Class 7 Social Science Chapter 18: The State, the Government, and You

What a state is

A state, which is also a nation, is a political organisation, and the authority it has is to govern a defined territory, and the population living on it.

Four important parts belong to a state, and it is worth being able to list them.

The four parts

People come first: those citizens living in the country. Land next: a fixed area, a territory. Then government: a system for running the country. And sovereignty, which is full power over the making of laws and the taking of decisions with no outside control at all.

Why a permanent population

Without people there can be no state, which is the first thing. But the chapter asks a sharper question: why must the population be permanent?

Because visitors are tourists. They go, they look, they move on, and nothing is common or shared between them; they do not live together. Such a group develops a culture and society of its own, which identifies with that territory too. It is a permanent population: people who identify with a place and usually live there.

A geographically defined territory

A place with clear boundaries is what the phrase means, a geographical area.

Those boundaries need not be geographical features at all. Lines agreed upon by the neighbouring states, separating one from another, will do.

Sovereignty

Complete control over its own matters is what sovereignty gives a state, and the ability to make and implement laws according to its own needs.

No other state can interfere in its internal affairs, and no external body either. An essential feature of a state is what that makes sovereignty.

One word, two meanings

A warning about the word itself, because India uses it twice over.

In India, state can mean the Indian State. It can also mean our subnational units: the State of Kerala, or Maharashtra, or Tamil Nadu. Outside such cases the chapter writes state with a small letter, following current usage.

What a government is

A group of people that runs the country, or a system doing it. Leaders, ministers and officials are in it.

Three things they do. Laws they make. Laws they enforce. Disputes they resolve.

The school and the teachers

Here is the chapter's own way of holding the distinction, and it is worth memorising.

One part of the state is what the government is. Elections can change it, while the state stays the same. So The state you may think of as a school, and the government as its principal and its teachers. Teachers may come and go. The school remains.

Why the two words get mixed up

In real life people say that the state did this, or that the government decided that, as though the two were one thing.

That happens for a reason. On behalf of the state is how the government acts, and the face of the state we see every day, in action is the government.

Two reasons, stated plainly

The daily work of the state is what the government runs.

And the government is what we usually interact with, rather than the whole state. Different in meaning, then, and mixed up in practice.

Are the police part of the government?

You have seen police in daily life, and in the movies. The chapter asks the question directly.

Maintaining law and order within each state is what the police in India are responsible for. Part of the state government is what they are, and they work directly with local communities, in villages and towns and cities.

Agents of the state

Agents of the state is the phrase the chapter uses for them, and it comes with a power attached.

Force they can legally use, so that people may live in an environment safe and secure, free of crime and of violence. Few other parts of the government can say that.

What the police also do

Courts and prisons they work closely with, and the rest of the criminal justice system too.

Crime control is not the whole of it. Social change is something they contribute to, by promoting justice, and safety, and a quality of life that is better. Awareness programmes on road safety, on drug abuse and on the safety of women are part of the work.

And what they must not do

One sentence limits all of it, and it is the sentence to remember.

The rights guaranteed under the Constitution must be respected by the police, and protected by them. A power to use force, held by people who are themselves under the law: that is the arrangement.

Departments, and what they are

Make a list of the government departments whose names you have seen on boards near your home, or on the way to school.

Part of the government executive function is what those departments form. Those policies and laws the legislature has made are what they implement.

The three pillars

The judiciary, in its turn, makes sure those laws are followed.

Together the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are the three key pillars that government has. In daily life, though, our dealings are mostly with the various departments that belong to the executive.

Separate, or overlapping

One comparison is worth carrying out of this topic.

In some countries the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are separate. In others they may overlap. Which arrangement a country has is a real difference, not a detail of wording.

Forms of government, recalled

An earlier chapter surveyed the forms of government existing across the world, or having once existed: democracies and monarchies, theocracies, dictatorships and oligarchies.

