Introduction
The Centre for Federal Studies is an Area Studies Research Centre of the University Grants Commission, at the Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University), since 1994. It is the only such research centre on federalism in India. It started, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, as the Indian Institute of Federal Studies that was established by (the late) Prof. Rasheeduddin Khan. The Centre is a member of the International Association of Centers of Federal Studies.
The objective for setting up this research centre was to explain and assess federalism as a socio-cultural theory recognising pluralism as the basis of accommodation and peaceful co-existence; as a political principle finding a pattern of constitutional diffusion of power; and exploring how interdependence can be the functioning principle of administrative arrangements, coordinating the legitimate distribution of power, authority and responsibility between governments and their various organs and institutions. The work at the Centre, in its studies and researches, has been in the above context.