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Introduction

Gram Swaraj also called village self-rule, was a pivotal concept in Gandhi’s thinking.
According to Gandhi’s thought, the village was his priority for political and social
organization. The village was his center of attention for this organization.

The governmental jurisdictions below the state level are called local governments in India.
According to the Constitution of the country, India Consists of three spheres of government
including the Central, state, and local governments. It is a federal republic. According to the
7S3rd and 74th Constitutional amendments as per the Constitution of the country, there is
recognition and protection given to local governments in the country besides each state
having its own local government legislation.

Gram Swaraj

Origin

According to Gandhi’s thought, Gram Swaraj could be understood as twin beacons of truth
and nonviolence. The concept of Gram Swaraj states that every village should be independent
and should be its only republic. The village should be independent of its neighboring villages
and should not be dependent on them for any of its vital needs and wants. However, the
villages can be dependent on each other for some needs and wants in which dependency is a
must. Basically, Gandhi wanted that each village should be self-sufficient and self-sustaining
as far as basic necessities of life were concerned which included clean water, sanitation,
housing, education, food, clothing, and so on. It also included self-defense and the
government and all other societal needs which a man wants. For example, this also includes
having a movie theatre in the village for its self-sufficiency. Gandhi wanted that in the
country of India, every village should be self-reliant and should be a republic having full
powers of its own. Then, as now, these were revolutionary ideas.

Development benefits

Gandhiji’s idea of Gram Swaraj has a unique bearing and aptness. Taking into consideration
the social and environmental sustainability of development. Gandhiji believed that ‘there is
enough on earth to satisfy everybody’s need but not for anybody’s greed’. After the 2008
global financial crisis, the principle of too big to fail is no more considered valid in this
world. Even the most prominent banks went bankrupt during the financial crisis of 2008
because of the US housing bubble. India, at this stage, needs to take active steps to ensure the
protection of its economy that is facing a recession in the present. Gandhiji’s idea of gram
Swaraj can be an Indian version to help grow the aggregate demand in the economy through
income generation. When the aggregate demand will rise, it will result in more money
generation, employment generation, and various other benefits that would benefit the country.
The fundamental reasons for the lack of required aggregate demand include deprivation of
rural masses of productive resources and the absence of sustainable growth in the economy
and problems in earning a daily livelihood by the citizens of the country. Gandhiji’s idea
about Gram Swaraj giving village self-reliance even at individual levels can result in
potential exploitation of small-scale industries and cottage industries. It will not only provide
employment to the rural people and peasants but also help in the decentralization of
production, making rural areas urban and improving the self-sufficiency of every village.

Present scenario

COVID-19 has created havoc across the world. India has the second-highest number of cases
in the world and pleasantly reporting around 40,000 cases daily. Cities such as Mumbai,
Delhi, and Calcutta which are large employment centers are struggling to contain the spread
of the deadly disease. The problem has increased for the people who live in slums and rural
areas. It is even more difficult for them to face such an uncertain future. Maybe the brand-
new problem does not need a brand-new solution. The father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi
had suggested that I am Swaraj which means self-rule of each village. In this scenario, it is
necessary for every village and city to not be dependent on other cities and villages for
essential and vital goods and produce all the vital goods by themselves. This will help to
reduce the spreading of the disease in the country. Therefore, in the present scenario, it is
really important that government implements Gram Swaraj in the country.

Local self-government

Origin

Since the year 1992, local governments in India take place in two very distant forms. The
74th amendment to the Constitution of the country covers urban localities which have Nagar
Palika but they get their powers from individual state governments while the Panchayati Raj
system formalizes the powers of the rural localities as per the 73rd amendment to the
Constitution of India. The Panchayati Raj should be seen to get the history of traditional local
government in India and South Asia.

As of 2017, India has 4657 urban, 2,62,771 rural and 2,67,428 local government bodies. Out
of all the rural local governments, 6672 are Panchayat Samitis at the block level and 632
hours Zilla Parishad at the district level. Also, 2,55,466 are gram panchayats at the village
level. The Panchayati Raj system in India is a three-tire system that has elected bodies at
three levels which include a village, taluka, and district. The modern system of this is based
on the traditional system which includes the Panchayati Raj also called Panchayat
governance. It was as per the vision of Mahatma Gandhi and it was the work of various
committees to harmonize the Indian governmental administration which was highly
centralized with a degree of local autonomy. The main purpose of it was to create large-scale
participation and involvement in local government by the people of the country and more
successful execution of rural developmental programs. As of 2015, Even though there was an
intention to have gram Panchayat for every village or group of villages for self-dependency
of every village, a tehsil level council, and a Zilla panchayat at the district level, the
implementation in India has not been completed.

