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The general scholarly literature of comparative federalism is sparse, more so when it involves India or South Asia. For instance, there is no significant work comparing the federal system of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Arora and Verney's new book is an effort to redress the absence of South Asian countries in the scholarship about comparative federalism. Their collaborative effort emanated out of a workshop and a conference co-sponsored by the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) of the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Policy Research in 1993.
The editors proclaim that the volume is "exploring the ways in which federal institutions in India, Canada, and the United States have contributed to the settlement of regional (i.e., sub-national) problems while preserving a strong union." The title of the volume, Multiple Identities in a Single State, implies an examination of the role that societal demands are having on functional abilities of these distinct polities. In contrast, though, Multiple Identities is altogether two different books in one. The first part is devoted to a collection of essays examining India, the United States and Canada from a legalistic and constitutional perspective. The second part,.meanwhile is strictly a discussion of fiscal federalism, often focusing on the Indian or American experience alone.
As is the case with volumes with multiple authors, the depth and scope of the writing in Multiple Identities varies. Three articles, though, will be essential reading for anyone interested in Indian federalism. Douglas Verney's contribution, "Are All Federations Federal," masterfully sets the tone for the volume as he compares the three countries. Verney tackles the subject from a position that has also perplexed other students of federalism, like K.C. Wheare, namely to describe what are the necessary attributes of federalism. Verney lists eight essential pillars of federalism and not surprisingly uses the United States as its modular version.
Verney's classificatory approach underscores the necessity of the variants that Indian federalism introduced. Balveer Arora's contribution, "Adapting Federalism to India," reverses Verney's approach and focuses on Indian innovations. These multilevel and asymmetrical innovations, Arora argues, were born out of India's unique historical perspective. India, by choice, developed a sui generis constitutional amalgam largely, as Arora points out, as an attempt to manage its socio-economic diversity. The...