Power to choose their leaders is what democracies give people, and that differs from governments where power stays inside one family or one group. Where there is a democracy like India, the wellbeing of everyone is what the government is expected to work for, and to protect our rights and our freedoms.

Scenario:

A geography club invents a holiday island. It has clear boundaries drawn on a map. Hotels stand along its shore, and thousands of visitors arrive each season, stay a fortnight and fly home. A company based in another country owns the hotels, sets the rules for the island, and collects the fees. No election is ever held there. The club declares that its island is a new state, since it has a defined territory and a system for running things. Their teacher asks them to check the definition.

Analysis:

An invented island with boundaries and visitors, declared to be a state.

Activity:

Find out which country has the shortest land boundary with India.

Title:

Audit the boards on your way to school

Safety:

Stay on the footpath and do not stop in traffic.

What You Notice:

Almost all will be executive, because departments implement the policies and laws the legislature makes. That is the chapter own point: in daily life our dealings are primarily with those various departments which form part of the executive.

A boundary can be a line agreed with a neighbour, not a river or a hill.

Police awareness programmes cover road safety and drug abuse.

In some countries the three organs overlap rather than stay separate.

People, land, government, sovereignty: four parts.

Teachers change; the school remains.

Two words in one Preamble

The Preamble to the Constitution is carried in your textbook. Look at it and notice something: democratic and republic are used together there, by the makers of the Constitution.

Why both, when the two words are so often used as if they meant the same thing? Political scientists discuss the distinction in detail. We can take it simply.

Nearly two centuries

British rule in India persisted for close to two hundred years.

Then Independence came, and India did not adopt the British parliamentary system blindly. Among the many discussions and debates while our Constitution was being made, one was about which type of parliamentary democracy India should have.

What the two countries share

Start with what is the same, because it is a good deal.

Representatives are elected by the people in India and in the UK both. And in both, the government is accountable to parliament.

Where they differ

Now the difference, and it is about one office only.

A monarch, meaning a king or a queen, has been the British head of state for centuries. The makers of our Constitution decided otherwise: The president would be India head of state, and would be elected.

Elected, but how

Not directly by the people, which is worth being exact about.

By a group of elected representatives is how the president is chosen. The details of that process come in Grade 8. What matters here is the principle: the office is filled by election and not by birth.

Democracy

Rule by the people is the core idea. The word is Greek: demos means people and kratos means rule.

Power to choose their government is what people have in a democracy, and they exercise it through elections that are free and fair.

Republic

Here the test is narrower, and it is about the highest office.

Elected, and not hereditary, is what the head of state is in a republic. Rather than a king or a queen who inherits the power, a republic has a head of state the people choose, directly or indirectly.

One more thing a republic has

The definition does not stop at elections, and this second part is easy to forget.

Limitations are set on the power of rulers in a republic, through a constitution or through laws. An elected head of state with unlimited power would not satisfy the definition.

Both at once

A country can be a democracy and a republic together, and India is one. So is the U.S.A.

Not every democracy is a republic, though. The UK is a democracy. So are Canada and Sweden. None of the three is a republic, because each of them has a monarch.

Why that comparison matters

Hold the UK case in mind, because it is the one that makes the distinction real.

People there elect representatives, and the government answers to parliament, which is democracy. The head of state inherits the office, which is why the country is not a republic. Two separate tests, and a country can pass one without passing the other.

India as a democratic republic

Both words apply here, and the Constitution says so in its Preamble.

India is a democratic republic. Fundamental rights are guaranteed to all its citizens by its constitution. Provisions of that constitution, and the law together ensure something important: that the fundamental rights of no citizen are violated by rule of a representative majority.

Washington, in 1782

One story from another republic makes the point better than a definition can. Ending at the time was the American War of Independence against Britain, and General George Washington was leading the American army. An officer of his wrote to him with a suggestion: that he should take the crown of America.

What he answered

Firmly he refused. Such a plan would harm the country, he said.

His belief was only in a government which the people ran, under a constitution. Notice the two halves of that: by the people, and under a constitution, which are exactly democracy and republic together.

