CONTENTS Unit No. Title Page No. 1. Approaches concepts and Methods of Analysis of State Politics. 01 2. Formation of States, Issue of resources-river waters, minearls, energy sharing 17 3. Structure and Functioning of the State Legislature, Executive and Judiciary 30 4. Issues in Regional Politics : Interface between Politics and Economy 44 5. LinkagesbetweenRegionalandNationalPolitics 69 6. The changing Role of Caste, Elites, Religion and Language in State Politics 82 7. Local Government and Politics : Panchayati Raj and Nagarpalika 104 8. Impact of uneven development instates on thefederal polity-State Finances and The Issue of Autonomy 123 I SYLLABUS M.A. (PART - II) OPTIONAL PAPER PAPER - III - STATE POLITICS IN INDIA 1. Approaches, Concepts and Methods of Analysis of State Politics 2. Formation of States, Issues of resources - river waters, minerals, energy sharing. 3. Structure and Functioning of the State Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. 4. Issues in Regional Politics : Interface between Politics and the Economy, Role of Trade Unions and Peasant Movements; Mass Movements - Women, Youth and NGO’s Role of Mass Media - Print and Audio Visual. 5. Linkages between Regional and National Politics : Decline of One Party Dominance and Emergence of Coalition Politics. 6. The changing Role of Caste, Elites, Religion and Language in State Politics. 7. Local Government and Politics : Panchayati Raj and Nagarpalika. 8. Impact of uneven development in states on the federal polity - State finances and the Issue of Autonomy. Suggested Readings : 1. Bayly, Susan, New Cambridge History of India; Volume IV : Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999. 2. Bjorkman, James Warner (Ed.), Changing Division of Labour in South Asia. Women and Men in India’s Society, Economy and Politics, New Delhi, Manohar Publication, 1987. 3. Bose, Sugata, Jalal, Ayesha (Eds.), Nationalism, Democracy and Development. State and Politics in India, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1997. 4. Chandavarkar, Rajnarayan, Imperial Power and Popular Politics : Class Resistance and the State in India, c. 1850- 1950, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1998. 5. Chatterjee, Partha (Ed.) State and Politics in India, New Delhi, Oxford Universities Press, 1997. 6. Deshta, Sunil, President’s Rule in the State, New Delhi, Deep and Deep Publishers, 1993. II 7. Jogland, Prahlad G., Dalit Movement in Maharashtra, New Delhi, Kanak Publications, 1991. 8. Kohli, Atul (Ed.), India’s Democracy : an Analysis of Changing State Society Relations, Hyderabad, Orient Longman, 1991. 9. Kohli, Atul, State and Poverty in India : the Politics of Reform, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987. 10. Kumar, Anand, State and Society in India : A Study of the State’s Agenda Making 1917-1977, New Delhi, Radiant Publishers, 1989. 11. Lele, Jayant and Vora, Rajendra (Eds.), State and Society in India, Delhi, Chanakya Publications, 1992. 12. Lele, Jayant K. and Vora, Rajendra (Eds.) Boeings and Bullock-carts : Studies in Change and Continuity in Indian Civilization : Essays in Honour of K. Ishwara, Volume 5 : State and Society in India, Delhi, Chanakya Publications, 1990. 13. Low, N.P. Planning, Politics and the State : Political Foundations of Planning Thought, London, Unwin Hyman, 1991. 14. Mitra, Subrata K. and James, C. (Eds.) Electoral Politics in India, New Delhi, Segment Books, 1992. 15. Nainta, R.P., Governors under the Indian Constitution, New Delhi, Deep and Deep Publishers, 1992. 16. Nair, S.M., Government and Chief Ministers in Indian States : Conflicts and Relations, New Delhi, Deep and Deep Publications, 1991. 17. Oommen, T.K., State and Society in India : Studies in Nation Building, New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1990. 18. Sharma, Yog Raj, State Autonomy and National Integration : Identity Crisis of the Sikhs, Jammu, Vinod Publishers and Distributors, 1992. 19. Singh, Bhawani (Ed.) Regionalism and Politics of Separatism in India, Jaipur, Printwell Publishers, 1993. 1 1 APPROACHES CONCEPTS AND METHODS OF ANALYSIS OF STATE POLITICS Unit Structure 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The need for formation of the federal set up--historical sociological and political compulsions. 1.3 Methods in studying state politics-Comparative, Institutional and System theories and their limitations 1.4 The growth and emergence of regional parties, its implication for national unity and foreign policy 1.5 Conclusion / summary 1.6 Unit End Questions 1.7 Suggested Reading 1.0 OBJECTIVES 1) To understand the need for setting up a federal structure in a pluralistic, society like India 2) To analyze the various methods in studying the functioning of state governments. 3) To look into factors responsible for the growth of regional parties and their impact on national politics. 4) To find out the role of established institutions in solving inter- state disputes. 5) To study the compulsions in foreign policy making with the regional demands from states sharing border with foreign countries. 