History of panchayat raj in India and Karnataka – An overview

In India Panchayat existed since earlier. This is the oldest system of local government. In this village elders or religious leaders used to discuss and sort out their problems. This practice of finding solutions to local problems collectively, has found mentioned in ancient texts like Kautilya's “Arthshastra”, Manusmiti and in Mahabharata also, and they are still prevalent in different forms all over the country. But with the interruption of British along with centralization policy, the panchayats suffered a temporary setback. But in the late twentieth century India has returned once again to the concept of politics and this gave once more birth to panchayat. This paper attempts to explain the history of panchayats in India and in Karnataka.