NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 11 –164Introduction, and the trip to Lakshmanpur — In-text Questions

Book page 163 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Our population has crossed 1.4 billion, almost two-thirds of which live in rural areas. How do we govern ourselves in this complex society?

Answer

By dividing the work of government — first among three organs, then among three levels, and at the bottom by handing the local level back to the local people.

Start with the size of the problem, as the book states it on page 163:

India	The figure the chapter gives
Villages	about 600,000
Towns	8,000
Cities	over 4,000
Population	crossed 1.4 billion, almost two-thirds of it rural

No single office could take decisions for all of that. So the work is split:

Among three organs — legislature, executive and judiciary, which you studied in Chapter 10.
Among three levels — Central, State and local, the pyramid of Fig. 10.4.
And within the local level, again among three tiers — village, block and district, which is what this chapter is about.

The rule behind the whole design is simple: a matter should be settled at the smallest level that can settle it. A blocked drain is for the Gram Panchayat, a road joining ten villages for the Panchayat Samiti, a district hospital for the Zila Parishad, the police for the State, and defence or currency for the Centre.

Careful with the number: 1.4 billion is 140 crore in the Indian system. Two-thirds of that is roughly 93 crore people living in rural areas — which is why a chapter on rural local government comes before the one on towns and cities.

Q2.

What are the needs of this village — maybe water for the fields, repairing the main road if it got damaged by heavy rains, or maintaining the village’s primary school?

Answer

All three, and several more — and every one of them is a job for the Panchayati Raj institutions. Lakshmanpur has 200 houses, about 700 people, mostly farmers who cultivate their land and rear cows or goats.

Need of the village	Why it arises in Lakshmanpur	Which tier deals with it
Water for the fields	Most people are farmers; the harvest depends on irrigation	Gram Panchayat for village ponds, wells and small channels; Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad for a canal or a watershed scheme
Drinking water and cleanliness	200 households need safe water, drains and waste disposal	Gram Panchayat
Repair of the main road	Heavy rain in the Himalayan foothills damages roads every year	Gram Panchayat for village lanes; Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad for the connecting road, often under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
Maintaining the primary school	The children of 200 houses must have a usable building and mid-day meals	Gram Panchayat — like Sangkhu Radhu Khandu in Sikkim, which built compound walls and school kitchens
Health care	A sub-centre, immunisation, a nurse or ASHA worker	Gram Panchayat with the block health staff; the Zila Parishad for the bigger hospital
Work for those who might migrate	“A few younger villagers have migrated to the city in search of jobs”	Gram Panchayat, through rural employment schemes
Care of cattle and common land	People “rear cows or goats”, so grazing land and a veterinary service matter	Gram Panchayat, with the block

Why the chapter lists needs before it explains institutions: it wants you to feel why a village council is necessary before you learn what it is called. Notice that not one of these needs can wait for a decision from Delhi, and not one of them is the same in every village — which is exactly the argument for local self-government.

Q3.

How will the villagers take decisions about such matters that affect their daily lives? And where will they get the resources to meet those needs?

Answer

They decide in the Gram Sabha and through the Gram Panchayat they elect; and the money comes partly from their own village and partly from the State and the Centre.

How the decision is taken — four steps:

Step	What happens
1. The Gram Sabha meets	Every adult voter of the village may attend. “In the Gram Sabha, women and men discuss all matters related to their area and take decisions”
2. The Gram Panchayat is elected	The Gram Sabha directly elects the members of the Gram Panchayat, and the Panchayat has a head — the Sarpanch or Pradhan
3. A plan is made	The Panchayat prepares a development plan — this road, that hand pump, this school wall — and the Gram Sabha approves it
4. It goes up the tiers if it is too big	The Panchayat Samiti collects the plans of all Gram Panchayats and puts them together for the district or State level, “which facilitates the allotment of funds”

Where the resources come from:

The village’s own income — small taxes and fees on houses, water, shops and markets, and rent from Panchayat land or ponds.
Grants and a share of taxes from the State government, worked out on the advice of the State Finance Commission.
Grants from the Central government, recommended by the Finance Commission and given to every Panchayat in the country.
Scheme money that comes tied to a purpose — the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana for all-weather roads, and employment, sanitation and drinking-water missions.
The villagers’ own labour and contributions. Hiware Bazar on page 166 is the chapter’s proof: “with the collaboration of the villagers”, rainwater harvesting, watershed conservation and lakhs of trees turned a drought-hit village green.

Check it yourself: ask at home when the last Gram Sabha or ward meeting was held in your village or locality, and what was decided. In most States the Gram Sabha must meet at least twice a year, and everyone on the voters’ list has the right to be there.

Q4.

What will happen if there is a dispute about land or if some of the crop is stolen?

Answer

These are two different kinds of problem, and they take two different paths.

	A dispute about land	Crop that has been stolen
What it is	A disagreement between two villagers about a boundary, a share or ownership	A crime — someone has taken what belongs to another
First step	The land records are checked. This is exactly why the chapter introduces the Patwari on page 167, “who maintains the villagers’ land records” and sometimes keeps maps “generations old”	A complaint to the police, who are part of the executive at the State level
Local help	Elders and the Gram Panchayat often help the two sides settle it; many States also have a Nyaya Panchayat or Gram Kachahri for small disputes	The Sarpanch and Panchayat may help find who did it and get the matter reported, but they cannot punish anyone
If it is not settled	It goes to the revenue officials and then to the courts — the judiciary	The police investigate and the case goes to a court, which decides guilt and punishment

The line to remember: a Panchayat governs and develops; it does not judge and punish. Deciding whether a law has been broken is the work of the judiciary, and enforcing it is the work of the police — the two organs you met in Chapter 10. Keeping these separate is the ‘separation of powers’, and it holds at the village level too.

Q5.

Many such questions can arise in a village. Can people run to the State or the national capital for every such issue?

Answer

No — and that single ‘no’ is the reason this chapter exists.

Think about what running to the capital would actually mean for a family in Lakshmanpur:

Distance and cost. The State capital may be a day away and the national capital much further. A farmer would lose days of work and money to report a broken hand pump.
Numbers. There are about 600,000 villages. If each sent even one complaint a month, no capital could deal with them.
Knowledge. An officer in a distant capital does not know which culvert washes away every monsoon, or which hamlet has no drinking water. The villagers do.
Speed. A damaged road before the sowing season must be repaired now, not after months of files moving up and down.

So the answer is to bring the government to the village instead: “Panchayats bring governance closer to the people, making it possible for them to actively participate in decision-making processes.” Big matters still go upward — through the Panchayat Samiti to the Zila Parishad, and from there to the State — but the villagers do not have to travel; their plans do.

One line for revision: local problems need local decisions — that is the whole case for Panchayati Raj.

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