Rural Politics in Post-Colonial India: Changes and Challenges

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Abstract

Lecture held at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg on 2nd December, 2008. In the context of post-colonial rural India there are essentially two phases in rural politics institutionalized through "panchayati raj institutions" (PRIs). The first phase began in the late 1950s following the implementation of the Balvantrao Mehta Committee recommendations which led to the birth of the first generation PRIs. The second phase began in 1993 when the Constitution was amended to strengthen the basis for PRIs. This amendment can be called a watershed in rural politics because it sought to democratized the whole political process in rural India, and conceived of the PRIs not only as instruments of rural development but also as institutions of self-government. The lecture explores whether PRIs have fostered a new brand of politics and good governance in rural India as conceived by the amendment of the Constitution by conducting case studies in one or two states as well as comparing the experience of neighbouring states that are carrying out similar experiments. Professor Prabhat Kumar Datta is DAAD professorial fellow at the South Asia Institute. He holds the Centenary Professor of Public Administration, Department of Political Science, Calcutta University and is also Honorary Adjunct Professor, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata.