Institutions Of Local Self Governance And Implications On Social Justice

Abstract

Abstract newlineThe institutions of local self-governance have been playing a significant role in the Scheduled areas newlineof the country with the existence of multiple constitutional provisions about the interests and welfare newlineof the marginalized communities, the Scheduled Tribes. The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups newline(PVTGs)in general and the Dongaria Kondh community, in particular, have successfully been able newlineto express their legitimate concerns through the institutions of rural local self-governance such as the newlineGram panchayats and the Palii Sabhas in the Niyamgiri Hills of Lanjigarh block of Kalahandi district newlineand Bisam Cuttack and Muniguda block of Rayagada district in Odisha. The present study aims to newlineunderstand the level of social embeddedness while examining the interface and interaction between newlinethe political and societal following the political sociology approach. The study further captures newlinethe process of power dynamics and issues of exclusion in local governance by using a political newlinesociology approach. Building on the argument of Harold Laski about the real study of actual political newlineprocesses to better understand political systems, this research attempts to study the nature of newlinenegotiations between the community and the state, and the political processes that underlie the newlineinstitutions of local governance. The central argument in the proposed thesis would be located on the newlinenature of negotiations with the state at multiple levels, which the Dongaria Kondh PVTG in the newlineNiyamgiri hills have been exercising to secure their constitutional liberty. This would, in turn, involve newlinea need to study their engagement with local groups/stakeholders, civil society organizations, and state newlineagencies, besides their engagement in the local government institutions (the Gram Panchayats and newlinePalli Sabhas) and also the institutions of the Judiciary. The Scheduled Tribe and other Traditional newlineForest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and Panchayat Extension to Schedules newlineareas Act (PESA), 1996 and have been playing a crucial role in empowering the tribal community in newlinegeneral. Particularly, in the case of PVTGs in the areas under Niyamgiri hills, over some time, there newlinehas been an emergence of assertiveness evident through their active involvement in decision-making newlinethrough embedded institutions. The political sociology approach would help to capture the process newlineof community interactions with the state and other institutions while attempting a critical analysis newlinedealing with the issues around social justice. Hence, the issue of conflict and contestations in the light newlineof local concerns and development in the area under Niyamgiri hills has been studied not only from newlinethe question of larger development discourse but also involves a critical analysis of the forms of newlineresistance against massive displacement seen in the region due to industrialisation, reflecting the newlinecollective interests of the PVTGs in the particular area. newlineKeywords: Political Sociology, Panchayati raj, Local Self-governance, Palli Sabhas, Particularly newlineVulnerable Tribal Groups newlinexiii newline