Comment in 150 words: Cooperative Federalism in India. (1996, 2015, 10 Marks)
Cooperative federalism rests on interdependence between the Union and the states, not on their independence. Granville Austin used the term for the Indian design. It is the opposite of American dual federalism, in which each government works within watertight compartments. The cooperative model grew with the welfare state of the 1930s, so India’s framers were adopting an established alternative, not departing from orthodoxy.
How it works in India
The dependence runs in both directions:
- States need the Union’s money. Buoyant taxes lie with the Union, while states carry most welfare and development spending. Finance Commission devolution bridges the gap.
- The Union needs the states’ administration. India is an executive federation: Union laws on health, food, elections and disaster management are carried out by state machinery.
This interdependence is built into several institutions:
- the Concurrent List and the All India Services;
- Art. 263 (the Inter-State Council) and the Zonal Councils;
- NITI Aayog‘s Governing Council of Chief Ministers;
- the GST Council (Art. 279A), the only body in which the Union and states decide jointly. It carried out the two-slab GST 2.0 in September 2025. Union of India v. Mohit Minerals (2022) described this relationship as a continuing dialogue.
The Sarkaria Commission (1988) summed up the idea: federalism is a functional arrangement for cooperative action, not a static institutional concept.
Limits
- Bargaining, not partnership. M. P. Singh argues that in practice cooperation turns into bargaining federalism (a term from W. H. Morris-Jones). The centre behaves like a patriarch, and a state’s gains depend on its leverage. The regionalisation of the party system after 1989 strengthened the states’ hand. The 2024 coalition, with Andhra Pradesh and Bihar winning special packages, brought that bargaining back.
- Consultative institutions. The Inter-State Council has not met since 2016.
- Fiscal strain. Cesses have cut the divisible pool to about 81% of gross tax revenue, even though the Sixteenth Finance Commission held devolution at 41%.
- Competition layered on top. NITI Aayog’s model of “cooperative and competitive federalism” ranks states against each other. Balveer Arora warns that competition between unequal states widens disparities.
Conclusion
Cooperative federalism in India is real in administration but thin in joint decision-making. The GST Council and the revived Zonal Councils show what it can achieve. It will mature only when:
- consultation becomes co-decision; and
- competition rests on a redistributive floor, so that its gains are shared across states.