The Editors

James Jaffe is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and Fellow of the Institute for Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, as well as an affiliated faculty member of the Center for South Asia. He has headed projects grant-funded by the National Science Foundation, the US-UK Fulbright Commission, and the Ford Foundation at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Marc Galanter is Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and Honorary Professor of Law at the National Law University, Delhi. A Fulbright Scholar at the University of Delhi, Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies and legal consultant to the Ford Foundation in India, he has taught South Asian Law, Law and Social Science, Religion and the Law, Contracts, Dispute Processing and Negotiations, in the US and abroad. He has authored books and articles related to law, the legal profession and the provision of legal services in India.

Note to Readers
Panchayats and Related Matters: A Timeline
Select Colonial Terms Used in the Extracts

Introduction

SECTION I: 1800–1858 Panchayats under the East India Company

I:1  Abbé J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, trans. and ed. Henry K. Beauchamp, 3rd edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906), pp. 654–656.

I:2  Thomas Munro, Report of the Collector of the Ceded Districts of 15th August 1807, on the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Zemindary Permanent Settlements and of the Ryotwar Settlements, British Library, IOR/H/686, pp. 225–308. Extract.

I:3  Madras Regulation V of 1816.

I:4  Letter from John Briggs to John Malcolm (1819), reprinted in Evans Bell, Memoir of General John Briggs of the Madras Army (London, 1885), pp. 83–84.

I:5  Mountstuart Elphinstone, Report on the Territories Conquered from the Paishwa (Calcutta: Government Gazette Press, 1821). Extracts.

I:6  Minute by Sir Thomas Munro, 31 December 1824, Selection of Papers from the Records at East-India House, Vol. III (London, 1826), pp. 622–623. Extract.

I:7  Anon., “System of Punchayet, or Indian Trial by Jury,” The Oriental Herald, 8: 27 (March 1826), pp. 457–470.

I:8  Anon., “The Punchayet, or Hindu Form of Arbitration,” Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, 21: 124 (April 1826),
pp. 475–481.

I:9  John Munro, “Punchayets,” Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, 21: 126 ( June 1826), pp. 715–716.

I:10  Rajah Rammohun Roy, Exposition of the Practical Operation of the Judicial and Revenue Systems of India (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1832) pp. 20–25. Extract.

I:11  H. Clarke, Report on Chaukidari Assessment, Selections from the Records of Government, North Western Provinces, Vol. 1 (Agra, 1855). Extract.

I:12  Bengal Regulation XX of 1856. Extract.

CASES

I:13  Nhanee Widow of Atmaram Nana v. Hureeram Doolubh and the Cast [sic] of Sreemalee Brahmins, Reports of Civil Causes Adjudged by the Court of Sudur Udalut for the Presidency of Bombay between the Years A.D. 1800 and A.D. 1824, Vol. 1, ed. H. Borradaile (Bombay, 1825), pp. 84–91.

I:14  Ghelajee Nana Bhaee v. Umar Singh and others forming the Rujpoot Punchayut, Reports of Civil Causes Adjudged by the Court of Sudur Udalut for the Presidency of Bombay between the years A.D. 1800 and A.D. 1824, Vol. 1, ed. H. Borradaile (Bombay, 1825), pp. 389–391.

I:15  Gerdhur Mooljee v. Jugjeeven Luxmeechundh on the part of the Vitnarah Punchayet, Reports of Selected Cases, Decided by the Sudder Dewanee Adawlut, Bombay (Bombay, 1843), pp. 94–96.

I:16  Juveer-Bhaee and others v. Vuruj-Bhaee and others, Reports of Cases Heard and Determined by the Judicial Committee, and the Lords of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, on Appeal from the Supreme and Sudder Dewanny Courts in the East Indies, 1841–46, ed. Edmund Moore (London, n.d.), pp. 324–328.

SECTION II: 1858–1918 Panchayats and the Raj

II:1  Bombay Hereditary Offices Act, 1874, Part III.

II:2  William Wedderburn, “The Panchayat: Conciliation as a Remedy for Agrarian Disorders in India,” Journal of the East India Association, Vol. XI (1877–78), pp. 115–149. Extract.

II:3  Poona Draft Panchayat Bill, 1879, Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Vol. II: No. 1 ( July 1879).

II.4  “The Revival of Village Panchayets,” Akhbar-i-Anjuman‑i-Panjab, 27 September 1878, reprinted in G. W. Leitner, Indigenous Elements of Self Government in India (London: East India Association, 1884), pp. 37–42.

II:5  Punjab Panchayat Act, 1912.

II:6  Madras Local Boards Act, 1884, Chapter V.

II:7  M. K. Gandhi, “Petition to Natal Legislative Assembly,” 1894, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. I, pp. 144–148.

II:8  Report of the Royal Commission upon Decentralization in India (London: HMSO, 1909), Part III: Chapter XVIII.

II:9  Sidney Webb, “Preface,” in John Matthai, Village Government in British India (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1915), pp. ix–xiv, xvi–xvii.

