G ROWTH OF L OCAL G OVERNMENT IN I NDIA Let us now discuss how local government has grown in India and what our Constitution says about it. It is believed that self-governing village communities existed in India from the earliest times in the form of ‘sabhas’ (village assemblies). In the course of time, these village bodies took the shape of Panchayats (an assembly of five persons) and these Panchayats resolved issues at the village level. Their role and functions kept on changing at different points of time.
In modern times, elected local government bodies were created after . Lord Rippon, who was the Viceroy of India at that time, took the initiative in creating these bodies. They were called the local boards. However, due to slow progress in this regard, the Indian National Congress urged the government to take necessary steps to make all local bodies more effective.
Following the Government of India Act , village panchayats were established in a number of provinces. This trend continued after the Government of India Act of . During India’s freedom movement, Mahatma Gandhi had strongly pleaded for decentralisation of economic and political power. He believed that strengthening village panchayats was a means of effective decentralisation.
All development initiatives must have local involvement in I don’t know about the past, but I suspect that a non-elected village panchayat would naturally be dominated by the village elders, the rich and men from upper strata.