How the Indian Government Works

India is, as many will remind you, the biggest democracy on the planet, but how exactly does its government work?

MUSIC:
“Goddess of Destruction” by Banaras Baba & Kolkata Kid
“Chennai” by Esme Cruz
“Terms of Trade” by Esme Cruz
“Too Fast to Run” by Deskant
(All via EpidemicSound)

📖 SOURCES:
Wikipedia (yes I'm ashamed too, but it was hard to find easy concise explanations)

Nif Lindsay, Rebanics, Larry Burch, Tobi Burch-Rates

[dipanjan]

its not mandatory for the prime minister to be from the lok sabha as said in the video. PM manmohan singh was a rajya sabha member from assam

[loveall]

India also has 10 Autonomous District Councils (ADC). Which are like State within a State.
They have their own Government, Legislative Assembly and is led by a Chief Executive Member (CEM). Election is held every 5 year.

ADCs are basically Reserved Land for Native Tribals to protect their culture, identity & heritage.

[HribhuGupta-Roll]

For someone who is not native to India, This video was very well made, good job

[tge]

The term "socialist" was added to the constitution's preamble without any democratic procedures during the infamous "emergency" declared by Indira Gandhi.

[singam]

As an Indian, I will say you did a pretty good job explaining things (though I should note the previous PM Manmohan Singh was elected from the Rajya Sabha), and your pronunciation didn't kill my ears, although you kind of flubbed the long and short vowels.

[Antoinecalligrapher]

As an Indian, to explain the slightly confusing concept of both Unitary and Federal structure of our government:
It was done to draw a contrast between the nature of India and some other countries, like USA, UK, and Soviet Union, from where we imbibed some of the ideas for our Constitution.
In the above mentioned countries, several independent geopolitical units came together to form a Union, the 4 kingdoms of UK, the 13 colonies of America, the Soviet Republics in USSR, etc. And each of these units was equal to each other and largely independent. They had provisions or at least weak ties that could enable them to Secede or break away from the larger Union, like the break up of Soviet Union, the short period of American Civil War, or the presently on going Scottish Independence referendum.
In India however, this is not the case. We see our country as a single unbreakeable whole, a permanent Union of the People of India (and not states). This Union of people shall divide itself into smaller units (states) for ease of governance only and for no other claims of local autonomy. No territory of India may ever breakaway from the Union. It's punisheable as treason to speak of another separation of India (the horrors of Partition).
But, such a large population we are, we might not always get along well with our cousins, and tensions will rise, so we prefer to draw lines within our country than across it. That is, we are kinda flexible with our state borders. It's not very easy to carve a new state, but not impossible. However, the Union of India shall always be a single indivisible entity. That's the Federal structure with Unitary features.

[tutupre]

Federalism without Federalism that's India

[agnivnandi]

Correction:
Prime Minister can also be elected from among the Members of Rajya Sabha, as in Manmohan Singh who served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014 while being a Member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha from Assam

[F.G_even]

this will be the least political comment section ever

[Rohit-truk]

U hv got almost right, but 2 correction worth mentioning :-

1.its not necessary that PM gets elected from lok-sabha, (its ideal situation), unlike UK.But anyone can become PM, choosen by majority party but he/she must gets a membership in either of the two houses within 6 months of taking charge.(same for the ministers)

2.There is no post like deupty PM, ( Constitution doesn't mention, its not a rule), it's just occasionally to satisfy the coalition partners.Since past 20 yrs India has no deputy PM.

Of such complicated Nation & its politics, ur explanation in such lucid manner, deserve a applause.

[.achyuthans]

Basically for all those from Presidential systems, a Ceremonial President is just there as a reserve. The government runs in their name. They are re supposed to be impartial and have no partisan bias (though most are just retired politicians). It’s a leftover feature from a constitutional monarchy where the Monarch is the head of state and is there as a backup/reserve power/monitoring authority/representative of the entire nation and not just a party. Most parliamentary forms of government are either constitutional monarchies (UK, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia) or parliamentary republics (India, Pakistan, Germany, Ireland)

[Polavianus]

6:17 For other people not from India
There are also other Autonomous District Councils
Most of them from Northeast India

[prathamkalgutkar]

5:56 It's cause "Dadra and Nagar Haveli" and "Daman and Diu" were separate Union Territories before they were merged together

[tobirates]

Learned more about India in 6:55 than I have all year. Well done video!

[bhuvaneshs.k]

We want to rip out socialist term from preamble. It was illegally inserted

[cachecow]

You should check out how India counts and collects all those votes in such a big country with some very rural areas

[jayeshratangairi]

I think every Indian would say that the Supreme court in india is the ultimate Goat in this process. They keep all this state and central government in check. Otherwise its sometimes all circus over here 😂😂😂

[deeshankd]

FACTUAL CORRECTION:

The Lok Sab elects the Prime Minister, however, the Prime Minister has to be a Member of Parliament, i.e., in one of the houses, not necessarily the Lok Sabha only.

[LplusRatioLol]

0:40 the words Socialist and Secular were forcefully added in 1970s under PM Indira Gandhi’s tenure, and was not present at Independence. India no longer is Socialist.

[libshastra]

Indian constitution sees States as administrative units rather than devolved powers. Federalism still maintains high degree of centralization both for political and pragmatic reasons (Some Indian States are just too poor to manage certain Departments, Central Govt funds close to 80% of their outlays). Power between States and Centre is dictated by 7th Schedule which maintains 3 separate lists - State, Union and Concurrent. This creates an interesting framework for balancing Political Power. For eg: Policing is in the State List, however Law and Order (aka Public Order) is in Concurrent List. So Central Govt cannot perform day to day policing but can get itself involved in serious degradation of public order or station Centrally Armed Police Force to maintain public order at facilities.