Federalism Class 10: NCERT Democratic Politics Chapter 2 PDF

This is the Federalism class 10 chapter — Chapter 2 of the NCERT Class 10 Social Science textbook Democratic Politics-II. It runs 16 printed pages (NCERT pages 13 to 28) and covers what federalism is, how the Indian Constitution shares power between the Union and the States, how federalism has worked in practice, and the third tier of local government. The official PDF is right here.

Below the download link, this page maps every section of the chapter, explains the key ideas with NCERT page numbers, reads the figures one by one, and checks the closing exercises — so you can revise from one place without hunting through the book.

Download the official chapter PDF

Open the NCERT Class 10 Social Science Democratic Politics Chapter 2 Federalism PDF to read the official chapter text as printed in the current NCERT edition, including the maps, cartoons and exercise pages that this page works through below.

Everything after this point is a reading of that file: where each section sits, what the key ideas mean, and how to check your answers to the exercises.

Chapter at a glance

The table that comes with this section lists the chapter’s sections, figures and exercise questions.

For revision, the order of ideas matters more than the count. The chapter opens with the Belgium–Sri Lanka contrast from Chapter 1, defines federalism, reads India’s constitutional design through the three lists, shows how federalism is practised — linguistic states, language policy, coalition politics — and then adds the third tier through decentralisation and local government, closing with exercises on pages 27–28.

What this chapter covers

Use this map to jump straight to the NCERT page you need. Each section claims its own territory: the first defines the idea, the second designs it into the Constitution, the third watches it work, and the fourth takes it down to the village.

The chapter therefore moves in one direction: from theory, to the Indian constitutional design, to the politics that made federalism work, and finally down to the third tier of local government.

Key ideas in this chapter, explained

The chapter is arranged in four stages — what federalism is, India’s constitutional design, how federalism is practised, and the third tier of local government. Each subsection below follows that order and gives the NCERT page, so you can hold the book open beside this page.

Federalism and the two ways federations are born

Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and the constituent units of the country — the states or provinces (NCERT, p. 14). The definition is the whole chapter in one line: the centre does not hold all the power, and the states are not its subordinates.

The book lists seven features of a federation (NCERT, pp. 14–15). Compressed into plain points:

• Two or more tiers of government.
• The tiers govern the same citizens, but each has its own jurisdiction in legislation, taxation and administration.
• Jurisdictions are set in the constitution, so each tier’s existence and authority is guaranteed.
• The fundamental provisions cannot be changed by one level alone — both levels must consent.
• Courts interpret the constitution; the highest court acts as umpire in disputes.
• The sources of revenue for each level are clearly specified, for financial autonomy.
• The system has dual objectives: unity of the country and accommodation of regional diversity.

A federation is the opposite of a unitary government. In a unitary system there is one level of government, or the sub-units are subordinate to the centre, which can pass orders down to them.

In a federation the central government cannot order a state government to do something — the state has powers of its own and is answerable to its own people (NCERT, p. 14).

The book’s example: Belgium shifted from unitary to federal in 1993 by giving regional governments constitutional powers that no longer depended on the centre; Sri Lanka, for all practical purposes, remains unitary, with the national government holding all the powers.

Federations are born by two routes (NCERT, p. 15):

• Coming together federations — independent states pool sovereignty to form a bigger unit while keeping their identity. Examples: the USA, Switzerland, Australia. Constituent states usually have equal power and are strong against the federal government.
• Holding together federations — a large country divides its power between the constituent states and the national government. Examples: India, Spain, Belgium. The centre tends to be more powerful, and some units enjoy special powers.

The chapter plants a margin voice here — “What do we call the Indian government? Is it Union, Federal or Central?” — and answers it in practice: all three are used, but the Constitution itself uses the word Union (see Common Mistakes below). It also gives a discussion among four Nepalese citizens on federalism (NCERT, p. 15).

A sensible response would say that Khag Raj and Sarita rest on wrong understandings — federalism has nothing to do with seat reservations, and small countries like Belgium do adopt it. Babu Lal’s hope for Terai autonomy fits the holding-together logic, while Ram Ganesh is really talking about democracy — elected representatives taking power from a king — not about federalism itself.