Rural local governments (or panchayat raj institutions):

 Zilla panchayat
 Mandal or taluka panchayats
 Gram panchayats

A committee which was led by Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, in 1957 studied
the Community Development Projects and the National Extension Service and evaluated the
extent to which the movement had been successful in making use of local initiatives and in
making the institutions secure continuity in the process of refining economic and social
environment and surroundings in rural areas.
The committee was of the opinion that the developments would only be of use and survive
when the Committee led by Balwant Rai Mehta was involved in the planning, decision
making, and implementation of the process. As per the committee, the suggestions were as
follows:

1. And the prompt and timely foundation of elected local bodies and devolution to
them of essential resources, powers, and authority.
2. Since the area of jurisdiction of the local body should neither be very large nor
very small, That the basic unit of democratic decentralization was at the block
level.
3. Search bodies must not mannered by excessive command by the government
agencies or by the government.
4. The body must be constituted for the period of five years by-elections that are not
direct, from the village panchayats.
5. Its purpose must include the development of agriculture in all aspects and should
promote the local industries of the country and others,
6. Services such as drinking water, road building, various essential other services.

The PRI structure could not establish democratic momentum in the country and it did not
pass to cater to the requirements of the rural development.

Later, as per 73rd the Constitutional amendment act, which was passed by the government of
Narasimhan Rao, which came into being on April 24, 1993, was to convey the constitutional
sanction to set up democracy at the grassroots level as it was established at the national level
and state-level of the country. The main characteristics of the act are as follows:
1. The village assembly which is also called the gram Sabha as a deliberative body
to decentralized governance has been forecasted as the foundation of the
Panchayati Raj system the Indian amendment empowered the gram Sabhas to
manage social audits as well as their functions.
2. There was a consistent three-tire structure of panchayats and village add block
and district levels.
3. There was a requirement to encourage the bottom of planning, the district
planning committee which is also called as DPC well-established in every district
according to the constitutional status.
4. Not less than one-third of the total membership seats in addition to the office of
chairpersons of each tire needed to be preserved for women.

Development Benefits

All the acts of municipal nature in the country of India give the provisions for powers,
responsibilities, and functions which are to be performed by the municipal government.
These have been split into two categories which involve obligatory functions and
discretionary functions.

Obligatory functions:
1. Providing and giving affordable and fresh and on contaminated water
2. Building and establishment of public streets
3. Proper maintenance of public streets including watering and lighting. The public
streets should be correctly lighted.
4. Cleaning of public streets, sewers and other places.
5. Maintenance of public hospitals
6. Maintenance and formation of schools for the purpose of education of small kids.
7. Registration of data involving deaths and births of people.
8. Conservation and maintenance of law and public order

Discretionary functions:

1. Conducting various surveys.


2. Providing basic necessities such as housing for people with low income.
3. Public buildings
4. Providing with transport facilities with the help of municipality.
5. Encouragement and furtherance of welfare of employees of municipality.
6. Sewing plants and trees and maintenance of public areas such as roads.
7. Establishing and maintenance of public parks, rest houses and other amenties
such as rescue homes for woman

New panchayati Raj system after Independence

The new panchayati raj system aims to decentralize governance at the grassroots level and to
empower rural men and women. Referring to the activities of Panchayat Gandhi, emphasizing
the administration of justice, education, rural environment and the development of the poor. It
is important to educate the leaders and leaders of the panchayet raj laws and the expectations
of the people, especially in the grass root level, the foundation for democracy is well
equipped. The credit goes to Rajiv Gandhi to revive this dense core democratic institution,
whichstarted 73rd Amendment in the Indian Constitution, which makes Panchayat elections
compulsory, and in particular recognizes rural society as a fundamental institution of the new
Panchayati Raj system. In 1959, when the Panchayati Raj was being introduced in the
country, the then Prime Minister Nehru said that it was the country's greatest revolution and
till 1964 the system was good.Three-stage Panchayeti Raj system has been introduced to
ensure the participation of people in the democratic decentralization at the grassroots level to
implement dream of the dream of the dream of rural Swaraj. On 25th October 2000 in
Nagaur, Rajasthan, the first Panchayat Raj was established to the then Prime Minister Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru. The Panchayats of the 73rd Amendment 2001 have got constitutional
status of third party of Indian political system including the panchayat, block panchayat and
the district panchayat. In the Article 40 of the Constitution, their panchayats have been
organized so that they can work like a separate government unit. The new system has been
given a constitutional status and by which it has become a third government in the Indian
political system. This is a three-level structural system, namely, zilla panchayat,middle
panchayat and gram panchayat. The new system has been acquired with the power of taking
decision on twenty –nine subjects in the 11th schedule. According to the new law, intensive
vulnerabilities in the past panchayet raj system have been removed in respect of money by
this provision. Uninterrupted rehabilitation has been used for the welfare of society.
Likewise, all the attention to the reservation for SC/ST is to draw attention. Seat Storage
SC/ST Population Proposal 73rd Amendment has always been reserved for one-third of the
panchayat's women. After this, the Constitutional amendment was confirmed in 2010 that the
increase in seats from 33 percent to 50 percent for women among panchayats and the total
seats of voters will be reserved for women through direct election of each panchayat. An
organization consisting of the Panchayat voters in the Gram Sabha in the Indian Constitution,
takes necessary measures to take required action, for which a village panchayat can account
for its steps and inertia. There is also a forum for village level planning in rural and social
auditoffice. But in practice this body is losing its significance in most cases. At present, these
bodies are considered as the primary platform for political and political reasons, because the
more influential parties have reduced the pace of reforms in the rural areas.
Present scenario

