Abstract
The chapter chronicles the evolution of panchayats in India through three broad time phases: the pre-British Period, the British Period and the post-independence period. Usage of the word “panchayat” may be dated back to ancient India. The structural foundations of local self-government as understood in contemporary discourse, however, was laid down by the British in India during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The post-independence discourse on local self-government in India oscillates between two schools of thought: “Gram Swaraj” of M. K. Gandhi and the completely antipodal view of Dr B. R. Ambedkar on the inherent weaknesses of villages that would impede panchayats to emerge as institutions of self-government. The author briefly discusses constituent assembly debates and recounts the maturation of local self-government through various committees to its culmination in the present form through the Constitutional Amendment Acts in 1992.
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