1.1 INTRODUCTION A multi religious, multi linguistic, pluralistic society like India cannot go for pure federal structure. More so it is for a democratic set-up. Democracy believes in decentralization of political power. A sound democratic set up is one where every citizen gets an equal opportunity to have a say in the government affairs. This can be 2 achieved by evolving a system where the power is decentralized to the lowest level. So it is against the system that the rulers decide and impose their decision on people down the ladder. The people who have to face the consequence of the policy formulated by rulers should have a say in the policy formulation. This is more widely possible in a federal democratic structure. Since the govt. powers are divided between centre and state. There is an element of decentralisation operating in the gov. affairs. The federal system aptly provides for such an eventuality. We have centre, and state governments operating in their respective fields. These powers are clearly elaborated by a written constitution. The citizen has the opportunity to have a say both in the centre and state policies. Periodic elections enable the citizens to judge the performance of both centre and state govts. There are also occasions where citizens elect different govts at centre and states. This again gives a new dimension to the centre – state relations. If different political parties with varied ideologies are ruling. In a country like India where numerous regional parties are competing for political power, and adamant about their regional demands many times following a confrontational attitude towards centre, the “ideas of co-operative federalism” becomes more difficult to achieve. However, India emerged as a quasi-federal state. 1.2 HISORICAL SOCIOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL FACTORS OF INDIAN FEDERALISM Before the advent of British rule, India was a loose confederation of many independent states. The regional states were politically strong and the “centre” had a nominal control over them. With the consolidation of British power in India the power shifted to centre. The “Independent provinces”, had no military nor any saying in foreign policy. They paid huge protection money to Britishers. Their power was confined to internal matters. The princes of rulers were puppets in the hands of imperialists. Slowly Britishers extended their rule through policies like “policy of lapse i.e. if a ruler dies without an heir, that province will automatically become part of British India, the colonial rulers ‘integrated’ the loose confederation of independent states into one centralised state. A steel frame work of administration, with over emphasis on law and order stability and an attitude or social arrogance the concept of white mans burden. Indians need to be ruled by Britishers for their own good marked the imperial rule. The net result was the over centralised power structure with no voice for people. A strong and united India, where Indians themselves were subject race was the outcome. Here the voice of people had no bearing on the policies of imperial power. There were no institutional mechanisms to check the misuse of government power. We had a strong power at centre exercised by a foreign govt. The 3 provinces were independent only for names sake as entire powers were vested with viceroy and governor. The formation of Government of India Act 1935 introduced a semi resemblance of federal structure. But the veto power exercised by the Governor who was the head of the executive council nullified whatever little power was enjoyed by legislative council in the provinces. So it is only after independence with the enactment of the constitution that a new beginning was made in the Indian federal system. However in the constituent assembly debates we notice a strong opinion emerging in favour of unitary system of polity. The partition of India based on religion and the aftermath tragic events left a strong impact on the minds of founding fathers of the Indian constitution. They wanted strong centre that can check the fissiparous tendencies emerging in the newly independent country and preserve the unity of the nation. But they were also liberal minded. They believed in liberalism, democracy and freedom. These were ideals for which nation fought against colonial rulers. So the libelal philosophy had a strong impact on their thinking and eventually on the constitution. In fact many writes comment that the Indian Constitution is a “liberal document”, knowing the dangers of excessive powers being concentrated at one place, they opted for federal polity. However the system they opted was unique. It suited the Indian conditions. The system struck a balance between the democratic aspirations of the people and the need to preserve the national unity. As mentioned earlier the historical factors played a role in the formation of federal structure in India. Normally a federation is formed under three conditions (i) the existing state is divided into several regions either for administrative reasons or to address regional demands (ii) within a federal structure division is undertaken to create new unit.