Representative democracy that got firmly entrenched in several countries from the 18th Century onwards promised governance of the people, by the people and for the people. Its growth coincided with that of the national state which assumed the role of the protector, lawgiver and dispenser of justice, and the executive of the people. Nationalism became the new ideology. Power was centralised in its name, and in certain cases, became an instrument of authoritarianism. In the enslaved countries, nationalism became the war cry for freedom, though gradually, the new nation state also became a power over the people.

However, the focus has now shifted from nationalism to globalisation, so that in economic matters WTO has a decisive say. The developed countries which are economically and militarily powerful, have a major share in determining these policies. The MNCs, World Bank and IMF assist them. They are ruining the economies of poor countries, capturing their markets, forcing privatisation and making every effort to patent their rich flora and fauna. Whatever little power the people had enjoyed before globalisation, has also been sapped.

The issue of people’s power has become extremely relevant in this changing context. Gandhi in Hind Swaraj visualised a situation where people would be supreme. He did not even trust the Parliament. Marx prophesied that a classless and stateless society would come into being where people would be completely free. MN Roy, a revolutionary Marxist in his youth, concluded in 1946 that political parties themselves are a source of power over the people. He therefore disbanded his Radical Democratic Party. Before his assassination, Gandhi suggested the disbanding of the Congress Party and that his followers should shun political power and parties. Jai Prakash Narayan, leader of the Socialist movement left active party politics in 1954. He also became a votary of party-less politics. Thus, Gandhi, Roy and JP converged on the issue that there should be people’s power rather than the power of political parties or the state.

The people have been disenchanted with all political parties. At the same time, a large number of non-party groups of activists have emerged which espouse the people’s causes. The economy remains in the hands of a few and disparities have grown steeply. The administration is still a colonial one which generally frustrates attempts to federalise and decentralise the political and economic powers. Though there is the Panchayati Raj Act that devolves power to the local self-governing units, the administrative system retains substantial powers. In fact, it has become an anachronism in the present polity. Moreover, the powers of major revenue collection and expenditure are with the centre and some of them are with the states. While people are its primary source, Panchayats and municipalities, the institutions of self-governance by them have little role in it. This is an inverted system.

The legislation relating to the scheduled tribes and the scheduled areas inhabited by them has given substantial powers in local matters. In certain states, no factory can be established or excavation started without the permission of the Gram Sabha or some similar people’s institution. In Nagarnar a village in Chhattisgarh, at present there is a direct conflict between the state government and the Gram Sabha on the issue of location of a factory which the Gram Sabha refuses to permit. The raging slogan is Apne gaon mein apna raj (the people shall rule in their village or one’s own rule in one’s own village). People everywhere are demanding that Gram Sabha must have full control over local resources of land, water and forest. The Union Government on the other hand carries on the British tradition that all land and forests belong to the state. Now, under the pressure of World Bank, it is introducing a legislation that all water shall also belong to the state. There is thus a direct struggle for actual governance between the Union and State Governments, on the one hand and the local communities, on the other. Struggles like those against the Narmada, Tehri or Koelkaro Dams are part of the same urge. People’s right to information is another major issue. When fisher-folk demand the stopping of power driven trawlers that disturb their centuries old occupations or when the forest dwellers demand that their traditional rights on forest produce be held sacrosanct, they are expressing the same aspiration. The essence of the matter is that the federal structure of the Constitution has to be strengthened further and the Panchayati Raj institutions given effective power of regulation. The power and the authority of the bureaucracy have to be drastically reduced and a system has to be created where power does not flow from higher to the lower levels, but that it is an inverted pyramid that makes it flow from bottom to the top.

The same principle would apply to the economy. This can be done by extending the same legislation which is prevalent in the scheduled and the autonomous areas to all the areas in the country. However, they form only an unorganised segment of the economy. The industries, mines, financial institutions and services rule the economy, and are now getting globalised. They will have to be socialised. Unfortunately, public ownership came into disrepute because PSU’s functioned as havens for bureaucrats. Gandhi had advocated trusteeship. He wanted industries to be managed by some industrialists as trusts on conditions clearly laid down by the society: If a particular industrialist did not fulfil those conditions, the society would have the right to replace him with another trustee. Several ills of the public and the private sectors can thereby be eliminated. Gandhi was for austerity and had said that the trustees would get enough for their needs but not for luxurious living.

Another method of instituting people’s control over the organised sector of the economy is to create councils of producers so that all the producers in an area, including kisans (farmers) and employees, nominate a board of directors for an enterprise. These boards can employ specialists to assist them. People’s vigilance against corruption shall be exercised through the PRI’s.

For the last few years, science and technology have moved in the direction of small units. Information technology is the best example. Ancillary industries play a vital role for big industries. However, in a country like India where capital is still scarce and labour is abundant, a strategy of full employment generation would require production of mass goods by the masses. Small unit machines as advocated by Lohia are now a more real possibility than when he advocated them in the 1950s. Small entrepreneurs can be encouraged in a big way. As the resources used by them will be owned by the local community, they will remain its integral part. The Panchayati Raj institutions have proved that they can manage elementary and secondary schools, rural roads, primary health centres and district hospitals much more efficiently as West Bengal, Karnataka and Kerala have shown. Even in power generation and provision of water for irrigation, mini power plants and mini watershed development, have proved to be eminently more successful. In agriculture, organic methods of cultivation have their own success stories. Thus, decentralised economy under the control of local communities is much more viable than gigantic projects.