India’s three lists and the rules of the game

The Constitution declares India a Union of States. The word “federation” is not used, but the Indian Union is based on the principles of federalism, and all seven features apply (NCERT, p. 16). The heart of the design is a three-fold distribution of legislative powers:

• Union List — subjects of national importance needing one uniform policy: defence, foreign affairs, banking, communications, currency. Only the Union Government can make laws here.
• State List — subjects of state and local importance: police, trade, commerce, agriculture, irrigation. Only State Governments can make laws here.
• Concurrent List — subjects of common interest to both: education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption, succession. Both governments can legislate, but if their laws conflict, the Union law prevails.

Subjects in no list — like computer software, which did not exist when the Constitution was made — are residuary subjects, and the Union Government has the power to legislate on them (NCERT, p. 17).

The chapter also notes the special constitutional provisions of Article 371 for Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram: protection of land rights of indigenous peoples, their culture, and preferential employment in government services; non-permanent residents cannot buy land or a house in these states.

Three more rules complete the design (NCERT, pp. 16–17):

• Union Territories — small units that cannot become independent States or merge into existing ones (Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, Delhi). They do not have the powers of a State; the Central Government has special powers in running them.
• The amendment rule — Parliament alone cannot change the sharing arrangement. Any change must pass both Houses with at least a two-thirds majority, then be ratified by the legislatures of at least half of the total States.
• The judiciary — High Courts and the Supreme Court decide any dispute about the division of powers; the Union and States also raise resources by levying taxes assigned to each.

The chapter then tests you with three margin questions (NCERT, pp. 17–18). The lists themselves answer them:

• Why Union ministers for agriculture and commerce when those are State subjects? A State List subject does not mean the Union has no role; central ministries coordinate national policy and inter-state matters. The book deliberately leaves this one for you to think through.
• Could Rajasthan block the Pokhran nuclear tests? No — defence is a Union List subject, so the nuclear policy belongs to the Union Government.
• Can the Prime Minister order Chief Ministers on how state police should handle the naxalites? No — police is a State List subject, so each state government decides for itself (see the figure on p. 18).

Three tests federalism passed in practice

Constitutional provisions are necessary but not sufficient for federalism. The book attributes the real success of Indian federalism to democratic politics — the shared ideals of respect for diversity and a desire to live together (NCERT, p. 19). Three practical tests show this.

Test 1: Linguistic states. After Independence the boundaries of several old states were redrawn so that people speaking the same language lived in one state. Some national leaders feared disintegration; the experience proved the opposite — linguistic states made the country more united and made administration easier.

Some states were created not on language but on culture, ethnicity or geography — Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand (NCERT, p. 19).

Test 2: Language policy. The Constitution gave the status of national language to no language. Hindi was identified as the official language, but it is the mother tongue of only about 40 per cent of Indians (NCERT, pp. 19–20).

The safeguards: besides Hindi, 21 other languages are recognised as Scheduled Languages; candidates in central government examinations may write them in any of these languages; and states have their own official languages.

English was supposed to end as a language of official work in 1965, but non-Hindi-speaking states — especially Tamil Nadu, where the movement turned violent — demanded its continuation, and the Central Government agreed to continue English along with Hindi. Critics said the solution favoured the English-speaking elite.

The cautious attitude, the book argues, helped India avoid the situation Sri Lanka finds itself in.

Test 3: Centre–state relations after 1990. For a long time the same party ruled at the Centre and in most states, so state governments did not exercise their rights as autonomous units, and the Centre sometimes used the Constitution to dismiss state governments run by rival parties.

After 1990, regional parties rose, and coalition governments formed at the Centre; no single party had a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, so national parties allied with regional ones. This created a new culture of power-sharing and respect for state autonomy, and a major Supreme Court judgement made it difficult for the Centre to dismiss state governments arbitrarily (NCERT, p. 21).

The margin voice asks whether this means regionalism is good for democracy — the chapter’s point is that respecting regional identity strengthened, not weakened, the Union.

