Alternate Democratic Institutions Panchayats of India: Away from the Western Ideas of Democracy

It is a fallacy to believe that democracy originated in Ancient Greece, it wasn’t truly democratic by todays’ standards, however it was something that philosophers and thinkers of the enlightenment could hark back upon to deliver us the modern concept of western democracy. Indeed, it is a western democracy only and not a true world democracy that it should be, it failed to consider the democratic traditions that have existed all across human civilizations past and present, Institutions that have existed through millennia and continue to do so. The thinkers of western Europe used the romantic ideas of Greek democracy and tried to create an alternative to the despotic monarchies that existed at that time in Europe, but all they managed to do was substitute heredity with elections, the power institutions of the government as they were during the reign of monarchs continue to remain bureaucratic and powerful.

This paper tries to examine the alternative institutional structure of Panchayats by looking at the cases of two Pani Panchayats, one Van Panchayat, one Kashtkari Panchayat and the Khap Panchayats of North West India; how they have evolved historically, and how and why are they socially embedded creating a natural basis for establishing direct democracy at the grassroots level. Upon the investigation of the above cases, it is found that not only do Panchayats divide and decentralise the exercise of power, but it also provides indigenous institutional legitimacy to such exercise. It enhances the participation of not just all, but more specifically the participation of the marginalised sections of the society (women and untouchables) in their local decision-making processes. The examination of the Khap Panchayats and their historical evolution also points to the fact that social institution of Panchayats is not perfect, and they require rationalised restructuring in order to achieve its goal of establishing truly democratic institution at the grassroots level. Finally concluding that a socially embedded democratic institution like the Panchayat in India that has evolved with the society itself is a more suitable democratic institution, which can form the basis of a truly responsible democratic government.