Historical Development of India’s Decentralization and the Present Status of the Rural Self Government in Manipur

Abstract

India’s decentralization process has its unique history in the global wave of democratization. The concept of decentralization is emerged from one aspect of global wave of democratization- the subsequent consolidation of democracy. After India’s economic liberalization during 1990s, the importance of PRI has been increased for rural development. However, it is imperative to study the history of India’s decentralization in order to understand its loopholes and to find out the various ways for further improvement of PRI. History is basic to study ideas. The aim of this paper is to give a brief critical account of the historical development of India’s decentralization and the present status of the panchayats in Manipur. There is a common issue which has been perennially happened in India that India’s decentralization process has generally failed to yield strong and accountable forms of political representation in rural areas that most of the government resources intended for the poor are misappropriated by the elected representatives and unelected officials. Similarly, the functions of GPs in Manipur have not been performed well as the local MLAs make intervention to the GPs thereby pressuring their voters to elect prominent workers as the representatives of the local government.