What the 2011 Census language table actually says. The 2011 Census recorded more than 1,300 mother tongues, grouped under major languages — for example, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Bundelkhandi, Chhattisgarhi and Rajasthani were grouped under Hindi — leaving 121 major languages, of which 22 are now in the Eighth Schedule (NCERT, p. 22).

The table below is the chapter’s own data; the book says to read it carefully but not memorise it.

The plain reading: no one language is the mother tongue of a majority of Indians. Hindi is the largest at 43.63 per cent — the text rounds this as “about 44 per cent” — and even adding everyone who knows Hindi as a second or third language, the total stayed under 50 per cent in 2011.

English is smaller than most students assume: only 0.02 per cent recorded it as a mother tongue, with another 11 per cent knowing it as a second or third language. The table is the evidence behind the language policy: because no language commands a majority, the Constitution could not make any language “national” without alienating the rest.

Decentralisation and the 1992 turning point

Two tiers are not enough for a country of India’s size. The book’s comparison: Uttar Pradesh has a bigger population than Russia, and Maharashtra is about as big as Germany (NCERT, p. 24).

Many states are internally very diverse, so power needs to be shared within states too — this is the rationale for a third tier of government below the state level.

Decentralisation means taking power away from Central and State governments and giving it to local government. The logic: local people know local problems best, they have better ideas about where to spend money, and direct participation builds the habit of democratic participation. Local government is the way to realise the principle of local self-government.

Panchayats and municipalities existed before, but they were under the direct control of state governments: elections were not held regularly, and local bodies had no powers or resources of their own. The turning point was the 1992 constitutional amendment (NCERT, pp. 24–25), which made the third tier more powerful and effective by requiring:

• Regular elections to local government bodies — now constitutionally mandatory.
• Reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in the elected bodies and their executive heads.
• At least one-third of all positions reserved for women.
• An independent State Election Commission in each state to conduct panchayat and municipal elections.
• State governments sharing some powers and revenue with local bodies, the exact share varying from state to state.

The rural structure runs from the bottom up (NCERT, p. 25):

• Gram panchayat — the village-level council of ward members (panches) and a president or sarpanch, directly elected by the adults of the village.
• Gram sabha — all the voters of the village; it supervises the panchayat and must meet two or three times a year to approve the annual budget.
• Panchayat samiti (block or mandal) — a few gram panchayats grouped together; its members are elected by all the panchayat members in the area.
• Zilla parishad — all the panchayat samitis of a district together; most members are elected, with Lok Sabha members and MLAs of the district as members too. The chairperson is the political head of the district.

Urban areas mirror this: municipalities in towns and municipal corporations in big cities, both run by elected bodies. The municipal chairperson is the political head of a municipality; the corporation’s head is the mayor (NCERT, pp. 25–26).

Why does the chapter end with a Brazilian city? Because Porto Alegre in Brazil combined decentralisation with participative democracy: the city is divided into wards, each ward holds meetings like a gram sabha, city-wide meetings are open to any citizen, and the budget is discussed in these meetings before the municipality decides.

About 20,000 people take part every year, and the result is that money cannot be spent only for the benefit of rich colonies — buses run to poor colonies, and builders cannot evict slum-dwellers without resettling them (NCERT, p. 26). Kerala has run a similar experiment, with ordinary people taking part in making a development plan for their locality.

The point: local government works best when citizens actually participate.

The chapter stays honest about the gap. There are about 36 lakh elected representatives in panchayats and municipalities — a number bigger than the population of many countries — and constitutional status has deepened democracy and increased women’s representation.

But elections are held regularly and enthusiastically while gram sabhas are not held regularly, most states have not transferred significant powers to local governments, nor given them adequate resources. We are, the book says, still a long way from realising the ideal of self-government (NCERT, p. 26).

Figures in the chapter, read carefully

In this chapter the cartoons carry the argument about centre–state power, and the maps carry the argument about unity and diversity — reading them is not optional. Each figure below is shown with the caption the book prints beside it.

