MPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 81 of 100

Correct — option (4), '(a), (b), (c) and (d)'. This is a scholar-to-label question, and the safest way to attack it is not to decide all four statements but to find the ones you are certain about and let the option set do the rest. Statement (a) is the most famous label of the lot. K.C. Wheare, the Oxford scholar whose book Federal Government set the classical test of federalism, held that a truly federal constitution divides powers so that the general and the regional governments are each, within a sphere, co-ordinate and independent. Measuring India's Constitution against that test, he found so many centralising devices — Parliament's power under Article 3 to redraw a State's boundaries without its consent, the emergency provisions, the single integrated judiciary, the All-India Services, the Governor as a Union appointee — that he described the system as quasi-federal, a unitary State with subsidiary federal features rather than a federal State with subsidiary unitary features. Statement (a) is correct. Statement (b) is also standard. W.H. Morris-Jones, writing on Indian politics, described Centre–State relations as bargaining federalism — the point being that the real business of the federation is not settled by reading the Seventh Schedule but by continuous negotiation between New Delhi and the States over money, projects and political support. Statement (b) is correct. Statement (d) is equally standard. Granville Austin, the historian of the Constituent Assembly and author of The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, characterised what the framers built as cooperative federalism — a Union and States that are not rivals in watertight compartments but partners obliged to work the same machinery together. Statement (c), attributing the phrase 'less federalism' to C.F. Strong, is the one that most candidates will hesitate over: it is not one of the stock quotations that the standard texts reproduce alongside Wheare's, Morris-Jones's and Austin's. The Commission's final key treats it as correct, and that key is the authority here — but notice that you never have to adjudicate it. Statement (b) is certainly true, which kills option (1) 'Only (a) and (d)' and option (3) 'Only (a)'. Statement (d) is certainly true, which kills option (2) 'Only (a), (b) and (c)'. One option is left standing, and it is option (4). A well-set multiple-choice paper very often lets you route around the single statement you cannot verify; look for that route before you guess.

• (1)Only (a) and (d) — This admits Wheare's 'quasi-federal' and Austin's 'cooperative federalism' but throws out statement (b). That cannot stand: 'bargaining federalism' is W.H. Morris-Jones's own description of how Indian Centre–State relations actually work, and it sits in every standard list of scholarly labels for Indian federalism beside Wheare's and Austin's. A candidate who picks this option has usually recognised only the two most famous names on the page and treated the third as an invention.
• (2)Only (a), (b) and (c) — This drops statement (d), Granville Austin's 'cooperative federalism'. Austin is the least deniable attribution in the whole question — his study of the Constituent Assembly is the source normally cited for the idea that the framers deliberately built a Union and States meant to work in partnership rather than in watertight compartments. Any option that rejects (d) is rejecting the best-established of the four claims.
• (3)Only (a) — This treats Wheare's 'quasi-federal' as the sole genuine attribution and all three others as manufactured. It is the option for a candidate who knows exactly one fact and assumes the examiner built the rest as traps. But statements (b) and (d) are both textbook attributions, so the option fails twice over. It is also a warning about a common exam instinct: 'only the one I recognise is real' is a guess, not a deduction.

A federation, in the classical sense Wheare used, needs two things: a written constitution that divides legislative and executive power between a general government and regional governments, and a guarantee that neither can unilaterally destroy the other's sphere — usually a rigid amendment procedure plus an independent court to police the boundary. India has all of the standard federal furniture: a written and largely rigid Constitution, a three-fold distribution of powers in the Seventh Schedule (Union, State and Concurrent Lists), bicameralism, and a Supreme Court that adjudicates Union–State disputes. But it also carries an unusual load of centralising features — single citizenship, one integrated judiciary, All-India Services officered by the Union but serving the States, Union power to alter State boundaries, Governors appointed by the Centre, and emergency provisions under which the federal division can be suspended in substance. Scholars have therefore reached for qualifying adjectives rather than calling India federal or unitary flat out, and those adjectives are exactly what this question tests.

MPSC and UPSC both like the scholar-to-phrase format because it is cheaply set and cleanly keyed, and because the same short list of names recurs: K.C. Wheare ('quasi-federal'), Sir Ivor Jennings (a federation with a strong centralising tendency), Granville Austin ('cooperative federalism'), W.H. Morris-Jones ('bargaining federalism') and C.H. Alexandrowicz (India is a case sui generis, of its own kind). The Constitution itself never uses the word 'federal' — Article 1 says India 'shall be a Union of States', and Dr Ambedkar explained in the Constituent Assembly that 'Union' was chosen deliberately to signal that the Indian federation was not the result of an agreement between States and that no State has a right to secede from it. Reading that alongside the scholars' labels is the point of the topic: the descriptions are attempts to name a system that the framers built to be strong at the centre without being unitary.

• K.C. Wheare, author of Federal Government, described the Indian Constitution as establishing a quasi-federal system — a unitary State with subsidiary federal features rather than a federal State with subsidiary unitary features
• W.H. Morris-Jones used the phrase 'bargaining federalism' for Indian Centre–State relations, stressing continuous negotiation over money and political support rather than a fixed legal division
• Granville Austin, author of The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, described the design as cooperative federalism — Union and States working the same machinery as partners
• Sir Ivor Jennings called India a federation with a strong centralising tendency; C.H. Alexandrowicz argued India was sui generis, a case of its own kind that the classical federal test does not fit
• Article 1 does not use the word 'federal' at all: India is 'a Union of States', wording the Constituent Assembly chose to indicate that the federation was not born of an agreement among States and that no State may secede

• Assuming that the odd name in a scholar-to-label list must be the false statement. A name you do not recognise is a gap in your reading, not evidence of a trap — decide it on the option set, not on your discomfort
• Treating 'quasi-federal' and 'cooperative federalism' as contradictory. They describe different things: Wheare is grading the legal division of powers, Austin is describing how the framers intended the two levels to work together
• Believing the Constitution calls India a federation. Article 1 says 'Union of States'; the word 'federal' appears nowhere in it, and questions have been set on exactly that omission

Two shapes recur. The first is this one — a set of scholar-and-phrase statements to be marked true or false in combination, which rewards knowing the standard list cold. The second is single-line and even easier to score: 'Who described the Indian Constitution as quasi-federal?' or 'The phrase "bargaining federalism" is associated with —'. A third variant swaps the labels between scholars, so the pairing, not the phrase, carries the mark. In every version the winning preparation is a five-line table of name against phrase, revised until the mapping is automatic.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who among the following described the Indian Constitution as establishing a 'quasi-federal' system of government ?

  • (a)Granville Austin
  • (b)K.C. Wheare
  • (c)W.H. Morris-Jones
  • (d)Ivor Jennings

  Answer(b) K.C. Wheare — in Federal Government he judged India against the classical federal test and called it quasi-federal, a unitary State with subsidiary federal features. Austin's phrase is 'cooperative federalism', Morris-Jones's is 'bargaining federalism', and Jennings described India as a federation with a strong centralising tendency.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Article of the Constitution of India describes India as a 'Union of States' ?

  • (a)Article 1
  • (b)Article 2
  • (c)Article 3
  • (d)Article 4

  Answer(a) Article 1 — 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States'. Article 2 deals with admission or establishment of new States, Article 3 with formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names, and Article 4 with the consequential amendments to the First and Fourth Schedules.