Democracy in Praxis: Two Non-Left Gram Panchayats in West Bengal
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RURAL WEST BENGAL Democracy in Praxis: Two Non-Left Gram Panchayats in West Bengal Manabi Majumdar Drawing upon a micro-study of two villages in two “ griculture is our foundation, and industry is our future”, non-Left gram panchayats in West Bengal, this paper declares the ruling Left Front (LF) government in West B engal, in an urge to push for industrial expansion as a puts one issue in the foreground, namely, the idea and A strategy for energising its economy. Does it then mean that the practice of local politics. Using two counter examples to rural agricultural economy has no future? Again, when we hear prove a general point about contemporary West from a number of social scientists that with the growing agrarian Bengal’s dominant political tendencies, it argues that the crisis “the village is….shrinking as a sociological reality” (Gupta 2005), does it mean that the rural universe as a political space is elaborate organisational structure of the (Left) party also shrinking? To put it differently, one may ask: whither rural system, that once proved to be the ruling Left Front’s economy; whither rural politics? This paper makes a modest political strength, has now turned out to be a part of its a ttempt at revisiting the weathered topic of village political econ- problems. The LF’s electoral compulsions have come in omy along with its contemporary dynamics, drawing upon an ethnographic micro-study of two villages in two non-left, i e, the way of its original social mobilisational impulses and “ opposition” gram panchayats (GPs) in West Bengal.1 programmes. Only recently some signals of mass However, several qualifications are in order at the outset. Ours mobilisation politics have begun looming on the is not a thorough and careful study of major social structures and political horizon of the state. It would require a thorough relations in the sample villages and changes therein, or of the existing caste dynamics, and hence lacks rich details usually reconfiguring of the relationship between political found in social-anthropological village studies. Neither can we parties and society – a shift from a party-society to a claim to be offering a full-bodied account of the village economy, dynamic and reciprocal link between party and society with details of agrarian power relations, productivity, markets – in order to transform the existing nature of and economic opportunities in the village or landownership p atterns, etc. We aim to put one issue in the foreground, namely, particularistic politics and build instead an the idea and practice of local democratic politics, as evinced encompassing participatory politics. through panchayat politics, grass roots electoral and “govern- mentality” strategies of political parties, and citizens’ political participation or its lack. 1 Introduction To be sure, social relations and economic currents within which panchayat politics is embedded certainly inform our study, but our primary objective is to subject the local political institutions and political processes to ethnographic analysis. Such explora- tion, we feel, is particularly germane to contemporary West B engal – a state in which politics has deeply penetrated the rural I am grateful to the members of the larger research team and especially hinterland, due largely to the land reforms and rural decentral- to Sandip Mitra for very helpful suggestions at various stages of this isation initiatives of the left parties since the late 1970s.2 Indeed, research. I also express my debt of gratitude to Suparna De, Sutapa the panchayat institutions and the well-entrenched party net- Ghosh, Abhijit Jana, and Kanchan Mandal, for their able assistance in field research. An earlier version of this paper was presented in a works surrounding them have become an enduring feature of seminar at CSSSC. I am grateful to the seminar participants, and r ural life and society in West Bengal. Panchayat politics and pan- especially to Kumar Rana and Dayabati Roy, for their valuable chayat functionings have become all the more prominent in the comments and suggestions. The errors that remain are my sole everyday lives of the villagers, with increasing responsibilities responsibility. being given to GPs in various developmental and welfare pro- Manabi Majumdar ([email protected]) is with the Centre for grammes and with the consequent increase in the quantum of Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. funds under their disposal. 