Why the date matters

A commitment, and a deep one, to a republican form of government is what Washington showed by refusing, and the year was 1782.

The first President of the United States is what he was chosen as, in 1789, seven years later. So the refusal came before the office, which is what makes it convincing rather than convenient.

What the distinction is for

Pull the topic together now. Why should a child be made to hold two words apart that most adults use interchangeably?

Because they answer different questions. Who chooses the government, which is democracy. Who holds the highest office, and whether that office can be inherited, which is republic. A country may answer the first well and the second badly.

Reading the Preamble again

Go back to the Preamble with that in hand.

Democratic tells you where the power comes from: the people. Republic tells you that nobody at the top holds office by birth, and that the Constitution limits what any ruler may do. Two words, two guarantees, and the makers of the Constitution wanted both on the record.

Scenario:

A quiz asks a class to sort four countries. The first elects its parliament, and its head of state is a queen who inherited the office. The second elects its parliament and elects its president too. The third holds no elections at all, and its ruler inherited power. The fourth elects a president, but that president can set aside any law and is bound by nothing. Most of the class puts the first and second together as republics, and the third and fourth together as not democracies.

Analysis:

Four countries, two tests, and a class that applies only one of them.

Activity:

Find out which countries in our neighbourhood are republics.

Title:

Build the two-test table

Safety:

No hazards here.

What You Notice:

India ticks all three. The UK, Canada and Sweden tick the first and the third but not the second, which is why they are democracies and not republics. Both the second and the third column are needed for a republic, since limits on rulers are part of the definition.

Washington refused the crown in 1782 and was elected President in 1789.

Canada and Sweden are democracies and not republics.

India president is elected by representatives, not by voters directly.

Demos is people, kratos is rule.

Democracy asks who chooses; republic asks who is at the top.

A democratic republic, and what it guarantees

India is a democratic republic, and fundamental rights are guaranteed to all its citizens by its constitution.

One sentence carries the whole of this topic. Provisions of that constitution, and the law beside them, ensure this: that the fundamental rights of no citizen are violated by rule of a representative majority.

Land that cannot be bought

Take a case where the protection is visible. Certain geographical areas belong to tribal communities.

Protected by law for their use is what those lands are. Private companies cannot buy or lease them, and nor can other individuals, unless the local community permits it, and the due legal process is followed.

The Dongria Kondh

One example the chapter gives, in Odisha.

In those hills the tribe holds sacred, mining was not allowed, because the destruction of land they revered was something the community strongly opposed. Here the law protected what the tribals had a right to, namely those hills they hold sacred.

Why protection of rights matters

Now the small example, which teaches more than the large one.

A Resident Welfare Association, an RWA, had banned deliveries after nine in the evening across its apartment complex. The rulebook said so, and the rule rested on a majority vote.

The minority who objected

A minority of residents had argued against it, and the majority vote ignored their view.

Such a ban would affect the sick, they said, and the elderly. Ask yourself before reading on: was this a fair rule?

What happened one night

An elderly resident collapsed, and the cause was low blood sugar.

What she needed could not reach her flat in time, being medicine, because of the rule. Notice that nothing was broken and nobody disobeyed: the rule worked exactly as written.

What the RWA then did

Food and medicines were excluded from the ban, by a modification to the rule.

The voice of the minority was protected by that change. A majority had voted, a minority had warned, and the warning turned out to be the accurate one.

Dominance of the majority

The chapter gives that situation a name, and the name is worth having exactly.

A situation in which only the interests of the majority get pursued, and minority rights suffer for it: that is dominance of the majority.

A republic in action

What the RWA did is what the chapter calls a republic in action, and the phrase is precise.

Stronger than whatever the majority may wish is where the rule of law stands. That is how republics like India, like France and like the USA defend against dominance of the majority. The rights of smaller groups are stopped from being hurt unfairly by a powerful majority.

What the Constitution ensures

Two separate things, and both are limits.

