Subnational governance in India: pseudo-federalism and unity in tension

As the world’s largest democracy, the quality of (sub)national governance in India holds vast implications for the economic and social development for one-fifth of humanity. The complex challenges of governance are further exacerbated by horizontal disparities in economic development between the states, vast ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity, as well as conflicts between ruling political coalitions at the centre and parties at the state-level. Although frequently described as a federal form of government, India’s constitutional delineation of powers between states and the central government create at best a pseudo-federal system, with limited arenas of negotiation and autonomy. This chapter provides an overview of the region and its political and historical context, before presenting key features of subnational governance, fiscal relations, and centre-state conflicts. The chapter concludes by describing recent political and administrative devolution towards India’s roughly 240,000 elected local governments, and its implications for economic and social development.