Abstract:
Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent believer in the theory and democracy His belief was based on his own conception of democracy which was quite different from classical concept of democracy of the west. His innate love of equality, unflinching support of individual freedom, and his consistent plea for bringing about a just order through the brotherhood of man that recognized no barriers of sex, religion, language and culture testify to his faith in democracy of his conception. It is true that Gandhi was not a system builder as Plato or Aristotle. Gandhi‟s ideas on democracy are to be found in his speeches and writings, though they do not appear to be systematically developedin the sense that he carried ideas to a logical conclusion. Gandhi expressed his views on democracy in response to and well- wishers, depending upon his own study. Observations of lifeexperiences and experiments.
Machine summary:
I would like to submit that the relevance of Gandhi is best assessed not just in terms of his contextual responses to the objective conditions of his time and place for bringing about social transformation – like non-violent non-cooperation (Satyagraha) the spinning wheel (charkha), self-reliance (swadeshi), the communitarian village republic (panchayati raj), „wantlessness‟ (aparigraha), unto the last (antyodaya) and so on – but in terms of the conceptual and theoretical abstractions that lie embedded in these.
If I were to single out some of the most significant abstractions of universal import which many in the world have come to recognise, these would be: • The transformatory power of truth and non-violence in thought and deed (the non-violent revolt by Buddhist monks for restoration of democracy in Myanmar; the non-violent ouster of authoritarian regimes as in Iran and the Philippines; and other examples) • The concept and theory of participatory democracy embedded in his vision of Panchayati Raj. This is a counter to the elitist representative democracy in the western formulation .
) Gandhi believed that the real development of India was possible through its indigenous political system in which the centralised state would wield only such power as was not within the scope of lower tiers of participatory governance.
The qualitative changes brought about in the administrative and governing structure sought actually to delegate power to elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj institutions for the effective implementation of the Community Development Programme, not yet in their formulation.