II:10  Indian Local Self-Government Policy, 1915: Being a Resolution Issued by the Governor General in Council on the 28th April 1915 (Calcutta, 1915), pp. 34–38.

II:11  Annie Besant, “Congress Presidential Address,” December 1917, in Speeches and Writings of Annie Besant, 3rd edition (Madras, n.d.). Extract.

CASES

II:12  Rani Mewa Kuwar v. Rani Hulas Kuwar, Lawrance’s Bengal Law Reports, Vol. XIII (1874), pp. 312–323. Extracts.

II:13  Empress of India v. Mohan Lal, Indian Law Reports: Allahabad Series, Vol. IV (1881), pp. 46–49.

II:14  Gobind Das v. Bishambar Das, The Law Reports: Indian Appeals, Vol. XLIV (1916–1917), pp. 192–201. Extracts.

II:15  Bai Ganga v. Emperor, All India Reporter: Bombay Section (1916).

II:16  Ramathai Vadivelu Mudaliar v. Peria Manicka Mudaliar, Calcutta Weekly Notes, Vol. XXIV (1920), pp. 699–703.

SECTION III: 1918–1947 Panchayats and the Independence Movement

III:1  Report of the Civil Disobedience Enquiry Committee (1922).

III:2  M. K. Gandhi, Young India, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 52, 28 May 1931, pp. 191–193.

III:3  Civil Justice Committee Report, 1924–5 (Rankin Report).

III:4  M. K. Munniswamy Aiyar, “Panchayat Courts,” in Statutory Gram Panchayats in British India (Calcutta, 1929).

III:5  Malcolm Lyall Darling, C.I.E., Wisdom and Waste in the Punjab Village (Oxford University Press, 1934),
pp. 138 143.

III:6  B. R. Ambedkar, Debate on Village Panchayats Bill, Bombay Legislative Assembly, 1932, in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, ed. Vasant Moon (New Delhi: Ambedkar Foundation, 2014).

III:7  Anon., “The Village Panchayat,” The Rural India, IV: 2 (February 1941), pp. 57–59.

III:8  K. S. Srikantan, “Farewell to Lawyers,” The Rural India, IV: 1 ( January 1941), pp. 14–16.

III:9  Malcolm Darling, “The Indian Village and Democracy,” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 91: 4645 (6 August 1943), pp. 486–497. Extract.

III:10  Shriman Narayan Agarwal, Gandhian Constitution for Free India (1946), Chapter VI.

III:11  K. T. Shah, A Draft of the Panchayet Constitution for Free India (1947). Extracts.

CASES

III:12  Naraindas Assanmal and others v. Valabdas Vishandas and others, All India Reporter 1929 Sind I.

III:13  Devchand Totaram Kirange and another v. Ganashyam Sakharan Chaudari and others, All India Reporter 1935 Bombay 361.

III:14  Panchayat Board, Razole v. Sait Amichand Dungarmal Firm represented by Sait Anjarimal and others, All India Reporter 1941 Madras 686.

III:15  Manjoo v. Emperor, Indian Cases, Vol. 73 (1923).

SECTION IV: The Panchayat since 1947

IV:1  B. R. Ambedkar, Introduction of Draft Constitution to the Constituent Assembly, 4 November 1948.

IV:2  H. D. Malaviya, “Reflections on Village Panchayats,” A.I.C.C. Economic Review, 15 June 1954.

IV:3  K. N. Katju, “Economic, Non-economic and Judicial Aspects of Village Panchayats,” A.I.C.C. Economic Review, 1 July 1954.

IV:4  Report of the Congress Village Panchayat Committee (1954), Chapter XII.

IV:5  Law Commission of India: 14th Report (Reform of Judicial Administration), 1958, Vol. II, Chapter 43. Extracts.

IV:6  Report of the Study Team on Nyaya Panchayats (New Delhi: Government of India, Ministry of Law, 1962). Extracts.

IV:7  Report of the Legal Aid Committee (Gandhinagar: Government Central Press, 1971). Extracts.

IV:8  Report on National Juridicare: Equal Justice—Social Justice (New Delhi: Government of India, Ministry of Law, 1977). Extracts.

IV:9  Law Commission of India: Prevention of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances (in the name of Honour and Tradition): A Suggested Legal Framework, Report No. 242 (2012). Extracts.

IV:10  Report of the Committee on Amendments to the Criminal Law ( Justice Verma’s Report, 2013), Chapter 8, “Khap Panchayats and Honour Killings.”

CASES

IV:11  Venkatachala Naicken v. The Panchayat Board, Ethapur, 17 September 1952.

IV:12  Lata Singh v. State of U.P. & Another, 7 July 2006.

IV:13  Santra Devi v. Angoori Devi and Another, 6 September 2011.

IV:14  Shakti Vahini v. Union of India and Others, 27 March 2018. Extracts.

Conclusions and New Directions
Further Readings
Index