
4. Unitary system may be successful in small states, but in states with greater area and greater population where there is diversity of language, religion, caste and culture, work can not be performed on the basis of unitary system. For such states, federal system is suitable.

Ans) Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of a country. Both the levels of governments enjoy their power independent of the other.

In this sense, federations are contrasted with unitary government. In unitary system either there is only one level of government or the subunits are subordinate to the central government. The central government can pass on orders to the provincial or the local government. But in a federal system, the central government cannot order the state government to do something. State governments has powers of its own for which it is not answerable to the central government. Both these governments are separately answerable to the people.

Ans) The distribution contains three lists:-

1. Union list-This list includes subjects of national importance such as defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications and currency. There is a need of uniform policy on these matters throughout the country. This is the reason, these subjects are included in union list. The union government alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in union list.
2. State list-This 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.
3. Concurrent list-This includes subjects of common interest to both the union government as well as the state government such as education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption and succession.

Ans) Three benefits of decentralization of power are:-

1. Sharing of power between central, state and local government reduces conflicts.
2. Large number of problems and issues can be best settled at local level.
3. People has better knowledge of their own problems in their localities.

Ans) Advantages of local government are:-

1. The constitutional status given to local government has helped in depend democracy in our country.
2. It has also increased women’s representation and voice in our democracy, allowing them to participate directly in decision-making.
3. Local people have better ideas and knowledge about the local problems.

Ans) Four characteristics of language policy in India are:-

1. Our constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language. Hindi was identified as the official language. But there were many safeguards to protect other languages.
2. Besides Hindi there are 21 other languages recognised as scheduled languages by the constitution. 
3. Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of the government of India but the central government can impose Hindi on states where people speak a different language. 
4. The central government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes.

Ans) Gram panchayat – Each village or a group of villages in some states has a gram panchayat. This is a council consisting of several ward members, often called panch and a president or sarpanch. They are elected directly by all the adult population living in that ward or village. It is the decision making body for the entire village.

Gram sabha – The panchayat works under the overall supervision of the gram sabha. All the voters in the village are its members. It has to meet at least twice or thrice in a year to approve the annual budget of gram panchayat and to review the performance of the gram panchayat.

Ans) The local government structure goes right up to the district level. A few gram panchayats are grouped together to form a panchayat samiti, or block or mandal. The members of this representative body are elected by all the panchayat members in that area. All the panchayat samitis in a district together constitute the Zilla (district) parishad. Most members of the Zilla parishad are elected. Members of the Lok sabha and MLAS of that district and some other officials of other district level bodies are also its members. Zilla Parishad Chairperson is the political head of the Zilla parishad.