गांव
1. Dharampal – collected writings – Panchayati Raj and India’s Polity
p10 – Political theory and practice naturally reflect this state of affairs, and political democracy is reduced to the counting of heads. It is further natural in these circumstances for political parties – built around competing power groups to be formed, leading to the establishment, not of govt by people, but of govt by party: in other words, by one or another power group.
p11 – avoid hackneyed phrases of political and economic decentralization, focus on Panchayati Raj
p14 – The greater the power of panchayats, better for the people … (Gandhiji)
Article 40 – The state shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self government.
Article 243B – पंचायतों का गठन – प्रत्येक राज्य में ग्राम, मध्यवर्ती और जिला स्तर पर इस भाग के उपबंधों के अनुसार पंचायतों का गठन किया जाएगा।
p21 - Deep state
The central problem of our times is whether this state is to own the people or the people are to own the state. Where the state belongs to the people, the state is a mere instrument subordinate to the people and it serves the people. It only takes away the liberty of the people to the extent that the people really desire. Where the state owns the people, the people are mere robots in a big machine pushed about here and there by the whims of an all powerful dictator or an all powerful party. p22– no Constitution can evoke the necessary sentiment unless it offers every citizen sufficient inspiration to defend it.
p102 - During the past eight decades of the Panchayat system in Madras, three detailed examinations of the whole system have led to fresh structures and total reorganisation of these bodies. Three major attempts in 1880, 1907 and 1946 are traceable during which abstract ideas or theories have been used to form the basis of these local institutions. In each of these three attempts, however, the institutions started with relative freedom and in course of time, were hedged in and restricted, ending in an impasse.
p108 – in 1920 rule for controlling the establishment of village libraries and reading rooms was also issued by the govt. Thus under the rule making authority, each activity of the panchayat came to be controlled by the govt.
The technical sanctioning powers of the bodies were first made over to their technical staff, but later staff was itself take out of the service of the local boards.