CBSE Class 10 Political Science Chapter-2 Federalism – Free PDF Download
Free PDF download of Important Questions with Answers for CBSE Class 10 Political Science Chapter 2 – Federalism prepared by expert Political Science teachers from latest edition of CBSE(NCERT) books only by CoolGyan to score more marks in CBSE board examination.
CBSE Class 10 Political Science Chapter-2 Federalism Important Questions
CBSE Class 10 Political Science Important Questions Chapter 2 – Federalism
3 Mark Questions
1. Why is the central government of India not compelling states to adopt Hindi as their official language?
Ans. a) India is multilingual country. According to the census of 1991 recorded more than 1500 distinct languages, people mentioned their mother tongues.
b) Hindi is mother tongue of only 40% of the people of India.
c) There are 21 languages recognized by the constitution.
d) In states of Southern India there has been violent opposition to Hindi.
2. Contrast a federal system of government with a unitary set-up with examples.
Ans. a) Federalism has at least two levels of government.
b) The central government is responsible for subjects of national importance.
c) The state government looks after the daily administration of the states.
d) In Unitary system there is only one level of government and if any subunits are there that remains subordinate to the central government.
3. Highlight the two types of routs through which the federations are formed. Give example.
Ans. a) When independent states come together and form a federation is coming together route. Example: USA, Switzerland and Australia.
b) When a country decides to divide its power between the constituent state and the national government that is holding together route. Example: India, Spain and Belgium.
4. Explain the role of union list, state list and concurrent list with context to India.
Ans. a) Union list includes those subjects which are of national interest and on which a uniform policy is needed in the whole country. The Union Government makes laws on these subjects. Example, defense, foreign affairs and banking.
b) State list includes subjects of state and local importance example, police, trade, agriculture etc.
c) Concurrent list includes subjects of common interest to the Union Government and the State Government, Example: Education, forest etc.
5. What are significances of Panchayat Raj?
Ans. a) It is the third level of Indian Federal System.
b) This level gives a chance to the people to become the representatives of people.
c) There are 36 lakhs elected representatives in the local bodies.
d) There is reservation for women, SCs and STs.
e) They strengthen the democratic system of India.
6. Explain the organization of the local government bodies of urban areas.
Ans. a) Local Government bodies exist in urban areas also. In Towns there are municipalities and in big cities there are municipal corporations.
b) Both municipalities and municipal corporations are controlled by elected bodies consisting of people’s representatives.
c) Municipality is headed by the chairman and Municipal Corporation is headed by the Mayor.
7. Differentiate between Federal Government and the Unitary Government.
Ans. a) In the unitary system power is centered with the central authority and in federal system, power is allotted to the state and local level government.
b) In Federal system power is allocated separately to the central and state level governments. In Unitary system there is no separate unit of the government.
c) In Federal system the focus is on national and state issues and in unitary system, the focus is completely on gaining power.
d) In country like France, Italy, Japan and UK use unitary system. The countries like US, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Austria, India, and Switzerland use federal system of government.
8. How federalism leads to reservation of seats for different caste groups?
Ans. a) Federalism means sharing power among the central and non central authorities. it seeks to give equal representation to all the constituent units.
b) Even in the constituent units or in states, there is diversity in the population with respect to language, religion, caste and culture.
c) To give equal opportunity and voice to various social groups, there is reservation for some categories like SCs, STs, OBCs and women in some areas.
d) This reservation aims to give power to the socially weaker sections of the society to give them an equal chance and representation in the political system.
9. What was the Amendment in regard to decentralization?
Ans. a) In 1992, 73rd Amendment Act gave constituent status to the Panchayati raj institution.
b) It created the third tier of federalism in India below the central government level and the state government level.
c)The Objective of this Amendment was to make democracy more powerful and effective by giving power to the grassroots units of self government.
