UPSC Mains 2022 GS2 Q13 — Federalism and Politics
"While the national political parties in India favour centralisation, the regional parties are in favour of State autonomy." Comment. (Answer in 250 words)
Question Decoded — examiner's intent
- Directive verbs
- Comment
- Scope keywords
- national political partiescentralisationregional partiesState autonomy
- Implicit sub-parts
- Identify the ideological and structural reasons why national parties push for a 'strong center'.
- Analyze why regional parties prioritize federalism and local identity as a survival strategy.
- Examine counter-examples where national parties supported decentralization and regional parties favored central control.
- Evaluate the impact of this tension on the Cooperative Federalism model in India.
- Common pitfalls
- Writing a generic essay on federalism without focusing on the 'political party' aspect mentioned in the prompt.
- Failing to provide specific examples of parties (e.g., BJP/Congress vs DMK/TMC/AJP) to ground the theoretical arguments.
- Ignoring the shift in behavior when regional parties join national coalitions (NDA/UPA) or when national parties are in opposition.
- Neglecting the role of the Governor’s office and Article 356 as tools in this specific power struggle.
- Dimensions required
- ConstitutionalIdeologicalHistoricalPolitical-StructuralFederal
- Marks allocation hint
Allocate 50 words to define the evolution of India's party system from one-party dominance to coalition and back. Use 75 words for the centralizing tendencies of national parties, 75 words for the autonomy demands of regional parties, and 50 words for a nuanced conclusion that discusses the synthesis needed for cooperative federalism.
Unlock the full analysis for this question
You've seen the question and its examiner-intent decoding. Subscribers also get:
- 🔗 Similar Previous Year Questions — cross-year, cross-paper matches so you study the topic, not the question
- 📚 Source Map — verified citations from Laxmikanth, NCERT, PRS, Yojana, Economic Survey, Spectrum
- 🌱 How this topic is evolving — current-affairs bridge anchored to live TARS news clustering
- 🧭 Examiner's Pattern — how the topic has been framed across every year UPSC has tested it
- ✍️ Answer Skeleton — a structured outline (intro → body → conclusion) you can flesh out
- 🎯 AI evaluation — write your answer, get rubric-based scoring from gs-eval
Or browse 132+ free preview questions across all years and papers — the first 3 questions of every paper are unlocked.
Ready to practice?
Subscribers can attempt this question in 250 words and get an instant, rubric-based evaluation showing where they stand.
Subscribe to evaluate your answer →