Towards Citizen-Centric Administration Through Decentralisation: Lessons from Gandhian Constitution for Free India
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00195561231177036 |
| Author | Prakash Khundrakpam,Jayanta Krishna Sarmah |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
Towards Citizen-Centric
Administration Through
Decentralisation:
Lessons from
Gandhian Constitution
for Free India
Prakash Khundrakpam1 and Jayanta Krishna Sarmah1
Abstract
Contemporary democracies have recognised that the traditional top-down admin-
istrative machinery needs to be reviewed in favour of a citizen-centric adminis-
tration. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) had produced
a number of significant reports in this regard. In this context, this article looks
at an alternative document, Gandhian Constitution for Free India, to draw lessons in
decentralisation and citizen-centric administration. Through a comparative reading
of The Gandhian Constitution in light of Gandhi’s life and ideas, and the extant admin-
istrative system in India, this article highlights the importance of Gandhi’s ideas of
decentralisation for citizen-centric administration in contemporary times. From a
Gandhian vantage point, this article provides a doctrinal defence of decentralisation
as a characteristic of a perfect democracy. The article also revisits the extant con-
stitutional and administrative scheme for decentralisation—political, administrative
and judicial—and provides suggestions that could help upscale and appraise the
process of citizen-centric administration through proper decentralisation.
Keywords
Decentralisation, Citizen-centric Administration, Gandhi, Gandhian Constitution
Introduction
Democracies today claim and aim at citizen-centric governance that takes into
account the ground-level concerns and realities of the general public. In public
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
69(3) 571–583, 2023
© 2023 IIPA
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/00195561231177036
journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa
1 Department of Political Science, Gauhati University, Jalukbari, Assam, India.
Corresponding author:
Prakash Khundrakpam, Department of Political Science, Gauhati University, Jalukbari, Assam 781014,
India.
E-mails: prakashkhundrakpam@gauhati.ac.in; prakash.kh305@gmail.com
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