grass root democracy
Orissa Review * February -March- 2007
Panchayati Raj : Grassroots Democracy
Siddhartha Dash
Panchayati Raj : An Evolutionary
Perspective
India's democratic structure has three levels of governance - national or federal, state or regional, and the grassroots level called the Panchayati Raj and Nagar Palika systems. The Panchayati Raj system covers the village, the tehsil and the district, and the Nagar Palika system serves towns and cities. If democracy means people's participation in running their affairs, then it is nowhere more direct, clear and significant than at the local level, where the contact between the people and their representatives, between the rulers and the ruled is more constant, vigilant and manageable. Lord
Bryce said : "The best school of democracy and the best guarantee for its success is the practice of local self-government". Decentralisation is a prime mechanism through which democracy becomes truly representative and responsive. The democratic ideals of decent ralization, development, and increased, continuous and active popular participation in the process of nation-building can be secured only through the working of an efficient system of local government.
Without a well organized system of local government, no democratic political system can be expected to become stable and really developed. Panchayats as institutional vehicles for development have been part of the Indian system for ages. In ancient times, Panchayati Raj system prevailed during the Chola period. In fact,
Rippon's Resolution of 1881 and 1882 can be be taken to be the origin of modern local government in India. It was seen as Gram Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi. Interestingly, Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar was not in favour of the Panchayati
Raj institutions; yet, he agreed to give it a place in the Constitution of India in Part IV through
Directive Principles of State Policy.
In the year following the independence
(1947), Prime Minister
Panchayati Raj : Grassroots Democracy
Siddhartha Dash
Panchayati Raj : An Evolutionary
Perspective
India's democratic structure has three levels of governance - national or federal, state or regional, and the grassroots level called the Panchayati Raj and Nagar Palika systems. The Panchayati Raj system covers the village, the tehsil and the district, and the Nagar Palika system serves towns and cities. If democracy means people's participation in running their affairs, then it is nowhere more direct, clear and significant than at the local level, where the contact between the people and their representatives, between the rulers and the ruled is more constant, vigilant and manageable. Lord
Bryce said : "The best school of democracy and the best guarantee for its success is the practice of local self-government". Decentralisation is a prime mechanism through which democracy becomes truly representative and responsive. The democratic ideals of decent ralization, development, and increased, continuous and active popular participation in the process of nation-building can be secured only through the working of an efficient system of local government.
Without a well organized system of local government, no democratic political system can be expected to become stable and really developed. Panchayats as institutional vehicles for development have been part of the Indian system for ages. In ancient times, Panchayati Raj system prevailed during the Chola period. In fact,
Rippon's Resolution of 1881 and 1882 can be be taken to be the origin of modern local government in India. It was seen as Gram Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi. Interestingly, Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar was not in favour of the Panchayati
Raj institutions; yet, he agreed to give it a place in the Constitution of India in Part IV through
Directive Principles of State Policy.
In the year following the independence
(1947), Prime Minister