Setting aside the debate on the extent of federalism in our constitutional provisions, let us examine the federal tendencies in Indian polity since the 1950s. For the first fifteen years, the parliamentary system was dominated by the Indian National Congress, which functioned as an umbrella party. It successfully accommodated diverse interest groups, including landed elites, industrial capitalists, the middle class, and advocates of public sector expansion and economic planning. This broad coalition largely suppressed the emergence of political parties rooted in social divisions within the electoral landscape.

However, this does not mean such formations were entirely absent. Political parties representing opposing economic ideologies did emerge. The Socialist Party was formed in 1948, though it later experienced multiple mergers and splits. The Swatantra Party, founded in 1959, represented a contrasting viewpoint. Meanwhile, the Communist Party had already been active. The socialists and communists criticized the Congress for its slow progress on land reforms and nationalization, advocating for more radical measures. In contrast, the Swatantra Party, influenced by C. Rajagopalachari’s reading of Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, sought the removal of state controls over the private sector.

^{C. RAJAGOPALACHARI | PHOTO : WIKI COMMONS}
Despite these ideological differences, these parties remained on the fringes of electoral politics until the mid-1960s.

Political parties rooted in nationalism and religion also emerged in the early years after independence. However, like other ideological movements, they struggled to gain significant traction during the first fifteen years. The pan-Indian appeal of the Congress played a crucial role in preventing sharp political polarizations in the immediate post-independence decades. By accommodating both conservative and modernist interests, the Congress acted as a stabilizing force, facilitating compromises and implementing limited reforms.

However, cracks in this broad coalition began to appear over time. One early sign was the opposition from Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Chaudhary Charan Singh to the resolution on collective farming, introduced at the party’s Nagpur session in 1959. The Green Revolution of the 1960s, aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in food grain production, prioritized high-yielding seed varieties and chemical fertilizers. In this pursuit, considerations of regional and intra-regional economic equality were sidelined.

^{REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE | WIKI COMMONS}
The Green Revolution, however, gave rise to a new class of influential rich farmers who began articulating their interests more assertively. Their demands for higher support prices and increased subsidies led them to align with state-based parties rather than remain within the Congress fold. This shift marked a significant transformation in India's political landscape, with regional parties gaining strength as representatives of emerging economic and social interests.

In Uttar Pradesh, particularly in the western region, the Congress lost its traditional support among the landowning farming community. This shift was evident when Chaudhary Charan Singh led the first non-Congress government in the state in 1967. By the mid-1960s, the Congress umbrella could no longer accommodate the increasingly divergent interests within Indian society. Urban discontent over rising prices, food shortages, and systemic corruption grew, while rural groups asserted their demands for a greater share in power. As a result, regional parties became more effective vehicles for representing rural interests. The growing political fragmentation was reflected in the 1967 Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections, which saw non-Congress governments forming in eight states.

^{Chaudhary Charan Singh becomes Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh | PHOTO : WIKI COMMONS}
However, political polarization in India was still in its early stages. Despite facing challenges, the Congress remained the central pole of Indian politics. In an attempt to keep Congress out of power, ideologically disparate parties—from the Jan Sangh to the Left—formed alliances, only to disintegrate soon after. The 1970s witnessed a resurgence of centralization, accompanied by increasing authoritarianism both within the ruling Congress party and the government.

By the late 1970s, with the rise of the Janata Party and its successor formations, the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) emerged as a significant political force, leading to a new phase of polarization in Indian politics after the 1980s. In the major Hindi-speaking states of North India, particularly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Congress became electorally marginalized. Politics in these states came to be dominated by caste-based parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which mobilized support through its pan-Hindutva ideology.

This re-polarization has continued to evolve. While the BJP initially faced setbacks in the 1990s, it successfully engaged in micro-level social engineering, gradually displacing the Congress and many of the regional parties that had gained prominence in the post-1989 political landscape. Today, the BJP stands as the principal pole of Indian politics, marking a fundamental shift from the earlier dominance of the Congress.

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Undoubtedly, the cycles of polarization and re-polarization have made Indian politics far more federal than it was in the 1970s. However, equally powerful counter-trends have emerged alongside these shifts. Economically, the dominance of market forces has driven deregulation and the harmonization of tax rates. Meanwhile, the compulsions of electoral politics have pushed parties across ideological lines to introduce various welfare programs—often labeled as "freebies." Given the stark inter-regional and inter-social inequalities in India, direct state welfare measures remain an unavoidable necessity.

Today, we are witnessing a decline in polarization based on economic policies, as most parties—whether in power at the Union or state level—have embraced, or been compelled to adopt, a blend of deregulation and welfare spending. This convergence has softened ideological divides in economic policymaking.

The process of polarization and re-polarization has been an ongoing and complex feature of Indian society and politics, evolving through various phases. Scholars have analyzed these trends extensively, yet the dynamics remain fluid. It is safe to say that this process will continue, generating fresh developments that will provide rich material for both social scientists and policymakers to study and respond to.

(The author is a commentator on issues of federal polity.)