UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 128 of 150

Correct — C, A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2: Cooperative Federalism → Granville Austin, Bargaining Federalism → Morris-Jones, Quasi Federalism → K.C. Wheare, and Federalism with a Centralising Tendency → Ivor Jennings. The row that decides the question is C-1. Sir Kenneth Clinton Wheare, the Australian-born constitutional scholar at Oxford whose Federal Government (1946) is the standard modern treatment of the subject, examined the Indian Constitution and concluded that it set up a system that is at most quasi-federal — in his phrasing, a unitary State with subsidiary federal features rather than a federal State with subsidiary unitary features. That single pairing appears in only one code, so a candidate who knows nothing else can still finish the question. The other three follow the same logic of attaching a label to the scholar who coined it. Granville Austin, the American historian of the Constituent Assembly whose The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation (1966) shaped how India reads its own founding, described the Indian scheme as cooperative federalism — a Union and States that are not rivals with sealed jurisdictions but partners obliged to work the same administrative and fiscal machinery together, which is why he stressed that the Assembly built 'a new kind of federalism to meet India's peculiar needs'. W.H. Morris-Jones, the British political scientist who wrote The Government and Politics of India, looked at how Centre–State relations actually operated in practice and called the result bargaining federalism: the States, rather than litigating fixed constitutional entitlements, negotiate — over plan outlays, grants, appointments and political support — and the balance shifts with the political strength of each side. Sir Ivor Jennings, the British constitutional lawyer who wrote on the Indian Constitution in the early 1950s, described it as a federation with a strong centralising tendency, pointing to the residuary power in the Union, the emergency provisions and Parliament's ability to legislate on State subjects. Note that these four are descriptions of the same Constitution from four angles, not four competing verdicts: Wheare and Jennings are describing its legal architecture, Austin its normative purpose and Morris-Jones its working practice.

• (a)A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1 — Every pair is misplaced. It gives Cooperative Federalism to Ivor Jennings, Bargaining Federalism to Granville Austin, Quasi Federalism to Morris-Jones and the Centralising Tendency to K.C. Wheare. The last pair is the clearest error: Wheare's contribution to the Indian debate is precisely the word 'quasi-federal', so any code that does not put him against C is out.
• (b)A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3 — Wrong on all four. It pairs Cooperative Federalism with Ivor Jennings, Bargaining Federalism with K.C. Wheare, Quasi Federalism with Granville Austin and the Centralising Tendency with Morris-Jones. Austin is the least likely author of 'quasi-federal' of the four — his whole reading of the Constituent Assembly is that the Constitution created a genuine, if distinctive, federal partnership, not a disguised unitary State.
• (d)A-3, B-2, C-4, D-1 — Wrong on all four. It pairs Cooperative Federalism with Morris-Jones, Bargaining Federalism with Ivor Jennings, Quasi Federalism with Granville Austin and the Centralising Tendency with K.C. Wheare. It is the most tempting of the three because it keeps 'bargaining' and 'centralising' in the same conceptual family; but it again moves Wheare off 'quasi', which is the one attribution the examiner is certain every candidate has met.

Indian federalism has never fitted the classical American model of two coordinate governments with watertight jurisdictions, so scholars invented labels for what it is instead — and prelims examiners test those labels as attributions. Article 1 itself avoids the word: India is a 'Union of States', a phrase Dr Ambedkar explained as meaning that the Union is indestructible and the States derive their existence from the Constitution rather than from a compact among sovereign units. The Constitution then adds a series of unitary devices — a single citizenship, a single integrated judiciary, All India Services, Parliament's power to legislate on the State List under Articles 249 and 250, the Governor's reservation of Bills under Article 200, and three kinds of emergency — on top of an otherwise federal division of powers in the Seventh Schedule.

The way to crack a scholar-to-label match is to secure the one attribution you are certain of and let elimination do the rest, because in a four-by-four code set a single confirmed pair usually leaves only one survivor. Here that anchor is Wheare and 'quasi-federal' — the best-known phrase in the whole Indian federalism literature and one UPPSC has asked directly before. C-1 occurs in only one code, so the question ends there. If you want a second anchor, use Austin: he is a historian of the Constituent Assembly's intentions, so the warm, purposive label 'cooperative federalism' belongs to him, while the cooler, more sceptical labels — 'quasi', 'centralising' — belong to the British and Australian constitutional lawyers. Do not treat the four labels as mutually exclusive descriptions; the examiner is testing authorship, not truth.

• K.C. Wheare (Kenneth Clinton Wheare, 1907–1979), Oxford constitutional scholar and author of Federal Government (1946), called the Indian Constitution quasi-federal — a unitary State with subsidiary federal features rather than a federal State with subsidiary unitary features.
• Granville Austin (1927–2014), historian of the Constituent Assembly and author of The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation (1966) and Working a Democratic Constitution (1999), characterised the Indian scheme as cooperative federalism.
• W.H. Morris-Jones (1918–1999), British political scientist and author of The Government and Politics of India, described Centre–State relations in practice as bargaining federalism.
• Sir Ivor Jennings (1903–1965), British constitutional lawyer who wrote on the Indian Constitution in the early 1950s, described it as a federation with a strong centralising tendency.
• The Constitution never uses the word 'federation'. Article 1 calls India a 'Union of States'; Dr Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly the phrase was chosen to show that the Union is not the result of an agreement among the States and that no State has a right to secede.
• The unitary tilt the labels describe is textual: Articles 249 and 250 (Parliament legislating on the State List), Article 200 (Governor reserving Bills), Article 3 (Parliament altering State boundaries without a State's consent), the residuary power in the Union under Article 248, and Articles 352, 356 and 360.

• Assuming the Constitution calls India a federation. It does not — Article 1 says 'Union of States', and the word 'federal' appears nowhere in the Preamble or Article 1.
• Swapping Granville Austin and Morris-Jones. Austin is the Constituent Assembly historian who supplied 'cooperative federalism'; Morris-Jones is the political scientist who supplied 'bargaining federalism'.
• Confusing scholarly labels with official policy vocabulary. 'Cooperative federalism' and 'competitive federalism' are also used by NITI Aayog and in Budget speeches; the exam wants Austin as the author of the academic label.

UPPSC likes this as a four-by-four match or as a one-line 'who said' — it asked 'Who said India is a Quasi-Federal State?' outright in 2019. UPSC prefers the substance instead: which feature indicates that India is federal, or which one is not a feature of Indian federalism. Learn the four attributions and the two-column federal-versus-unitary list together.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The description of the Indian Constitution as establishing 'a federation with a strong centralising tendency' is attributed to which of the following?

  • (a)K.C. Wheare
  • (b)Sir Ivor Jennings
  • (c)Granville Austin
  • (d)Paul Appleby

  Answer(b) Sir Ivor Jennings — the British constitutional lawyer who wrote on the Indian Constitution in the early 1950s. Wheare's label is 'quasi-federal', Austin's is 'cooperative federalism', and Paul Appleby is associated with Indian public administration, not with a federalism label.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following features of the Constitution of India most directly supports K.C. Wheare's description of it as 'quasi-federal'?

  • (a)The Rajya Sabha represents the States in Parliament
  • (b)Parliament may form a new State or alter the area and boundaries of an existing State without that State's consent
  • (c)The judiciary is independent and exercises the power of judicial review
  • (d)Legislative powers are divided between the Union and the States by the Seventh Schedule

  Answer(b) Parliament may reorganise States without their consent — Article 3 requires only that the President refer the Bill to the State legislature for its views, which are not binding. That is a unitary power no classical federation gives its centre. Options (a), (c) and (d) are all ordinary federal features and cut the other way.