Politics in Maharashtra represented diverse social groups since late nineteenth century. The first attempt to organize non-Brahman casts of the région was made in 1873 by Mahatma Phule who belonged to a backward caste of gardeners. His ideas were revived in 1920s in the form of a political party when non-brahmans were seeking entry into reformed legislative councils. Dr. Bahasaheb Ambedkar initiated the process of mobilizing scheduled castes around the same time. The challenge posed by these two caste groups to the brahman dominated Congress eventually changed its social character and made political process in the region socially more representative.
The Samyukta Maharashtra movement (a movement for linguistic state of Marathi speaking population) brought various social forces and their parties into politices of the region. One of the basic questions Y. B. Chavan as a Chief Minister (1956-1962) of the bi-lingual state (Marathi and Gujarathi) and later that of Maharashtra had to tackle was to accommodate politically aware sections while maintaining the ascendancy of the Marathas. The Marathas is a typical example of a dominant caste having numberical advantage of control over agricultural wealth as well as structures of power. Chavan believed in ‘Politics of Aggregation’ (Berjeche Rajkaran) which meant bringing together multiple castes and communities under the leadership of the rich Maratha peasantry. It was a pluralist strategy of power whereby various social sections were co-opted in the network which finally stabilized and cemented the authority of the high class Marathas. Chavan claimed that his regime was a rule of the ‘bahugan’ which litrally meant rule by those who are in majority i.e., the Marathas, the backward castes and the scheduled castes (SC). He expected judiciousness and tolerance from the Maratha elites towards other interests so long as they did not question the Maratha hegemony. He thought that the Marathas must create a sense of partnership and of involvement towards scheduled castes. They must work towards the building of homogeneious rural social life.’ These ideas of Chavan influenced the political process in the State not only at the regional level but also at the local level. The politics of aggregation had percolated down to the level of village panchayats (councils).
The Bombay village panchayats Act of 1958 reflected Chavan’s outlook. The act made provision for reservation of seats for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (ST) on the village panchayat. The number of reserved seats was determined by the collector of respective district. A provision for two reserved seats for women was also made by the act. Panchayats in Maharashtra even today are government by this Act and exist independently of the Zilla Parishads. However, they function within the framework of Zilla Parishads, and Panchayat Samitis created by the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samits Act of 1961 which was based on the recommendations of the Committee (V.P. Naik Committee) on democratic decentralization appointed by Maharashtra Government in 1960.
Inamdar in his survey conducted in 1960-62 of four village panchayats in Pune district found that in each panchyat one member came from scheduled tribe, since that village had scheduled tribe population. In three panchayats two members in each belonged to the other backward caste even though there was no reservation for that category in the 1958 Act. In two panchayats there were women members.
As noted above the 1958 Act had made provision for two women _ members in each village panchayat. Women’s participation in public affairs has a long history in Maharashtra. Rural women had taken active part in the passive resistance movement against the hydro-electric project in early twenties in pune district.2 The committee on the status of women in India recommended the formation of women's panchayatt, at the village level in 1974, but Nimboot a village in Pune district had successfully implemented this idea, as early as 1962. In this village women candidates won the panchayat elections against the men candidates and it must be noted that out of 13 members 6 were Marathas, 3 malis (Gardner-OBC) 3 were dhangars (Shepherd-OBC) and one belonged to S. C. Category. The all women panchayat of Nimboot- remained in power for a full term and did a good job with the co- operation of men-folk.
It was Shetkari Sanghathana (peasant organization) which took the lead in mobilizing peasant women in late eighties. At its session held in 1986 the sanghatana passed a resolution to have all women panels, for the panchayat elections. In 1987 the Sanghanta supported Samagra Mahila Aghadi (Greater Women Front) and proposed all women panels for the Zilla Parishad elections.° Unfortunately, elections were postponed. The village panchayat elections however were held in 1989. The women basically belonging to the Sanghatana contested these elections in the form of all women panels, and captured power in eight villages. In addition to these 8, at three other places such panels came to power in 1989.
Maharashtra (1990) was among the first few states-others being Karnataka, West Bengal and Kerala-to acept the recommendations of the National Perspective Plane for Women : 1999-2000 to weverve 30 percent seats for women in the local government bodies in urban and rural areas. And then cme the 73” Costitution Amendment of 1992.
The 73” Amendment provides for reservation of seats for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in proportion to their population. Out of these 33% seats for women. The state government is supposed to make provision of similar reservation of the offices of chairpersons in panchayats at the village and other levels for women, SC, ST and ’ backward classes of citizens.