First, too powerful is what no part of the government becomes: the Constitution ensures it. Second, laws going against people's basic rights cannot be passed by elected leaders. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality before the law: those are the kind of rights meant.

Why limits on power at all

Remember what a government may do. Force it can use, to maintain law and order.

The Constitution limits its powers for a reason. Without those limits, elected members, and government officers, might use power of theirs that nothing checks, and citizens rights would be threatened by that.

The arrangement, stated once

Put it together and you have the definition of a democratic republic in practice.

Decisions are taken by the elected representatives of the people. They are taken inside a framework, and the Constitution defines that framework. Neither half works without the other.

Kautilya, and Raja Dharma

An older Indian statement of the same problem is worth setting beside it. Kautilya wrote the Arthashastra.

The king is the state primary authority, he says, and has to have a good governance system, and to follow Raja Dharma, which calls for a system of governance. Law and order he should ensure.

Matsya nyaya

Then comes the image, and it is the one to remember.

Where no government exists, chaos is what society becomes, and the big fish will eat the smaller fish. Matsya nyaya is the phrase for it: the law of the fishes. The more powerful eating the less powerful is what the phrase describes.

Two warnings, pointing opposite ways

Hold Kautilya and the Constitution together, because they warn against opposite dangers.

Kautilya warns what happens with no government: the big fish eat the small. The Constitution warns what happens with a government whose power is unchecked: officers and elected members threaten the rights of citizens. Between those two dangers is where a republic has to stand.

How the state acts

In India the state operates through institutions, and three of them are named.

The legislature. The executive. The judiciary. Through those the state does its work.

The legitimate use of power

One more phrase, and it closes the topic.

A claim to the legitimate use of power is what the state makes. Control by the police is one example of that claim, and taxation is another. Legitimate is the important word: not simply power, but power the law recognises.

Scenario:

A school council votes on a new rule. Lunch may be eaten only in the open courtyard, so that classrooms stay clean. Thirty-eight students vote in favour and two against. The two explain that one of them has a severe dust allergy and the other cannot sit on the stone benches because of a leg injury. The council replies that the rule was passed fairly, that it applies equally to everybody, and that two students cannot overturn the wishes of thirty-eight. A teacher asks the council to think again, using this chapter.

Analysis:

A school rule passed 38 to 2, defended on the ground that the vote was fair.

Activity:

Find out whether your school has a rule that affects some students differently.

Title:

Test a rule against a minority

Safety:

No hazards here.

What You Notice:

Most rules survive the test with one small modification, which is the RWA outcome exactly: food and medicines excluded, the rest of the ban kept. The test that matters is not whether a rule was passed fairly but whether anybody was harmed without being heard.

Mining was stopped in the Dongria Kondh sacred hills in Odisha.

The RWA rule was not broken; it worked exactly as written.

Kautilya calls the king the state primary authority.

Big fish eat small where there is no government.

A majority voted; a minority was right.

The lawmaking body

Laws for the country are made by one branch of the government, and the legislature is that branch.

The people are represented by it in a democracy, and rules applying to everyone are what it creates. Governance through well-defined laws is what it ensures, rather than governance by personal wishes, or by decisions that are arbitrary.

State legislatures too

One more thing about lawmaking, and it matters for the tiers later in this chapter.

Their own legislatures the states have as well. Laws only for the state is what those make.

What the executive is for

Implementing the laws the legislature has formulated is the executive organ primary responsibility, or executing them, and taking policy decisions as well.

Policy is worth defining here, since the word gets used loosely. Ideas, or actions, that a government or an institution has decided upon: that is a policy.

Why a country needs one

Somebody has to enforce laws in every country. Somebody has to design policies and implement them. Somebody has to manage what the government does from day to day, which is administration.

That important job is what the executive does.

Two halves, not one

Here is the distinction this topic is built on. One person the executive is not, and one group it is not either.