As of now, there are about 30 lakhs representatives which are elected at various levels of the
Panchayat, of which about 13,00,00 are women. More than 2.4 lakh gram panchayats are
represented by these members. About 6000 intermediate-level tires and greater than 500
district panchayats. More than 96% of India’s greater than 5.8,00,00 villages and 99.6% of
the rural population are covered by panchayats. The Indian constitution invasions panchayats
as institutions of self-governance.

However, due thought and consideration are given to the federal structure of India’s polity,
and most of the powers of financial nature and authorities to be endowed on panchayats have
been left at through the judgment of concerned state legislatures. As a consequence of it, the
functions and powers vested in PRIs vary from state to state. These provisions merge
representative and straight democracy into synergy and are anticipated to have an outcome in
an extension and deepening of democracy in the country of India.

Conclusion
The country’s father, Mahatma Gandhi, was considered as a great lawyer in the Indian
Panchayat State. He wanted to restore the village life through the panchayat organization.
According to him, the village is the main part of a nation. According to him, the villages of
India are true India. In his own words, “If the village is destroyed, India will also be
destroyed, it will not be India, and its own mission will be lost in the world.” For Gandhi, the
real significance of Swaraj was the opportunity to attract rural development of India
according to its own tradition and demand.

Gram Swaraj as suggested by Gandhiji is a very outgoing concept that can help the village
call group of villages to be self-reliant and self-sufficient which will also reduce the
transportation costs and which would provide employment to villagers and rural people. It
will help to increase equality in the country. It will also help in the equal development of all
the cities and villages in the country. This step will help to curb unequal developments
because generally, developed cities become more and more developed the time and
underdeveloped cities remain underdeveloped for a long period of time.

Jawaharlal Nehru and most other Congress leaders were not fascinated or interested or
inspired by the ideas of Gandhiji. Gandhiji wanted a broad and complete transformation of
Indian society and polity for the purpose of true independence. But as per Nehru, this meant
no political freedom for India from the country of Britain. Nehru was considered the political
successor of Gandhi Ji, but in actuality, he was an orthodox democratic socialist. Nehru did
want to make India a modern nation having large scale and heavy industries. He did want to
make India an industrialized and democratic socialist nation-state. He was a believer in large-
scale industries to increase the wealth of the nation. He believed that only this would make
India modern. He was not in favor of giving the villages individual powers and self-reliance.
He did not believe in the fact that ‘small is beautiful. He did not believe in clusters of
villages. He disagreed with Gandhiji on this concept of Gram Swaraj and he never solemnly
think about making this concept a truth. He did agree with some elements of Gandhiji’s gram
Swaraj program which included scrapping off and the abolition of untouchability. But he
never agreed with the concept of Gram Swaraj.

This was the reason that Gram Swaraj was not included in the Constitution of the country.
There was a philosophical gulf between Gandhiji and virtually all the top political leaders at
the time of Independence. Gandhi ji wanted equality, and Nehru did not like it. Gandhiji did
not want India to become a pyramid with lakhs of villagers at the bottom supporting the rich
at the top. However, Nehru was comfortable with his position at the top, including all the
other political leaders.

To attain the constitutional status, panchayats have travelled from an institution within the
culture of the country for the purpose of local self-government.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_in_India
2. https://gandhiserve.org/e/information/questions_and_answers/faq7/faq7.htm
3. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341462764_Significance_of_Gram-
Swaraj_in_Neoliberal_India_Re-inventing_Gandhi
%27s_concept_of_Economic_Decentralization
4. https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/covid-91-we-need-to-restore-the-idea-
of-village-swaraj/story-Pfk7t2PVbj9oU3LXfLzmOK.html

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