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Gram Swarajya is not nostalgia — it is a governance model

Gandhi did not describe the village republic as a memory to preserve. He described it as a way to organise power. The 73rd Amendment is how we begin to build it.

10 July 20264 min read

5 posts

• Governance

  10 July 20264 min read

  Gram Swarajya is not nostalgia — it is a governance model

  Gandhi did not describe the village republic as a memory to preserve. He described it as a way to organise power. The 73rd Amendment is how we begin to build it.

  • Gram Swarajya
  • Panchayati Raj
  • Rural development
• Policy

  22 June 20264 min read

  The 73rd Amendment gave villages a constitution. Now they need capacity.

  A plain guide to what the 73rd Amendment actually established — the three tiers, the reserved seats, the Gram Sabha — and the one thing it could not legislate into existence.

  • Panchayati Raj
  • Constitution
  • 73rd Amendment
• Governance

  28 May 20264 min read

  Why the Gram Sabha is the most under-used institution in Indian democracy

  Every adult voter in a village is a standing member of a constitutional assembly with real powers. Most never use them. Here is what the Gram Sabha can do — and why it so often does not.

  • Gram Sabha
  • Panchayati Raj
  • Participation
• Policy

  5 May 20264 min read

  Money without machinery: the Panchayat finance problem

  Funds reaching a Gram Panchayat is only half the story. Without staff to plan and account for them, money arrives and stalls. A look at how Panchayat finance is meant to work — and where it breaks.

  • Finance Commission
  • Panchayati Raj
  • Transparency
• Field Notes

  12 April 20264 min read

  What actually changes a village: three lessons from the field

  After years of working with panchayats, the things that move a village are rarely the things that make headlines. Three lessons I keep coming back to.

  • Rural development
  • Leadership
  • Panchayati Raj