In this paper I present findings of the survey of eight village panchayats with reference to their social composition before and after the implementation of 73% amendment in Maharashtra. The villages I have chosen r from two districts-Aurangabad and Latur of the Marathwada region which is economically backward compared to other regions of the state. The proportion of rural population in this region is higher by about 8 per cent than the state average. The most numerous caste in this part is that of the Marathas (around 45 percent of the population) a single largest landowning caste found in all the districts of Marathawada. The Marathas. apart from controlling around 65 percent of seats in legislative assembly election also hold 60 to 70 percent positions in Zilla Parishds, Panchayat Samitis and Co- operative bodies of the region.’ Due to its contiguity with Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Latur district has some villages that have large population of castes from these states (Lingayat and Reddy). While selecting these two districts, two tehsils from each district and two villages from each Tehsil a care is taken that one coines from the least irrigated tract and another from the most irrigated.
The findings of the survey of eight village panchayats are presented in the form of 16 tables. Two tables are devoted to each village, the first of which gives the distribution of panchayat members from 1960- 1992, according to their caste, clan and the land they own. In order to know the changes which have taken place due to the seventy third amendment the second table of each village gives distribution of Panchayat members elected after the amendment came into being with reference to their caste clan and gender. The two tables of each village thus give a comparative picture of social composition of that panchayat of preamendment and post amendment period.
A Close and cardful reading of these tables, which come at the end of the paper, lead us to the following observations. These panchayats were composed of multiple castes and communities even though Marathas have had their hold over these bodies. The land owing castes of the backward category used to send their representatives to the panchayats. Land ownership was one of the deciding factors for entry into the panchayats. Khutegaon Panchayat was basically controlled by Reddis because they were the main land owing community of the villages. Minority community lime Muslims also cold find a place of panchayats due to their sizeable population but also due to their control over land. (Bharadi and Mangrool). Village politics was dominated by few clans of the land owning caste groups. Scheduled caste candidates who could go to the panchayats owned some land and belonged to the land owing clans, such as Dusing in Nevargaon or Satpute in Karajgaon.
The two office holders Sarpanch and Deputy Sarpanch-who play crucial role in the panchayat-came from along with Marathas, scheduled castes, other backward casttes, Lingayats or Reddis and also from Muslims in these villages during the period 1960 to 1992. If we take a count of non-Maratha Sarpanch in these villages the figure comes to 19. There was not a single instance of scheduled caste member holding that position. However, women becoming Sarpanch was not that uncommon. Sukani had elected a Maratha woman to that post in 1988, while Wahegaon had elected scheduled caste owman member for the post of deputy Sarpanch in 1983. It was easier for candidates belonging to the land-owining castes and. communities to secure the post of Sarpanch or deputy Sarpanch. Since Scheduled castes did not own sizeable land they could not aspire for the post and then there was always a traditional hurdle of untouchability standing in their way. In what manner and to what extent the seventy third amendment has changed this picture? The second table of each of the eight villages surveyed reveal that for certain maarginal sections the opportunities to enter the Panchayat bodies have increased thereby making Panchayat more representative than those in the earlier era. The candidates from other backward castes who used to be elected from open seats are now mostly being elected from the resevered seats for their caste category. The scheduled caste and tribe candidates could find place on earlier Panchayat bodies because of reservation but now their proportions has - increased. Only two women used to be there in the Panchayat of pre- seventy third amendment days. Their number has certainly increased at least by one to make their proportion to 33 percent. But the most significant development which has taken place due to the amendment is with regard to positions of Sarpanch. In Maharashtra 33 per cent such positions are reserved by method of rotation for the women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backeard class of citizens which basically include other backward castes and communities. According to the calculation of the State Election Commission, ‘there are 27571 Village Panchyats in the 31 districts of the state and therefore in all 223750 seats. Out of these 25152 seats are reserved for Scheduled castes. The total of 8281 of these are reserved for Women belonging the Scheduled castes. The total number of reserved seats for scheduled tribes comes to 30730 out ot which 9857 are reserved for women of this category. For backward class of citizens 53831 seats are reserved and out of those 2340 are reserved for women of this calls. In the category of general seats there are 113997 seats and 30074 of those seats are reserved for women. If all seats reserved for women from all categories are put together the figure comes to 70562. These figures which present the overall scenario of the state speak for themselves. The way reservation policy has been implemented at the local government level is beyond anybody’s imagination. The real gainers, the above figures show are no doubt women-women belonging to all categories.
Can this change be considered as a tranformative phenomenon so for as rural power structure is concerned? What is the larger context of the new Panchayat Raj introduced by the Seventy Third Amendment? How do we historically place this amendment? Let me formulate plausible answers to these questions. Question of Legitimacy The dominant section of Indian society never considered parliamentary democracy sufficient enough to generate a belief in the legitimacy of Indian state and along with distrubuting power between the centre and constituent regional units also made constitutional provision for the decentralization ‘of power even though only as one of the directive princiles of the state policy. While many important directive principles remained on paper the Article 40 concerning organisaing Panchayat system was taken up on the agenda by Nehru’s government in 1957 and by 1959-60 the Panchayat Raj was established in many constituent states.
