Indian politics refers to the activities, institutions, and processes associated with governance and political competition in the Republic of India. India operates as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic with a parliamentary system of government, as defined by the Constitution of India which came into force on 26 January 1950. Politics in India functions across three principal levels: the Union (central) government, the state governments, and local self-government bodies such as panchayats and municipalities.
| Form of government | Federal parliamentary constitutional republic |
|---|---|
| Constitution adopted | 26 November 1949 |
| Constitution effective | 26 January 1950 |
| Head of State | President of India |
| Head of Government | Prime Minister of India |
| Legislature | Parliament of India (bicameral): Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha |
| Judiciary | Supreme Court of India, High Courts, subordinate courts |
| Election authority | Election Commission of India |
| Federal units | States and Union Territories |
The Constitution of India is the supreme legal document and establishes the structure, powers, and duties of government institutions, as well as the fundamental rights and duties of citizens. It was drafted by the Constituent Assembly under the chairmanship of the Drafting Committee led by B. R. Ambedkar. The Constitution distributes legislative powers between the Union and the states through the Union List, State List, and Concurrent List set out in the Seventh Schedule.
India is a union of states. Each state has its own elected legislative assembly and a Chief Minister who heads the state government, with a Governor as the constitutional head appointed by the President. Union Territories are administered by the Union government, with some having their own legislatures. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, enacted in 1992, gave constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies, formalising the third tier of governance.
General elections to the Lok Sabha are held at intervals of not more than five years, unless the House is dissolved earlier. Elections to state legislative assemblies follow a similar five-year cycle. The Election Commission of India, established on 25 January 1950, is the constitutional authority responsible for administering elections to Parliament, state legislatures, and the offices of the President and Vice President. India uses the first-past-the-post system for direct elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
India has a multi-party system. Political parties are recognised by the Election Commission of India as national parties or state parties based on criteria related to electoral performance and presence. Major recognised parties have included the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, along with several regional parties that play significant roles in their respective states and at the national level through coalitions.
Since the late 1980s, coalition governments have been a recurrent feature at the Union level, with national parties forming pre-poll or post-poll alliances with regional parties. Prominent alliance formations have included the National Democratic Alliance and the United Progressive Alliance.
Modern Indian politics traces its institutional origins to the colonial period, including the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935. After independence on 15 August 1947, India became a dominion and subsequently a republic on 26 January 1950. The first general elections were held in 1951–52. Subsequent decades saw the consolidation of parliamentary democracy, the reorganisation of states largely on linguistic lines beginning with the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the period of Emergency from 1975 to 1977, and the gradual rise of regional and identity-based politics.
Local self-government in India consists of rural bodies (gram panchayats, panchayat samitis, and zilla parishads) and urban bodies (municipal corporations, municipalities, and nagar panchayats). These institutions handle subjects such as local planning, sanitation, water supply, primary education, and public health, depending on devolution by individual states.
India is among the most populous democracies in the world, and its electoral exercises are large in scale and logistical complexity. The political system reflects the country's social, linguistic, regional, and religious diversity, and has shaped policies on economic development, social welfare, federal relations, and foreign affairs.