Q.From the list of following events which ones would you identify with the functioning of federalism? Why? (7 real news-style bullets: Darjeeling GNLF Sixth Schedule status; rain-relief State plans; Delhi municipal commissioner transfer; Manipur University Central University status; Arunachal rural water funds; anti-migrant Mumbai violence; Nagaland CLP dismissal demand; Bihar naxalite surrender appeal.)

Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between two (or more) levels of government — usually a national or central government and one or more regional/State governments — by the constitution itself, rather than by the choice of either government. Each level is self-governing within its own defined area, and neither can simply take over or abolish the other's powers on its own initiative; the division is constitutionally protected.

A genuinely federal system usually has a few recurring features: two sets of government, each autonomous in its own sphere (some federations even allow dual citizenship, though India has only a single citizenship); citizens who carry two overlapping identities and loyalties, belonging to both their region and their nation at once; a written, supreme constitution that spells out and protects this division of powers and is the actual source of authority for both levels of government; and an independent judiciary that can step in to settle disputes between the centre and the regions when disagreements arise over who has power over what.

It's important to realise that federalism is not one single fixed template — it looks different in different countries depending on their own history (American and German federalism, for instance, are both genuinely federal but organised quite differently). It's also important to realise that adopting a federal constitution does not automatically guarantee that a country will stay united: the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Pakistan were all federations that eventually broke apart, and Canada came close to splitting too, usually because of excessive centralisation, domination by one region or group, or a breakdown of trust between communities. How federalism actually works in practice depends heavily on real politics, shared culture, and a habit of cooperation and restraint among the different units — not just on what the constitution says on paper.

Two real examples make this concrete. The West Indies Federation (1958) had a weak central government and independent unit economies, and political rivalry between the islands led to its dissolution by 1962 — though the same islands later cooperated again through the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas, creating the Caribbean Community with shared institutions. Nigeria, meanwhile, adopted a federal constitution in 1950 uniting regions that had been separate British colonies, but conflict between its three major ethnic groups (Yoruba, Ibo, and Hausa-Fulani), each dominant in its own region, led to military rule for years, and even after democracy returned in 1999, religious divisions and disputes over control of oil revenue continue to strain the federation.