The Public Life of a ‘Progressive’ Law: PESA and Gaon Ganarajya (Village Republic)

Kamal Nayan Choubey

Studies in Indian Politics, 2015, vol. 3, issue 2, 247-259

Abstract: This article explores the public life of a law enacted in the post-liberalization era for the tribal-dominated areas (or Scheduled Areas [SAs] of the Indian Constitution) of India. This law, the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) (PESA) Act, 1996 has been termed by many grassroots tribal organizations as ‘progressive’ and ‘historic’, because it gives some crucial rights to the gram sabha of SAs. Apart from giving a contextual understanding of the enactment of the law and its provisions, this article evaluates the general pattern of the experiences of its implementation, and in this context, focuses in particular on the case study of Rajasthan. It aims to underline the basic argument that though the implementation of this law has been highly dismal, it has got a public life for itself and has created enormous awareness among the tribals for their rights, which has led to the emergence of ‘legalism from below’ and deeper democratization in these areas.

Keywords: PESA; gram sabha; Gaon Ganarajya; Shilalekh; marginal society; tribal communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indpol:v:3:y:2015:i:2:p:247-259

DOI: 10.1177/2321023015601745

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