10. How is the Federal government better than a Unitary Government? Explain with the example of Belgium and Sri Lanka.
Ans. a) If we study the main difference between the federal and the unitary governments, in the present times the federal governments certainly score over the unitary governments, especially when people of different religions, castes and cultures resides in one and same country.
b) In chapter Power Sharing we have seen how a unitary form of government has proved a failure in Sri Lanka while a federal type of government has proved a great success in Belgium.
c) In Sri Lanka Unitary government fails to solve the dispute of different sections of the society but in Belgium the federal government gives equal respect to the demands of different sections of the society.
d) In Belgium all types of people have been accommodated while in Majoritarianism has been thrust upon the people especially over the minority community in Sri Lanka.
11. Discuss why the special status has been given to a few states in India? Explain with the example of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ans. a) A few states in India have been given a special status in the constitution due yp diverse population and regions within the state itself.
b) Special status to Jammu and Kashmir is due to the history of conflict over the state with Pakistan.
c) The state was given to the Indian Union under very special terms, which provided the state with a unique position in the Indian Union.
d) This state has its own constitution.
12. How far is it correct to say that federalism works only in big country?
Ans. a) Federalism means sharing power among the central and non-central authorities.
b) It works in big countries where the area of country is very large and it makes it difficult to be effective managed through only one level of government.
c) In Such cases different levels of the government are formed to have broad based participation of the people.
13. Is it easy to make changes to power sharing arrangements between centre and the state? Explain
Ans. a) No it is not easy to make changes in the power sharing arrangements between the centre and the states.
b) The parliament alone cannot make any decision relating to the power sharing arrangements.
c) In these days the influence of regional and state political parties is increased.
d) Any proposed change has to be first approved by both the houses of the Parliament.
14. Explain the role of Judiciary.
Ans. a) Judiciary plays an important role in ensuring the implementation of various laws and procedure.
b) The supreme court of India has the exclusive authority of settling disputes between the government of India and one or more states or between two states.
c) The high court stands at the head of state’s judicial administrations.
d) The Union Territories comes under the jurisdiction of different state high courts.
15. Explain the role of legislature.
Ans. a) Legislature is our country’s law making body.
b) It is an assembly of people’s representation with the power to enact laws for our country.
c) The members of the legislature are elected by the people.
d) In addition to enacting laws legislature have the authority to raise taxes, and adopt the budget and other money bills.
16. Explain the role of executive.
Ans. a) At different organs of government we find functionaries who take day-to-day decisions, but do not exercise the supreme power on behalf of the people. All those functionaries are collectively known as the executive.
b) Executive is law implementing body.
c). It is a body of persons having major policies, make decisions, and implementing them on the basis of the constitution and laws of the country.
17. Explain the working of rural local government.
Ans. a) Under the three tier system of decentralization, Zila Parishad is the apex body at the district level.
b) It is followed by panchayat samities at the block level and gram panchayat at village level.
c) Each village has gram panchayat whose members are elected by the entire adult population of that village.
d) A few gram panchayat are joined together to form a block samiti.
e) All the panchayat samities in a district collectively make a Zila parishad.
18. What are the powers and responsibilities of village Panchayat?
Ans. a) Preparation plan for economic development and social justice for the village.
b) Implementation of schemes for economic development for the village.
c) It charges and collects all the taxes, duties, tolls and fees.
19. What are the functions of Gram Sabha?
Ans. a) Gram Sabha meets at least quarter of the year.
b) It decides the development work which is to be carried out by the Panchayat.
c) It suggests remedial measures for economy and efficiency in the functioning of the panchayat.
d) It questions and examines the decision of the panchayat in the meeting of Gram Sabha.
20. What are the demerits of local self government?
Ans. a) Irregular elections.
b) Dominance of Upper Caste people.
c) Ignorance, illiteracy and poverty of the villagers.
d) Excessive official control.
e) Lack of Adequate funds.
21. What makes India a federal country?
Ans. a) The levels of governments are divided into different parts- Central, State and Panchayat Raj.
b) The constitution of India demarcates the powers of the center and state governments in to different lists of subjects.
c) Written and rigid constitution.
d) India is judiciary is free from all powers.