The world map of federal countries (p. 14)

This figure pairs the definition of federalism with a map of the world’s federal countries. The book gives the striking statistic beside it: only 25 of the world’s 193 countries have federal systems, yet their citizens make up 40 per cent of the world’s population (NCERT, p. 14).

Most large countries are federations — the map asks you to notice the exception, a large country that is not federal. The presence of small countries like Belgium on the map is also the answer to the margin question “if federalism works only in big countries, why did Belgium adopt it?” — it does not work only in big countries.

The holding-together route (p. 15)

This figure illustrates the second way federations are born. In a holding together federation — India, Spain, Belgium — a large country divides its power between the constituent states and the national government, the centre tends to be more powerful, and different units can have unequal powers, with some granted special status.

It is drawn to contrast with the first route, coming together, where independent states (USA, Switzerland, Australia) pool sovereignty and keep equal, strong powers against the federal government (NCERT, p. 15).

The judiciary as umpire (p. 17)

The courts are the referee of the federal game. If a dispute arises about the division of powers, the High Courts and the Supreme Court decide; the highest court acts as umpire between the levels of government (NCERT, p. 17).

This is what makes the constitutional guarantee real — a state that believes the Union has overstepped has a place to take the dispute.

The naxalite police question (p. 18)

This cartoon turns a constitutional rule into a real situation. Police is a State List subject (NCERT, p. 16), so each state government decides its own police policy. The Prime Minister cannot pass an order that all three Chief Ministers must obey — the states are not answerable to the Centre on a State subject.

India’s states: the map at Independence and today (p. 19)

Compare the political map of India as it began its democratic journey in 1947 with the map of 2019 and the scale of change is startling: old states vanished, new ones appeared, and areas, boundaries and names changed.

The reorganisation ensured that people speaking the same language lived in one state, and the book’s verdict is that it made the country more united, not less, and administration easier (NCERT, p. 19).

The begging-bowl cartoon (p. 20)

The figure’s caption is the chapter’s own pivot: all this changed after 1990. The accompanying question — “should the State go to the Centre with a begging bowl?” — captures the pre-1990 relationship, when states that depended on the Centre were reduced to supplicants.

The next pages explain what changed: regional parties, coalition governments, and a Supreme Court judgement that protected state governments from arbitrary dismissal (NCERT, pp. 20–21).

The Supreme Court ruling (p. 21)

This cartoon shows the second cartoon of the pair on centre–state relations: the Supreme Court judgement that made it difficult for the Central Government to dismiss state governments in an arbitrary manner (NCERT, p. 21). Together with the rise of coalition governments, the ruling marked the shift from a dominant-centre federalism to a more genuine sharing of power.

Ramachandra Guha on linguistic reorganisation (p. 23)

The chapter reproduces excerpts from Guha’s article to show that the creation of linguistic states remains a live debate. The activity attached to it asks you to take your own state, or any state affected by linguistic reorganisation, and write a short note for or against the author’s argument on the basis of that example (NCERT, p. 23).

A full response needs both a position and evidence from a real state.

Urban local government (p. 25)

Just as villages have panchayats, towns have municipalities and big cities have municipal corporations, both controlled by elected bodies. The municipal chairperson is the political head of the municipality; in a municipal corporation this officer is called the mayor (NCERT, p. 25).

“Prime Minister runs the country” (p. 25)

The cartoon pushes an obvious-seeming logic — the Prime Minister runs the country, the Chief Minister runs the state, so the zilla parishad chairperson should run the district. The book asks the sharper question: why does the D.M. or Collector, a district officer of the government machinery, actually administer the district?

The answer embedded in the chapter is that the chairperson is the political head of the zilla parishad, while day-to-day district administration is carried out by the permanent administrative machinery (NCERT, p. 25).

Terms you must define cleanly

The chapter and its exercises expect you to define these terms in one clean line each. Use the memory hook after the table to lock in the three lists.

Memory hook for the three lists: Union subjects need one uniform national policy; State subjects cover local daily life; Concurrent subjects let both legislate, and the Union wins on conflict.