It was a question not only of creating legitimacy in the eyes of people but also in the eyes of local elites. The social character of the dominant classes in fact necessitate some kind of panchyati raj. There was a perceived and actual distinction between the dominant classes at national level and those at the regional and local level in terms of economic class and castes. To seek the support of the rich peasantry castes it was felt necessary to expand the network of power to take them into it and at the same time making that local power more decorative than real. The local elites coming from the rich peasantry castes were taken up at a point from where they would be able to aspire to move towards higher level. In one sense it was seen as an apprenticeship whereby the best among them could be picked up at an appropriate time.
If the Congress bosses at the centre worked as arbitrators for the regional elites, regional elites in turn became arbitrators for the local elites. If Nehru wanted the support of the regional elites, the regional elites sought the following at the local level. The Panchayat raj, the term coined by Nehru, thus worked as an ideology which conferred legitimacy on the liberal democratic structures y creating political linkages between the regional and local administrative units.
This model of political linkages and notional power at the local tier in effect strengthened the regional bosses so much so that they started challenging the high command at Delhi. With Indira Gandhi's coming to power this pyramid was shaken for the first time. Indira populism had no use for Panchayat structures or layers of power. In her strategy the poor and minorities were the target groups and therefore had little significance for the rich peasantry caste elites. During her regime we see that many developmental schemes for the benefit of the: rural population were organised without giving any important role to the local political elites. Centralisation of power within the party and within the government became the dominant theme in her era. The local elites became subservient because their bosses at the regional level themselves wer relegated to background. No wonder the Panchayat Raj became less effective and probably lost even the notional power.
It was only during the Janta phase that the panchayati raj institutions again figured in the political discourse. The Janta experiment was effected mainly by the backward and peasantry caste elites at the regional and local level and therefore was more concerned with the decentralisation theme. Askok Mehta committee’s report on Panchayati Raj (1978) reflected this social and political character of the J anta party. The pro-decentralization and pro-peasantry caste janta politics was juxtaposed with pro-centralization and pro-centralization and populist regime of Indira. But the Janta experiment failed giving another term for Indira’s revived populism in 1980. Rajeev Gandhi in late 80’s brought the panchayat raj again on agenda. His strategy of technological revolution with centralism had no place for regional power, however, wanted a direct access to village elies. Rajeev’s technological revolution could take his image to the villages through television while his 64" (constitutional) Amendment Bill of 1989 aimed to reach directly to the panchayats bypassing the regional elites. It would have been an overhead shoot. But that amendment did not come though.
And then came the 73% Amendment not only giving constitutional status to be panchayat raj institutions but also making them politically and financially self-reliant and autonomous. I need not dwell upon the provisions of the Amendment since they are already discussed elsewhere in this book, However what I intend to do here 1s to contextualise. the 73% Amendment so that we could grasp the purport of its provisions. By doing so we whould be able to know why the recommendations of various commissions regarding devolution of power, autonomy and financial viability of self sufficiency were kept aside from early 1960's to early 1990’s for almost thirty years and suddenly in 1992-3 they are considered worth implementing and that why this move secured consensual support. We would also come to know why power is being transferred to the panchayats when there has not been any major agitation demanding such a transfer.
Globalisation Package
The seventy-third amendment is a logical corollary of the globalisation package. It all began in mid-eighties when Rajeev said goodby to socialism. He gave clear indication that the Indian Capital no more need the state support and that the privatisation and efficiency go together. This orientation was reflected in his attempt to make panchayats powerful while criticizing the interventionist state. But the genunie change in the ecomomic policy took place in Manmohan Singh’s finance ministership between 1991 to 1935. Since then the successive governments have followed more or less the same policy and have preferred to go ahead on the path of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. The neo-liberal doctrine has come to play dominant role in India. It believes in curbing state intervention, reducing welfare, restoring state run enterprise to private sector, restricting power of trade unions, restoring competitive individualism, downsizing of bureaucracy and curtailing public expenditure. In nutshell the neo-liberal doctrine believes in withdrawal of state from economic and social sector. The devolution of power implied in the seventy third amendment facilitates the process of this withdrawal. The neo-liberal sate in India wants to get rid of many responsibilities and functions. In this endeavours it finds that there are only two facilitators-the panchayat raj institutions and the non-governmental organisations. In this process of self-nullification the statee does not abrogate itself as a repressive apparatus. In fact the neo-liberal state which functions as manager to globalisation uses its repressive apparatus as and when the marginalised sections come out on streets to challenge its withdrawal from the economic and social sectors. The twenty nine items which are being brough under the purview of the panchayat raj institutions include subjects such as agriculture, smali scale industries, infra-structure, education, health and social welafare. It clearly indicates that the central and state governments no more want to take any major responsibility with regard to these items and that the Panchayats are xpected to bear the burden and that too when neo-liberal doctrine which look down upon state intervention and bureaucracy dominates the political scene. Thus devolution of power implied in the seventy-third Amendment basically aims at factilitating the withdrawal of state.
