Asymmetric federalism: why some units are treated differently

Detail

1. What asymmetric federalism means

• Federalism means power is split between a central government and regional governments. Each level has its own area of work, and the Constitution protects that split.
• Asymmetric federalism means some units get a special constitutional status or special powers. This happens because of their history, culture or geography.
• Symmetrical federation: every unit has the same powers. The USA is the standard example. All 50 states have the same constitutional position.
• Two kinds of asymmetry:
• De jure asymmetry ("by law"). The difference is written into the Constitution or a law. Examples are Art. 371A for Nagaland and the Sixth Schedule.

• De facto asymmetry ("in fact"). The difference comes from size, population or resources, not from law. For example, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim have the same legal powers, but they are very unequal in practice.

• The Supreme Court has said that asymmetric federalism means giving different rights to some federal units, and that it is part of the Indian federal scheme [2].

2. India's de jure forms of asymmetry

Form	Legal anchor	What is different
Art. 370 (until 2019)	Part XXI, "temporary provisions"	J&K had its own constitution. Most Union laws applied there only if the state agreed
Art. 371 series	Arts. 371 to 371J, Part XXI	Special powers for the Governor, development boards, and protection of customary law and land in 12 states [5][7]
Art. 244A	Inserted by the 22nd Amendment (1969)	Parliament can create an "autonomous state" inside Assam for certain tribal areas
Fifth Schedule	Art. 244(1)	Scheduled Areas in many states. The Governor can change or block laws there, and a Tribes Advisory Council advises the government
Sixth Schedule	Art. 244(2)	Autonomous District Councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. These councils can make laws and run courts
Union territories	Part VIII. Delhi under Art. 239AA (69th Amendment, 1991)	Ruled by the Centre through an administrator. Delhi has an elected assembly, but police, public order and land stay with the Centre
Unequal Rajya Sabha seats	Art. 80 and the Fourth Schedule	Seats depend on population, so states are not equal in the Rajya Sabha. The US Senate is different: every state gets 2 seats
Inner Line Permit (ILP)	Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR), 1873	Other Indians need a permit to enter or stay [9]
State land-purchase curbs	State laws, e.g. s. 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act 1972	People from outside the state cannot easily buy farmland
Special category status (fiscal)	Not in the Constitution. Created by an executive decision	More central help to some states, given mostly as grants rather than loans [11]

2a. The Art. 371 series: when each clause came

Article	State	Inserted by
371	Maharashtra, Gujarat (originally Bombay)	7th Amendment, 1956
371A	Nagaland	13th Amendment, 1962
371B	Assam	22nd Amendment, 1969
371C	Manipur	27th Amendment, 1971
371D, 371E	Andhra Pradesh (and Telangana)	32nd Amendment, 1973
371F	Sikkim	36th Amendment, 1975
371G	Mizoram	53rd Amendment, 1986
371H	Arunachal Pradesh	55th Amendment, 1986
371I	Goa	56th Amendment, 1987
371J	Karnataka	98th Amendment, 2012 [8]

• Art. 371 (Maharashtra and Gujarat): the President can give the Governor a special responsibility. This covers separate development boards and a fair share of funds, technical education and jobs for backward regions [5].
• Art. 371A (Nagaland): no Act of Parliament applies in Nagaland on four matters unless the Nagaland Legislative Assembly passes a resolution accepting it [6]:
• Naga religious or social practices;
• Naga customary law and procedure;
• civil and criminal justice decided under Naga customary law;

• ownership and transfer of land and its resources.

• Art. 371J (Karnataka): the Governor can set up a development board for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, which covers Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur, Koppal, Yadgir and Bellary. The article also allows reserved seats in education and state jobs for people from the region [8]. The 98th Amendment (2012) is the newest clause in the series.

2b. Inner Line Permit

• What it is: an entry pass that other Indian citizens need to enter or stay in the protected area. Its aim is to stop outsiders from settling there, which protects indigenous and tribal people [9].
• Legal base: the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. This is a colonial law that is still in force.
• 2019 change: the President extended the BEFR to Manipur through the Adaptation of Laws (Amendment) Order, 2019, using Art. 372(2). The Union Cabinet then approved it after the fact (ex-post facto approval) [9].
• Areas now under the ILP: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and notified areas of Nagaland [10].
• Link to the CAA: the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 does not apply to Inner Line areas or Sixth Schedule areas. Here one form of asymmetry shields a region from a national law [10].