Common mistakes in this chapter, caught early

The textbook plants voices of confusion on purpose — the margin questions ask exactly the things students get wrong. Each row below names the mistake, the correction, and where to check it.

How the exercises test this chapter

The exercises on pages 27–28 are the best guide to what matters in this chapter. They test the same distinctions again and again: federal vs unitary, the three lists, and what changed in 1992.

The question types:

• Map work — locate Manipur, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh and Goa on an outline map of India, and shade three federal countries other than India on a world map (Q1–Q2).
• Comparison and reasoning — one similarity and one difference between Indian and Belgian federalism; the federal–unitary difference with an example; two differences in local government before and after 1992; the fill-in-the-blanks on coming together vs holding together; and a debate on the language policy with an argument and example (Q3–Q7).
• Objective items — the distinguishing feature of a federal government, grouping subjects into the three lists, the wrongly matched pair, the match-the-following on heads of government, and the true–false-style statements on federations (Q8–Q12).

Answer checks for the closed-ended items:

Q8 — the distinguishing feature of a federal government: (d) governmental power is divided between different levels of government. Option (a) describes a unitary arrangement where the national government chooses to give some powers away; in a federation the division is constitutional, not a gift.

Q9 — grouping the subjects into the three lists:

• Union List: Defence (A), Banking (E), Communications (G).
• State List: Police (B), Agriculture (C), Trade (H).
• Concurrent List: Education (D), Forests (F), Marriages (I).

Check each subject against the chapter’s lists on page 16 before you write.

Q10 — the wrongly matched pair: (d) Local governments — Residuary powers. Residuary subjects belong to the Union Government (p. 17), so local governments cannot be matched with them.

Q11 — matching List I with List II: (c). Union of India — Prime Minister; State — Governor; Municipal Corporation — Mayor; Gram Panchayat — Sarpanch. The mayor and sarpanch names come from pages 25–26, and the Prime Minister–Chief Minister pairing mirrors the cartoon on page 25.

Q12 — which statements are correct: (c) A and B only. A is true — clear demarcation of powers is the essence of a federation (p. 14). B is true — Indian federalism rests on powers specified in the Constitution with exclusive jurisdiction (pp. 16–17). C is false — Sri Lanka is unitary for all practical purposes (p. 14).

D is false — devolving some powers to local bodies created a third tier of federalism; it did not end federalism (p. 24).

For the open questions, a complete answer names both sides of the comparison and gives a concrete example — Belgium for Q3, a named state for Q4, a named 1992 change for Q5. Revision pays most at two places: the three-list distinctions and the before-and-after-1992 comparison.

And as with every chapter, textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus.

Federalism at a glance: revise the chapter in one pass

Follow the chapter’s own argument from definition to the third tier, in four moves.

1. What federalism is (pp. 14–15). Power is divided between a central authority and constituent units; each tier has constitutionally guaranteed jurisdiction; courts are the umpire; revenue sources are clear; the dual objectives are unity and diversity. Two routes: coming together (USA) and holding together (India). Unitary contrast: the centre cannot order the states around.
2. India’s constitutional design (pp. 16–17). A Union of States on federal principles. Three lists — Union, State, Concurrent — with residuary subjects to the Union; special provisions (Article 371); Union Territories; amendment requires two-thirds of both Houses plus ratification by half the states.
3. How practice made it work (pp. 19–21). Linguistic states united the country; the language policy gave no language national status, kept Hindi official but not imposed, and continued English after 1965; post-1990 coalition politics and the Supreme Court ruling checked arbitrary dismissals.
4. The third tier (pp. 24–26). The 1992 amendment made regular local elections, reservations and the State Election Commission compulsory. Rural ladder: gram panchayat → panchayat samiti → zilla parishad. Urban: municipality → corporation, with a chairperson or mayor. The honest gap: gram sabhas not held regularly, little real transfer of powers and resources.

Three-line self-test: define federalism in one line; name the two routes with one example each; list three changes made in 1992. Answers: division of power between a central authority and constituent units; coming together — USA, holding together — India; regular elections made mandatory, reservations for SC/ST/OBC and at least one-third women, and a State Election Commission in each state.

