Localizing Governance in India by Bidyut Chakrabarty

Author:Bidyut Chakrabarty [Chakrabarty, Bidyut]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Political Science, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781315528960
Google: 7CklDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 34410467
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Part III

Participatory and civic engagement

Empirical roots in India

The evolution of participatory governance and civic engagement in India does not seem to be a completely unfamiliar terrain given the available rich corpus of literature. Despite being drawn on what is already known, this Part has however a distinct conceptual-cum-methodological aim which is to be articulated by reference to how localizing governance had evolved and was articulated in India as a guiding principle both during colonialism and in independent India. It is also true that localizing governance did not mean the same thing in two ideologically-contrasting socio-economic milieu: during colonialism, it was a safety valve or a mechanism to defuse anti-British sentiments while, in independent India, participatory democracy became an empowering device which allowed the demos to exercise their authority not only during the elections but also in their daily interaction with the government and their representatives. New vocabularies had thus emerged which created a definite space for citizens who were not merely recipients but instigators of change.

As will be shown in the following pages, the Constituent Assembly members were divided on whether the village republic was to be accepted as the basic unit of governance in contrast with the fundamental liberal insistence on the individual being its core. The debate between the Gandhians and their bête noire was a testimony to an interesting chapter of India’s constitutional democracy which, despite having clear colonial roots, defied well-established liberal postulates in its form and nature. This means that the Indian experiment of participatory democracy in a liberal mould is a powerful theoretical intervention to reconceptualize liberalism as a spatial mode of reasoning as well. The journey that began in the Constituent Assembly was completed in 1992 when the village swaraj was made integral to constitutional governance in India. Not only did the Seventy-Third Amendment Act constitutionalize Panchayati Raj governance, it was also a long step towards making inclusive governance a reality by guaranteeing the reservation of 33 per cent of the seats to women which radically altered the texture of governance in India.

Constitutional guarantee notwithstanding, the scene is, however, not rosy. It is true that the constitutional sanction empowered the demos, at least on paper, to a significant extent. This draws our attention to the fact that mere legislation is not adequate unless it is being complemented by prevalent socio-economic priorities. Here Gandhi was probably correct when he suggested that independent of a supportive mindset, social legislations made no impact whatsoever on human behaviour. Nonetheless, the record of Panchayati Raj governance in India also reveals that the mindset is being transformed, of course, but not to the extent it is expected. A thorough study of Panchayati Raj governance in Kerala and West Bengal and Bhagidari in Delhi confirms the argument that localizing governance and processes of democratization are complementary to each other.

Part III is thus useful in understanding participatory democracy both as a theoretical construct and as a structure of governance. By highlighting the importance of the historical context, the study also challenges

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