Radical Potential
But this very amendment contains radical potential which might produce good results in the long run. The new panchayats are oing . bring politics down to the villages. The villagers if collectively decide might use the instruments created by the amendment to acquired greater control over local resources. They eventually might stand-up against the governmental bodies at the higher level, In the western Indian state of Maharashtra the Maharashtra Industrial Development Act has given power to the state government to acquire land for the purpose of stor industrial projects. This Act is being used to grab land from the vi “ert for the benefit of MNCs. While developing industrial estates t ° government not only acquires huge tracts of land but also obtains conte over resources such as wate. The new panchayats and the grams nes might unitedly oppose such ecroachment on their resources an migh irisist that their resources should be use for their benefit.
However, the dispartities and inequalities Inherent in the class and caste based village societies hamper any possibility of formation community at the village level. The unsean threat and conceals repression by the ruling clans of the dominant castes makes it simply impossible for the masses to enter into the collective decision min ng in the gram-sabhas. In many villages the leaders coming from the ruli s clans are seen as benefactors by the villagers. In reality these sot : benefactors control the lives of the villagers who are under the spell o the idea that the leader is doing something great for the village as & whole. What probably is not realised is that his definition of village excludes the poor and downtrodden sections. It has been pointed out that the ‘gavki’ a village collective constituted by upper castes fie men functions along side the village panchayat in many villages. nse ‘gavkis’ control the real power in the villages especially where the Sarpanch is a women or belongs to a scheduled caste. New reservation policy should have prompted political parties to recruit more women and OBC to their organization instead parties prepared a panel o candidates of all categories to constest elections of the panchayat whereby the real purpose of reservation could be defeated.
Nevertheless taking politics to the villages, not the usual politics of periodical elections, of assemblies and parliamemnt but the politics of the empowered gramsabhas might in course of time bring to surface the contradictions in the village society. The poorer and the downtrodden groups might thereby become conscious of their right over the local resources, When the state is refusing to do anything for them in the neo-liberal era they, encouraged by their majorities in the gram-sabhas, might ask for their share in the resources which are at the disposal of the panchayats. Thus instead of joining struggles against abstract entity named state they might prefer to fight democratic battles against the dominant sections in their own village. Maharashtra After having reviewed the purport of the seventy third amendment and after locating its radical potential let me go back to the state of Maharashtra. It is a state which was among the very first to welcome and follow the new economic policy at the regional level. Mumbai, the State capital is being projecte as the main corridor of globalisation. Out of total industrial output of the country, around 25 per cent comes from Maharashtra alone. The per capita value added due to the industries is Rs. 870/- in the state while the Indian average is only Rs. 308. With the new economic policy about 1535 industrial projects having an investment worth Rs. 196708 crores are being set up in the state. Maharashtra and Gujarat account for 63 per cent of the total NRI investment in India. Maharashtra tops in the the list of ten states where foreign direct investment approved in highest among all the states." The proportion of urbanisation in the state is around 40 per cent whereas the Indian average is 26 percent. On the other hand the contribution of the agriculture sector to the state income has declined from 33 percent in 1950’s to 20 per cent in mid-nineties. Maharashtra tands 9“ in the agriculture productivity in the country and proportion of irrigation as low as 15 per cent. The co-operatives which once occupied prime position in the rural economy are in total disarray today. This transformation in the economy has affected the rural sector so much so that a kind of shift of power is taking place in the polity of the state from rural to the urban sector.'’ Empowering of panchayat raj institutions impled in the seventy third amendment therefore has a miter significance because these institutions belong to the rural sector " ea is losing its importance in the economy and hence in the polity 0 state.
So far as the Government of Maharashtra 1s concerned the new provisions about the panchayati raj have come up at an opportune moment. The government has almost reached to a stage of bankrupey and want to jettison as many responsibilities and functions as poss e. The state government, therefore has very conveniently transferred many of the subjects to the panchayati raj in recent months.
* An earlier version of this paper was presented at the International seminar on Local Governance in India and China held in Kolkata on 4-6 January 2003.
References
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