2c. Special category status (fiscal asymmetry)

• Start: it began in 1969. The first states were Assam, Nagaland and J&K. It later grew to 11 states: those three plus Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand [11].
• Who created it: PRS links its start to the 5th Finance Commission period [11]. But the 15th Finance Commission chairman, N.K. Singh, said the idea came from a resolution of the National Development Council (NDC), not from any Finance Commission. He also said that granting this status is outside the Finance Commission's terms of reference [12].
• Criteria [11]:
• hilly and difficult terrain;
• low population density or a large tribal population;
• a strategic location on an international border;
• economic and infrastructural backwardness;

• state finances that cannot sustain themselves.

• Benefits under the Planning Commission era [11]:

• these 11 states got 30% of central plan assistance;

• central help came as 90% grants and 10% loans, against 30:70 for other states.

• Change: the 14th Finance Commission raised the states' share of central taxes from 32% to 42% (award period 2015-20). It did not treat special category states differently from other states [11]. This is why the status is now called "former".

3. Comparative federations

Country	Type	Asymmetric feature
USA	Symmetrical	All states have equal status and 2 Senate seats each
Canada	Asymmetric	Quebec uses French-origin civil law. Other provinces use common law
Spain	Asymmetric	The Basque Country and Navarre collect their own taxes and pay an agreed amount to Madrid (concierto or convenio fiscal regimes). Catalonia has strong autonomy and demands more
UK	Asymmetric devolution	Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own legislatures with different powers. England has no separate parliament
Malaysia	Asymmetric	Sabah and Sarawak control who can enter them, even citizens from Peninsular Malaysia. This parallels India's Inner Line Permit

4. Why India has asymmetry: the rationale

• Class 11 NCERT ("Federalism") calls this India's "most extra-ordinary feature": "many States get a differential treatment."
• India as a "holding-together" federation:
• A coming-together federation is formed when independent states join, as in the USA.
• A holding-together federation is formed when a large country shares power with its parts so that it stays united, as in India.

• So India gives special terms to keep diverse regions inside the Union.

• Four causes of asymmetry:

• History: the terms on which a state joined India, and peace accords with insurgent groups. Examples are J&K's Instrument of Accession (1947), Sikkim joining India in 1975 (Art. 371F) and the Mizo Accord in 1986 (Art. 371G).
• Identity: customary law, land and language. Examples are Art. 371A (Nagaland) and Art. 371G (Mizoram).
• Geography and security: border and hill areas. Examples are the ILP and the Governor's special responsibility for law and order in Arunachal Pradesh under Art. 371H.
• Uneven development: regional boards under Art. 371 (Vidarbha, Marathwada) and Art. 371J (Hyderabad-Karnataka).

5. Lessons from Class 12 NCERT ("Regional Aspirations")

• Negotiation works better than suppression. Regional demands should be met through talks, not force.
• The Sixth Schedule "proved crucial" in the North-East. District councils gave tribal groups self-rule without breaking away from India.
• Mizoram is the model:
• the Mizo National Front (MNF) fought an armed struggle from 1966;
• the Mizo Accord was signed in 1986;
• Mizoram became a state in 1987 and got Art. 371G;

• it is now one of the most peaceful states in the region.

• Class 9 example: Tripura's Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council shows how the Sixth Schedule gives tribal people a share in power.

6. In re Article 370 (2023)

• Case: In re: Article 370 of the Constitution, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1099 of 2019. Decided by a five-judge Constitution Bench on 11 December 2023 (2023 INSC 1058) [2].
• Background:
• on 5–6 August 2019, Parliament approved a resolution that made Art. 370 inoperative [4];

• the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 split the state into two UTs: J&K (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without one) [4].

• Key holdings:

• Art. 370 was a feature of asymmetric federalism, not of sovereignty. J&K kept no internal sovereignty after it acceded to India [2].
• Art. 370 was a temporary provision. The President's power to declare it inoperative survived after the J&K Constituent Assembly was dissolved in 1957 [2].
• The abrogation was upheld [2][3].

• Making Ladakh a UT was upheld. The Court recorded the Union's promise to restore statehood to J&K. It directed the Election Commission to hold assembly elections by 30 September 2024 [2].

