F EDERALISM WITH A S TRONG C ENTRAL G OVERNMENT It is generally accepted that the Indian Constitution has created a strong central government. India is a country of continental dimensions with immense diversities and social problems. The framers of the Constitution believed that we required a federal constitution that would accommodate diversities. But they also wanted to create a strong centre to stem disintegration and bring about social and political change.
It was necessary for the centre to have such powers because India at the time of independence was not only divided into provinces created by the British; but there were more than princely states which had to be integrated into existing States or new States had to be created. “Let me tell my honourable Friends in the House that the drift… in all constitutions has been towards the centre... because of circumstances that have now come into being that the States have become, ...federal or unitary, welfare states from being Police States and the ultimate responsibility as for the economic well-being of the country has become the paramount responsibility of the centre.” T.T. Krishnamachari, CAD, Vol.
XI, p. - , November Besides the concern for unity, the makers of the Constitution also believed that the socio-economic problems of the country needed to be handled by a strong central government in cooperation with the States. Poverty, illiteracy and inequalities of wealth were some of the problems that required planning and coordination. Thus, the concerns for unity and development prompted the makers of the Constitution to create a strong central government.
Let us look at the important provisions that create a strong central government: