Roots of change: Seed (Udaipur, Rajasthan)

Seed doesn’t need a collector. The lagan is collected by the gram sabha and sent to the government. Government officials are not allowed to enter the village without the permission of the gram sabha, says Ramaji Rawat, president of the gram sabha’s karyakarini (executive committee).

Ironically, Seed is a government-approved village republic, sanctioned under the Rajasthan Gramdan Act, 1971 — a radical piece of legislation inspired by the late Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement. But its self-rule movement, in fact, began much earlier. The bone of contention was beed (the common grazing land), which formed the lifeline of an economy heavily dependent on agriculture and livestock.

After independence, beed’s ownership was transferred to the local royal family, though villagers still had traditional grazing and usufruct rights. In the 1950s, the ownership went into the hands of the forest department. But strangely the royal family sold it to a resident of nearby Kanod village in 1963 again. The new owner prevented villagers from using the beed. The dispute continued till 1967 when the Revenue Appellate Authority upheld the status of beed as forest area and also recognised the rights of villagers. “This case was a major victory for the residents from where started their march towards self-rule,” says Jagdish Purohit, coordinator of Ubeshwar Vikas Mandal, an NGO based in Udaipur.

During this time, Vinoba Bhave, half way through his 13- year march to propagate the Bhoodan concept, was addressing a gathering in Udaipur. “I got inspired by the gram dan concept and decided to dedicate my life to Bhaveji’s work,” says Rameshwar Prasad, a resident of Sethwana village near Seed, who was the purohit for Seed. Gram dan is derived from bhoodan (bhoo and dan), which means donation of land.

Prasad was to become Seed’s leader in its march towards republic status. Seed’s gram dan was established which took complete control over its natural resources — jal (water), jungle (forest), and jameen (land). The karyakarini through its sub-groups of residents monitor various issues such as crop loans, forest and nursery development, water resource development and selling of grass. “We only pronounce decisions taken by the gram sabha,” says Rawat.

The results are showing up. Due to the efforts of the gram sabha to propogate water harvesting, there is enough water for both drinking and irrigation. Gomti, which was earlier a seasonal stream, has become perennial. The anicut of Gomti ensures that the village never faces a drought. The village has strict rules to protect forests. Anyone cutting a tree from the common land is fined Rs 2,000. “In 1998, a villager from a nearby village was caught stealing wood from the forest. His bullockcart was auctioned and he was fined Rs 500,” claims Moti Lal, the village forest guard. No patwari is required in the village. All land records are with the gram sabha and all land disputes are sorted out by the gram sabha.

But in some ways, Seed today feels cheated. In 1995, the state government amended the Rajasthan Gramdan Act, 1971, and removed section 43, which gives wide-ranging powers to the gram sabha (see box: An unholy act on p32). “Earlier we used to get money directly from the state departments, but after the removal of section 43, we have to route all development work through the panchayat, which is corrupt and looks down upon gram dan village,” says Rawat. Villagers feel that to bring back gram dan, section 43 needs to be restored. But what makes this village different is that though the act has died prematurely, the village remains a true republic — in letter and spirit.