Ethnofederalism Discourse: Understanding Boundaries between the Centre and the State in Indian State

While a great deal about India's federal system has been said in terms of Centre-state relation based on the devolution of power to subunits and accommodation of different ethnic groups base on non-territorial autonomy, but there has been less attention given to the concept and characterization of ethnofederalism, given its experience about federal system. Ethnofederalism is understood as a concept that includes both federalism and ethnic dimension, which manages the inter-ethnic relation in ethnically divided societies by sharing power between the central government and the territorial define subunits. Simultaneously, ethnofederal system is generally seen to have a relative risk of developing ethnic conflict or prone for secession, given the opportunity of power sharing within the existing state. Based on this understand on ethnofederalism, the article discusses whether there can be some kind of institutional characteristic, which would facilitate the construction of Indian federal system near to the image of ethnofederalism. To address this process of construction and gap in the Indian federal studies, the article illustrate India's federal mode of accommodation as a point of discussion. An accommodation provided both territorial and non-territorial autonomy to different ethnic groups by retaining their distinctiveness within the ambit of Indian Constitution. By providing such an accommodation to various ethnic groups, they are simultaneously subject to commonly shared political space. Bearing such space, the article illustrates that the experience of Indian federal systems does not seem to represent the character of ethnofederalism truly, given its overlap boundaries between the Centre and the State relationship.