22. Which policies have strengthened federalism in India?
Ans. a) Linguistic States: After independence in the year 1950 the boundaries of several old states were changed in order to create new states. The formation of linguistic states made the country more united and stringer. It has also made administration easier.
b) Language Policy: Indian Constitution did not give the status of national language to any of the language.
c) Centre- State Relations: This is a critical matter in relation to any federation since the centre state relations decides the extent to which the ruling parties and leaders follow the power sharing arrangements.
23. If agriculture and commerce are state subjects why do we have ministers of agriculture and commerce in the Union Cabinet?
Ans. a) Although agriculture and commerce are the state subjects we have ministers of agriculture and commerce at the union cabinet because the wider prospect of these subjects regarding inter-state trade.
b) A uniform policy has to be legislated for all the states.
c) The agriculture and economic experts are part of the planning commission. So we require agriculture and commerce ministers in the Union for policy making.
24. Discuss the duel objective of federalism?
Ans. As federalism has two or more levels of governments it has duel objectives:
a) To safeguard and promote unity of the country.
b) And to accommodate regional diversity.
c) The above two aspects are crucial for the institution and practice of federalism. The government at different levels should agree to some rules of power sharing.
d) They should also trust that each would abide by its part of agreement.
25. Examine the holding together nature of Indian Federalism.
Ans. a) States have been not been given identical powers with union government.
b) Few states have been given special status-like Jammu and Kashmir and North eastern states in order to protect and preserve their custom, tradition, culture and linguistic diversity.
c) Apart from these some territories of the Indian union like Chandigarh, Lakshadweep or the capital city of Delhi are administered by union government hence known as Union Territories.
26. Write down the features of Coming together federations.
Ans. a) Coming Together Federation involves independent states coming together on their own to form a bigger unit.
b) In coming together units try to increase their security by pooling sovereignty and retaining identity.
c) In this category of federations, all the constituent units usually have equal power and are strong vis-à-vis the federal government.
d) USA, Switzerland and Australia are Coming Together Federations.
27. Write down the features of holding together federations.
Ans. a) The Second route is where a large country decides to divide its power between the constituent States and the national government.
b) India, Spain and Belgium are examples of this kind of Holding Together federations.
c) In this category the central government tends to be more power full vis-à-vis the states.
d) Very often different constituent units of the different constituent units of the federation have unequal powers. Some units are granted special powers.
28. Is it right to say that India is federal country but the word federalism is not used anywhere in the constitution? Explain.
Ans. a) India had emerged as an independent nation after a painful and bloody partition.
b) Soon after independence several princely states become a part of the country.
c) The constitution declared India as a Union of States.
d) Although it did not use the world federation, the Indian Union is based on the principles of federalism.
e) India is fulfilling all the requirements which are required for a federal country.
29. “Local people know the local problems and its solutions better”. Explain
Ans. a) Decentralization has a number of advantages.
b) Decentralization aims at dealing with the local problems at local level.
c) Local people know their problems much better than outsiders.
d) They also have better ideas regarding management of things more efficiently.
e) They can specify the important problems and allocate more money to more pressing problems on priority basis.
30. Highlight the support given by local governments in lessening the workload of centre and state governments.
Ans. a) The local governments take up some of the responsibilities of the Central and State governments.
b) They share some of their burdens and allow them time to concentrate on matters of the state importance and national importance.
c) Much of their time which was hitherto wasted on local problems, could now be devoted to much more important issues.
31. Give the key features of federalism
Ans. 1.There is two or more level of govt
2. Each tier has its own jurisdiction
3. Any change in the fundamental provisions of the constitution requires consent of both levels of the govt
4. Sources of revenue for each level are specified
32. What major steps taken in 1992 towards decentralization?
Ans. A three tier democracies were introduced in 1992.
A step was taken towards creating rural local self govt.
1) Regular elections to be held for panchayat
2) Seats reserved for SC’s and STs OBCs
3) One third seats reserved for women
4) State govt to share power and revenue with local bodies.