ABSTRACT
Local self-government or Panchayat Raj, as it is called in Indian parlance, is an important institution which, while it harks back to ancient times, has been re-invented and has emerged in a new avatar in modern times, taking into consideration relatively new concepts like gender and caste equality in its elaborate arrangement of reservation and rotation of seats to include women and the backward castes. It was based on the traditional notion of a democratic coming together of the elders of the village to solve the everyday problems of the villagers, such as conflicts between neighbours or even within the family. In Karnataka, it included the Holeya or the so-called ‘untouchable’ caste in its fold, pointing to the status which these groups enjoyed as integral members of the village community.
