Panchayats at work : what it means for the oppressed?

ON November 4, 1948 in the constituent assembly, Babasaheb Ambedkar said: The love of the intellectual Indian for the village community is of course infinite, if not pathetic. It is largely due to the fulsome praise bestowed upon it by Metcalfe who described them as little republics having nearly everything that they want within themselves, and almost independent of any foreign relations... That they have survived through all vicissitudes may be a fact. But mere survival has no value. The question is on what plane they have survived. Surely on a low, on a selfish level. I hold that these village republics have been the ruination of India. I am therefore surprised that those who condemn provincialism and communalism should come forward as champions of the village. What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrowmindedness and communalism?