6

CONCLUSIONS

D
emocracy becomes meaningful only when the idea ofdecentralization is associated
with it, otherwise it becomes a mere paper exercise. Since people's participation is
the core of democracy, decentralization is the only means of attaining it. Rightly, the
concept of democratic decentralization has been talked ofrepeatedly in independent India
since the publication of the Report of the Balwantrai Mehta Study Team. Before
independence, the British rulers also emphasized upon the principle of decentralization.
However, their proclamation appears to have not been punctuated by honest desire of
handling over power to the Indian people. Although Lord Ripon was hailed as the father
oflocal self-government in India, but both Ripon and his successors stressed the need for
decentralization for two reasons:first, to collect revenue from the Indian people without
opposition and, second, to meet halfWay the growing Indian sentiment for complete
independence. Decentralization in the sense ofhanding over power genuinely to the local
bodies was neither conceived nor introduced in the days of British rule in India. The
Taxation Enquiry Committee in its report unequivocally stated this in 1954. The
reluctance of the British Government against genuine decentralization was obvious. It
would contradict colonial interest.

Gaining independence, the Indian leaders have rightly chosen the path of
democracy as the modus operandi of the newborn state. However, following British
legacy they incmporated the principle of decentralization half-heartedly in the
Constitution by adopting federal structure of the polity in governance. Local self..
government did not find its proper place in the Constitution due to strong opposition of
some influential members of the Constituent Assembly and it was left to the pious wish
of the State Governments to introduce local self-governments in their midst. Thus it
seems that political decentralization in its true spirit was not introduced in independent
India for a long time, let alone economic decentralization.

The need for economic decentralization was being felt by the constant failure of
the bureaucracy-led poverty alleviating schemes, though much time was taken to