Related chapters and resources

This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.

Federalism is the second chapter of Democratic Politics-II, and it continues the story that Chapter 1 (Power Sharing) begins — both ask how divided societies share power. Its ideas about multi-level government and decentralisation feed the later chapters on political parties and the outcomes of democracy.

The chapter set lives on the Class 10 Social Science notes page, inside the wider Class 10 study hub, which links back to the CBSE notes home. Teachers planning this chapter can use the notes for the teacher page, and students revising with the geography chapters will find the same chapter-plus-revision format in Water Resources.

The official source for the chapter is the Democratic Politics-II textbook PDF on ncert.nic.in, and the current official edition of the book can be verified on the NCERT textbooks portal.

Sources and data verification

• The contents described here come from the NCERT Class 10 Democratic Politics-II textbook, Chapter 2 Federalism, pages 13–28, current NCERT edition.
• This page covers this one chapter only — not the other Class 10 Social Science books or chapters.
• This page is maintained for the current academic session using NCERT’s published edition.
• NCERT settles textbooks, editions and PDFs; CBSE settles curriculum, syllabus and examinations. Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical, so check the current official syllabus on cbse.gov.in.

Frequently asked questions on Federalism

Is India a federal country even though the Constitution never uses the word federation?

Yes. The Constitution declares India a Union of States, and although the word federation is not used, the Union is based on the principles of federalism — all seven features apply (NCERT, p. 16). The three lists give each level its own legislative territory, the amendment rule requires both levels’ consent, and the courts decide disputes over the division of powers.

What is the difference between the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent List?

The Union List has subjects of national importance (defence, foreign affairs, banking, communications, currency) on which only the Union legislates. The State List has local subjects (police, trade, commerce, agriculture, irrigation) on which only states legislate.

The Concurrent List has subjects of common interest (education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption, succession) on which both legislate — and if their laws conflict, the Union law prevails (NCERT, p. 16). Subjects in no list are residuary and belong to the Union (p. 17). The memory hook: Union — uniform policy; State — local daily life; Concurrent — both, Union wins.

Why is Hindi not the national language of India?

Because the Constitution gave the status of national language to no language. Hindi was identified as the official language, but it is the mother tongue of only about 40 per cent of Indians (NCERT, p. 20); the 2011 Census table puts the figure at 43.63 per cent (p. 22).

Besides Hindi, 21 other languages are Scheduled Languages, central examinations can be taken in any of them, and states have their own official languages. English continued after 1965 because non-Hindi-speaking states, especially Tamil Nadu, demanded it (p. 20).

What is a coming together federation and how is it different from a holding together federation?

In a coming together federation, independent states come together on their own to form a bigger unit, pooling sovereignty while retaining identity — the USA, Switzerland and Australia; their states usually have equal power and are strong against the federal government.

In a holding together federation, a large country divides its power between the constituent states and the national government — India, Spain and Belgium; the centre tends to be more powerful, and some units have unequal or special powers (NCERT, p. 15).

What did the 1992 constitutional amendment change for local government?

It made the third tier powerful and effective by constitutional compulsion: regular elections to local bodies became mandatory; seats were reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes; at least one-third of all positions were reserved for women; an independent State Election Commission was created in each state; and state governments were required to share some powers and revenue with local bodies (NCERT, pp. 24–25).

Earlier, panchayats and municipalities existed but were under state control, with irregular elections and no powers or resources.

Why can’t the Prime Minister order a Chief Minister to act on a State subject like police?

Because police is in the State List, on which only State Governments can make laws (NCERT, p. 16). The chapter’s margin question makes it concrete: if the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa have different policies on how their state police should respond to the naxalites, the Prime Minister cannot pass an order they must all obey (p. 18).

If a dispute over the division of powers arises, the High Courts and the Supreme Court decide it (p. 17).

Reference: NCERT Class 10 Social Science (Democratic Politics) textbook, chapter 2, official edition on ncert.nic.in.