India is a constitutional democracy. The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to draft the Constitution of India. It worked as a first parliament for independent India. The Constitution of India, drafted from sources like Government of India Act, 1955, the British Constitution, American Constitution, Canadian Constitution and Irish Constitution among others, is based on justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as mentioned in the Preamble.
The Constitution provides for a Parliamentary form of government which is federal in character with certain unitary features. At the centre, there are two houses of Parliament—Lok Sabha, which is the popular house, and Rajya Sabha, which is the upper house.
The Constitution provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head to aid and advise the President, who shall exercise his/her, functions in accordance with the advice. The real executive power is thus vested in the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People (Lok Sabha). The President is the executive head of the state. The Constitution rests all the executive powers of the Union Government in him. The President is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian democracy—legislative, executive and judiciary.
The state government in India is bicameral in six states and unicameral in the rest. In a state with a bicameral legislature, the lower house is called the Legislative Assembly or Vidhan Sabha, and upper house is the Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad. The Chief Minister is the elected head of government of state in India.
India has an independent judiciary. The fundamental source of law in India is the Constitution, which gives due recognition to statutes, case law and study law, consistent with the dispensation of justice.
The book gives a complete, accurate, objective and balanced description of the Constitution and Government of India, covering all the pertinent topics. It is based on the syllabus of B.A. Political Science prescribed in Delhi University. But since the topics of Political Science at graduation level are the same everywhere, the book will also be useful for students of the subject in all the universities in India, including open universities. In addition, the book will also meet the requirements of those preparing for Civil Services exam with Political Science as an optional subject.
Atlantic Research Division is engaged in preparing quality textbooks on various subjects for postgraduate and undergraduate students pursuing various courses, as well as for those appearing in UGC-NET/SLET and other competitive examinations like IAS, IFS, IRS, IPS, etc.
The Directors of the Atlantic Research Division are:
• K.R. Gupta, M.A. Ph.D., has been teaching postgraduate classes and guiding research for about two decades in the University of Jammu and Kurukshetra University. He has written over twenty books and contributed several papers in journals being published in India and abroad.
• D.S. Paul, M.A. English, has the experience of teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students at colleges and institutes. He has written and edited several books and contributed articles in journals of repute. He has set model question papers for various competitive examinations.
• Manpreet Kaur is M.A., M.Phil in Political Science. She cleared her M.Phil in first division from Vinayaka Mission University. She also holds B.Ed. degree in first division from National College of Education. She is doing Ph.D. on “Violence Against Women” from IGNOU.