82 february 28, 2009 vol xliv No 9 EPW Economic & Political Weekly LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RURAL WEST BENGAL Intriguingly, this is also a time when the state is witnessing a its democratic deficits and the lack of substantive citizenship. new sense of urgency about (re)industrialisation and an urge to This is by no means to underestimate the political energy and in- compete with other states, in order to attract investment and pro- volvement of the masses in this state. Nor can we ignore how mote economic growth. It is well to recall that during the heydays poor peasants came out of a state of utter political marginality, of land reforms, the impetus for redistribution of land came pri- with the decline of the so-called “landlord party” (read Congress) marily from the state-level political leaders and somewhat radi- in the late 1970s and the corresponding advent of the LF. It is the cal urban middle classes (Chatterjee 1997; Ruud 2003) with the gradual eclipse over the years of that mass mobilisational spirit panchayat institutions acting as junior partners in this collabora- that we wish to interrogate here. tion. In more recent times in contrast, the panchayat bodies seem to be shouldering – though more as an implementing agency than Democratic Stability as an autonomous local government – an increased burden of the A related issue that we wish to address, albeit in a limited m anner, welfarist and redistributive responsibilities of the government, is whether the strong party system – more precisely a party-state while the state government appears to be pushing, rather enthu- or even a party-society in Bengal’s context – is conducive to demo- siastically, the agenda of growth. It is as though the “develop- cratic stability. The highly organised left parties have contributed mental” state will be operating through the panchayats, while in no small measure to the continuous presence of the LF in power. market boosting will be the priority of the state government.3 However, in the process political competition has declined considerably,6 resulting in some kind of political stagnation. The Growth and Redistribution positive impact of the political organisation of left parties, of the In a market-oriented democracy, any government will have to Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) – in particular, is pay concurrent attention to the goals of both growth and redistri- well known (Bardhan and Mookherjee 2005; Harriss 1993; Kohli bution – goals that are not necessarily in zero-sum opposition to 1987, Lieten 1990; Ruud 2003; Veron et al 2003). Arguably, how- each other but are in constant tension nonetheless. How these ever, its elaborate organisational structure spread over the entire competing priorities get reconciled in contemporary West Bengal countryside of Bengal and its manifold political and social activi- will depend on how the panchayat institutions steer the “politics ties, that have once proved to be its major political strength, now of redistribution” at the grass roots level, while the state-level turn out to be a part of its problems. In more recent times the politicians manage the “politics of growth” at supra-local levels. o rganisational energy of the CPI(M) seems to be mostly consumed This apparent schism between the growth-promoting and by its compulsion to win elections, at the cost of its initial w elfare-enhancing functions of representative institutions at dif- mobilisati onal impulses and programmes that sought to rally ferent levels of governance (more broadly, between the neoliberal people around larger issues of social inequality and injustice and versus rights-based discourse on development) will have, we their redress. As we try to argue below, this has worked to s uggest, wider ramification for rural politics. In our view, there- e ntrench a particularistic notion of politics, at the expense of pro- fore, there are no signs of panchayat politics losing its impor- grammatic, and encompassing politics. What is more, this has tance, only indications of its taking on new complexities.4 constrained the v ision and agenda of not only the established left Admittedly, for long the panchayat bodies have been treated as but also of the mainstream opposition, producing a general mere extension agencies for dispensing various centrally de- c limate of political ossification (Webster 1996). signed and sponsored poverty alleviation programmes and service In this political environment dominated by a “ballot-box” view delivery schemes. Furthermore, in this designated role, the of democracy, do we see any signs of political oscillation or panchayat bodies have acted under the aegis of centralised party change in our study villages, that are presently within the fold of directives and more as bureaucratic agencies than as autonomous opposition GPs? Or do opposition GPs mimic the mainstream representative institutions, internalising a style of bureaucratic p olitical practice? It is as though we draw upon two counter exam- governance. However, with the proliferation of welfarist pro- ples to prove a general point. Of course, it is not easy, and rather grammes and the shifting responsibility for the delivery of the risky, to generalise and claim too much from findings from a same from administration to elected local governments, the m icro-level enquiry. Also, local spaces are increasingly being appro- so-called “street-level” politicians will have to deal more directly priated by supra-local, even global corporate, power in some with the new economic and political exigencies arising out of parts of the state just like in many other states in the country.