Federalism Test - 6

Pokharan, the place where India conducted its nuclear tests, lies in Rajasthan.

Telangana became the 29th State of India on the 2nd June, 2014, after the reorganisation of the State of Andhra Pradesh.

Hindi was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 per cent of Indians.

Hindi was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 per cent of Indians. Therefore,there were many safeguards to protect other languages.Besides Hindi, there are 21 other languages recognised as Scheduled Languages by the Constitution.

Coalition government: A government formed by the coming together of at least two political parties. Usually partners in a coalition form a political alliance and adopt a common programme.

The period after 1990, was the beginning of the era of COALITION GOVERNMENTS at the Centre. Since no single party got a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the major national parties had to enter into an alliance with many parties including several regional parties to form a government at the Centre. This led to a new culture of power sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Governments.

the Census found 114 major languages. Of these 22 languages are now included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and are therefore called ‘Scheduled Languages’. Others are called ‘non Scheduled Languages’. In terms of languages, India is perhaps the most diverse country in the world.

There is a need for power sharing within these States. Federal power sharing in India needs another tier of government, below that of the State governments. This is the rationale for decentralisation of power. Thus, it resulted a third-tier of government, called local government.

When power is taken away from Central and State governments and given to local government, it is called decentralisation. The basic idea behind decentralisation is that there are a large number of problems and issues which are best settled at the local level.