Two parts work together in it: the political executive, and the permanent executive. Nowhere does the Constitution of India explicitly define either phrase. The distinction is nonetheless inherent in the parliamentary system here, and it comes from constitutional principles and from governance conventions.

The political executive

Leaders elected by the people are what it consists of.

Prime minister and chief ministers are in it, with their ministers. So are the president and the governors, though those last two mostly have roles that are formal, or symbolic.

What elected leaders do

Big decisions are theirs to make. New laws they introduce. Goals for the country they set. India they represent in other countries.

Chosen in elections as they are, they hold power a fixed time, five years as a rule, unless re-elected, or dismissed by the president. Their power depends on one thing: the trust and support of the people.

The permanent executive

Government officers who are not elected are what this half includes.

Selected through examinations is how they come in, such as the examinations the Union Public Service Commission conducts. Bureaucrats is another name for them, and civil servants a third.

Why permanent

These officers are not, as politicians are, removed or replaced when an election passes.

In the background they work, so the government runs smoothly whichever party holds power. Expert advice is what they offer, policies are what they implement, and public services are what they manage.

Three functions of the bureaucracy

First, implementing laws, policies and schemes. Bureaucrats make sure that whatever the political executive has passed is appropriately implemented across the country.

Second, creating a link that joins citizens to the government, by way of departments and field offices: services of the kind that public schools are, and roads, and hospitals, get delivered that way, and grievances are addressed. Third, record-keeping and governance: records of government work, of decisions and of procedures are kept by them.

Hierarchical is what the structure of the bureaucracy is, and a chart of one department of one state shows it.

At the level of the district such structures exist too, and of the block.

Five services to know

The best-known bureaucracies in India are five.

The Indian Foreign Service, the IFS. The Indian Administrative Service, the IAS. The Indian Police Service, the IPS. The Indian Revenue Service, the IRS. And the Indian Forest Service, the IFoS. A large number of officers work inside those systems.

The bureaucrats you actually meet

At the grassroots is where our interactions usually happen, and the list is worth reading slowly, because none of these people is who a child pictures when hearing the word bureaucrat.

School teachers in government service. Anganwadi workers. Health workers. Workers in water and in sanitation. Bus conductors.

What the bureaucracy manages

Large-scale programmes are managed by it, and the scale is the point.

The census. National elections. Disaster relief. And welfare schemes rolled out, such as the COVID-19 vaccination drive, or the rural Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission guaranteed under Viksit Bharat.

C.B. Muthamma

Born in Karnataka, and living from 1924 to 2009, she cleared the examination for public services in 1948, the first woman to do so.

Then, in 1949, she became the first of the women to enter the Indian Foreign Service. A strong gender bias prevailed at the time.

What the bias looked like

One detail says it all, and Muthamma wrote it down herself.

Women had to put their names to an undertaking: that marriage would mean resignation. Notice what that is: not a prejudice in somebody's head but a document, required at the start of a career.

Her career, and her case

A distinguished diplomatic career she managed to conduct nonetheless, and eventually she served as India first woman ambassador in several countries.

Then promotion was unjustly denied her, and she approached the Supreme Court. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer led the bench there, and it struck gender-biased provisions down for violating the Constitution, with strong comments besides on the record of discrimination against women in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Why her case belongs here

A milestone that defines the pursuit of gender equality in the public service of India is what her struggle remains.

Set it beside the two halves of the executive. The permanent executive is entered by examination, which she passed first among women. What nearly stopped her was not the examination but a rule, and what removed the rule was the third organ, the judiciary.

What she wrote afterwards

Public issues she wrote on, a number of them, from Indian democracy to the decolonisation of the Indian mind. In one essay she pointed to something characteristic of Indian religions: an unbounded freedom of thought and belief. That, she said, is the single most important factor making democracy possible in this country.

Scenario:

An election is held and a new party comes to power. A district education officer worries that she will lose her post, since she was appointed while the previous government was in office. A colleague tells her the opposite: that the minister will go and she will stay. A third person in the room says neither of them matters much, because the real decisions are taken by whoever won the election, and officers only carry files. The officer asks which of the three accounts is correct.