• Meaning for this topic: asymmetry is allowed and is part of India's federal design. But a special status can be changed through the constitutional process.

7. The debate: does asymmetry unite or divide?

• NCERT Class 11, exercise 11 sets two views against each other:

Equality of states / "one nation, one constitution"	"Unity with diversity"
Every state and citizen should have equal rights under one law	One rule for all may push away distinct groups
Special status feeds separatism and a "we are different" feeling	Special status builds trust and shows that diversity is respected
It blocks investment and outside settlement, which slows development	It protects land, culture and fragile ecology from being swamped by outsiders

• NCERT's admission: these provisions "have not been able to stem alienation and the insurgency" in parts of the North-East. Nagaland has had Art. 371A since 1962, yet Naga peace talks are still going on.
• Demonstration effect. When one group gets special status, other groups demand the same:
• Ladakh: demands Sixth Schedule status and statehood after becoming a UT in 2019;
• Kuki-Zo (Manipur): demand a separate administration;
• Gorkhaland (West Bengal): demands a separate state. The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration set up in 2012 has not ended the demand;

• Tipra (Tripura): the demand for "Greater Tipraland".

• Asymmetry is also uneven inside states. For example, Sixth Schedule councils cover hill tribes but not every tribal group.

8. Correction: Himachal Pradesh

• Himachal Pradesh has no Art. 371 clause. Articles 371 to 371J cover only Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka [7].
• Where HP's asymmetry actually comes from:
• Fifth Schedule Scheduled Areas: Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti, Pangi and Bharmour;
• statutory land curbs: under s. 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act 1972, a non-agriculturist cannot buy farmland without state government permission;
• fiscal: HP was one of the 11 special category states [11].

Prelims Hooks

• Article 371J (Hyderabad-Karnataka region) was inserted by the 98th Amendment, 2012. It is the newest Art. 371 clause [8].
• Article 371A: an Act of Parliament on Naga customary law, religious practice or land applies in Nagaland only if the state assembly passes a resolution [6].
• Trap: Himachal Pradesh has no Art. 371 clause. Its tribal areas fall under the Fifth Schedule, not the Sixth.
• Sixth Schedule states: Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram (Art. 244(2)). The Fifth Schedule works under Art. 244(1).
• Inner Line Permit: based on the BEFR 1873. Extended to Manipur in 2019 by a Presidential order under Art. 372(2). Covers Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and parts of Nagaland [9][10].
• Special category status began in 1969 with Assam, Nagaland and J&K, and grew to 11 states. It came from the NDC, not from the Constitution or a Finance Commission [11][12].
• In re Article 370 (11 December 2023): Art. 370 was a feature of asymmetric federalism, not sovereignty. The abrogation was upheld, and J&K elections were ordered by 30 September 2024 [2].
• Art. 244A (22nd Amendment, 1969) lets Parliament create an autonomous state within Assam.
• Delhi's special status comes from Art. 239AA, inserted by the 69th Amendment, 1991.
• Malaysia's Sabah and Sarawak control entry to their territory. This is the closest foreign parallel to India's Inner Line Permit.

Mains Points

• Asymmetry as a tool of a holding-together federation:
• It helped bring Sikkim (Art. 371F), Mizoram (Art. 371G) and the Naga areas (Art. 371A) into India peacefully.
• Class 12 NCERT says accommodation through negotiation works better than suppression.

• The Supreme Court in 2023 accepted asymmetry as part of Indian federalism [2].

• Limits and risks:

• It has not ended alienation and insurgency in the North-East.
• It creates a demonstration effect: Ladakh, the Kuki-Zo, Gorkhaland and Tipra now make new demands.

• The ILP and land curbs can conflict with free movement and the right to settle anywhere in India (Art. 19(1)(d) and (e)) and with investment.

• The fiscal side:

• The 14th Finance Commission removed the special/general category distinction and raised devolution to 42% [11].

• This shifts India from status-based help to formula-based help. Hill states argue that this ignores their cost disadvantages.

• Reform direction:

• make asymmetry need-based and reviewable;
• give autonomous councils real powers and funds (for example, a direct share of Finance Commission grants);
• consult local communities before changing any status. The J&K abrogation, which happened while the state was under President's rule, remains contested on consent and federal grounds.