A village and its needs

The chapter opens with M.K. Gandhi: 'The real India lives in its villages.'

India is enormous and very varied. We have about 600,000 villages, 8,000 towns and over 4,000 cities. Our population has crossed 1.4 billion, and almost two-thirds of it lives in rural areas (villages). How do we govern ourselves in such a complex society?

Let us visit Lakshmanpur, a small village in the foothills of the Himalayas. It has 200 houses and about 700 people, most of them farmers. They grow crops on their land and keep cows or goats. Some have relatives in the armed forces, and a few young people have migrated (moved) to the city to look for jobs.

What does this village need? Perhaps water for the fields, repairs to the main road if heavy rain damages it, or looking after the village primary school. You could add electricity and a health centre too.

How will the villagers decide about such everyday matters? Where will they get the money and resources to meet those needs? What happens if there is a quarrel over land, or if some crops are stolen?

Many such questions come up in a village. Can people run to the State capital or the national capital for every one of them? Nobody would take a stolen cow or a broken village road to the Prime Minister! With six lakh villages, no capital far away could decide who repairs which road.