Analysis:

An election, an anxious officer, and three accounts of who stays and who decides.

Activity:

Find out who the education officer for your district is.

Title:

Sort the people you met this week

Safety:

No hazards here.

What You Notice:

Almost all will be permanent executive, because Those bureaucrats who serve at the grassroots are who our dealings are usually with: school teachers in government service, anganwadi and health workers, workers in water and sanitation, bus conductors. The political executive is small and the permanent one is everywhere.

Bus conductors and anganwadi workers are part of the bureaucracy.

The Constitution never uses the phrases political or permanent executive.

The bureaucracy runs the census and national elections.

Political is elected; permanent is examined.

IFS, IAS, IPS, IRS, IFoS.

The triple role

Three roles are played by the Government of India at once.

Protector, through law and defence. Provider, through infrastructure and public welfare. Regulator, of social justice and of economic activity. Law and order is maintained through police forces. Education is provided free for children, with schools built and teachers hired. Infrastructure is constructed: roads and bridges, railways and airports. And initiatives are taken so that food is safe.

And why problems remain

Through five things are those roles executed: a judiciary, a vast bureaucracy, many layers of elected representatives, thousands of laws, and the Constitution. All help us greatly in daily life.

So why do the country and her people still face so many problems? Why are there still cases of bribery and of corruption in public office? People live in difficult socio-economic conditions, with poor access to education and healthcare, infrastructure of poor quality, and inadequate access to schemes.

Six things you can do

The answer it gives is a list of actions, not a complaint, and this is the part worth learning by heart.

Grievance redressal comes first. Many departments have redressal offices where a grievance can be filed, and vigilance commissions investigate corruption. The Public Grievances Portal takes complaints, and the department concerned replies within a specified time.

Ask for information

Second, ask the government about its policies and its actions.

A powerful Act exists for this, the Right to Information Act, under which questions can be asked about those government actions which are of public interest. How much was spent building roads near you. Who the beneficiaries of a merit scholarship are. How far a metro line has got.

Officials are bound to provide the information under that Act, and two things come of it.

Transparency is open access for citizens to information on government policies and actions, and on the spending of public funds. Accountability is that responsible for their decisions and their actions are those in power, and obligated to the public, and to other stakeholders, to answer for them.

Bagepalli

Here is the RTI working, in a small town near Bengaluru.

Some government officials decided years ago that Double roads and streetlights would leave Bagepalli better off. Very unprofessionally the work was carried out, movement of traffic was made difficult, and accidents came in numbers.

What one citizen did

A local citizen filed an RTI, asking for information about the finances allocated for that work.

Armed with the information, a group of citizens confronted the officials concerned. Later those officials saw to it that everyone concerned was satisfied with how the roadwork was completed. One form, one group of neighbours, one road rebuilt.

Four more ways

Third, use the media. In print or electronic media, write about an issue the government can act on. Many officials are active on social media, and platforms such as YouTube, X, Facebook or Instagram can be used to tag them.

Fourth, engage by way of a civil society organisation, an NGO for instance. Thousands of citizen groups here are collectively termed civil society, working on education, health, environment and livelihood. Join one, or create one. Fifth, write to political representatives. Sixth, vote once old enough.

The Silent Valley

One case shows what civil society can do. A massive hydroelectric project there was planned by the Kerala Government in 1970.

Vast tracts of untouched evergreen forests would have been submerged by it, and their immense biodiversity destroyed, including much wildlife.

How the dam was stopped

Public opinion against the construction was mobilised by many non-government organisations.

Hundreds of scientists joined them soon, and local villagers, teachers, public figures, writers and environmentalists. The Central Government intervened at last and cancelled the project, in 1983. The valley was declared a National Park two years after that, which ensures its lasting protection.

Guardian of the Constitution

Now the third organ. The part of the government making sure everyone follows the law is the judiciary.

Disputes it settles. Rights of people it protects. Whether the laws the government makes are fair and just is something it checks. In a democracy like India it is independent, controlled neither by government nor by politicians, which keeps justice fair and equal for all.

What the judiciary does

Four things, and they are worth separating.

It protects and defends the laws, making sure they are followed properly. It interprets the laws, explaining what a law means where the wording is complex, or where people disagree about it. It protects the rights and liberty of citizens, which the Constitution gives, and violations can be taken to court. And it safeguards the Constitution through judicial review, acting as a referee when the government or anyone else breaks the law.

Why it matters

The rule of law is what the judiciary protects: the idea that the law must be followed by everyone, and that includes the government.

A check on unfair actions it keeps. Laws are stopped from harming people rights. Conflicts are resolved peacefully. Without a judiciary strong and fair, democracy cannot survive.

Why three tiers

Over 1.4 billion people live in India, with many languages and cultures, and thousands of towns and villages.

A federal country, it has 28 states and 8 union territories. The needs of all her people cannot be met by a single central government, so governance in a country this large has to be decentralised at multiple levels.

How the third tier arrived

Only two levels were provided for by the Constitution originally: state governments for each state, and the Union Government for the country entire. Local governments like municipalities and panchayats were no separate constitutional level then. Listed under the State List they were, which meant state governments could decide how they worked. Village panchayats were to be organised by the state and endowed with the powers and authority to function as units of self-government. One Directive Principle of State Policy had already said so.

The early 1990s

Then an amendment to the Constitution created the panchayati raj system, and a system of municipalities for towns and for cities.

Local governments became the third tier of India's democracy by that, the other two being the union and the state governments. Strengthening democracy at the grassroots was the purpose, and enabling people to participate directly in decision-making.

Decentralisation

Power and decision-making spread out, rather than concentrated in one place or one small group: that is what the word means.

Locally is where local problems should be solved, while a government at a higher level can take the bigger issues. Who would you contact if a streetlamp near you were broken?

Why local is better for local things

Five reasons the chapter gives, each one separate.

Better knowledge, first: its needs, its area and the traditions of its people are known to local leaders better than to officials at a distance. More democratic, second: a chance comes to people to be involved in decisions affecting their daily lives. Local discussions: water supply, roads or schools can be solved by those who face them every day. More accountability: leaders closer to the people are easier to question. Stronger local governments: panchayats become lively places.

Who does what

The division is worth holding. Matters for the whole country go to the central government: currency, foreign affairs, defence, and concurrent subjects such as marriage and education.

State governments handle the needs of people in each state: police, land, health, agriculture, and education there. In villages, in towns and in cities local governments work on local problems: water, drainage, streetlamps, parks. Gandhi advocated decentralisation strongly, believing in self-sufficient village governments called gram swaraj. His village swaraj, he said, was a republic complete in itself, independent of neighbours for its vital wants, and yet interdependent in much else.

Scenario:

A village pond that children swim in is to be filled and built over, under a plan nobody in the village remembers being asked about. Three residents decide to act. The first writes to the Prime Minister, believing only the centre can stop a project. The second says nothing can be done, because the officials will never say how much money was sanctioned. The third says they should simply wait for the next election and vote the sarpanch out. A schoolteacher says all three have missed what the chapter offers.

Analysis:

A village pond at risk, and three residents who each give up too early.

Activity:

Find out who your ward member or panchayat representative is.

Title:

Draft one RTI question

Safety:

No hazards here.

What You Notice:

A good question asks how much was spent, or how far the work has got, because officials are bound to provide information of that kind. That is the Bagepalli pattern exactly: one citizen asked about the finances allocated, and a group of neighbours, armed with the information, got the road finished properly.

One citizen RTI at Bagepalli got a whole road rebuilt properly.

The Silent Valley became a National Park two years after the dam was cancelled.

Gandhi called village swaraj a complete republic.

Protector, provider, regulator.

Local lamp, local body; defence, the centre.