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Village Government in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

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Extract

The progress of India during the last fifty years in industrialization and urbanization, though considerable, has not significantly affected the predominantly agricultural and rural character of her society. Five out of every six persons live in villages and four out of every five of these live by agriculture. According to the census of 1951 there are 558,089 villages and 3,018 cities and towns in the Indian Union. Out of a total population of 357 millions, 295 millions or 83 percent live in villages and 62 millions or 17 percent in cities and towns.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1956

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References

1 This variety often makes it difficult to generalize accurately about village government on an India-wide basis. The author has, therefore, drawn his specific examples from the Madras-Andhra Region, an area with which he is particularly familiar.

2 See Dube, S. C., Indian Village (London, 1955)Google Scholar; and Reserve Bank of Inida, All India Rural Credit Survey, Report of the Committee of Direction, Vol. II: The General Report (Bombay, 1954), pp. 5485.Google Scholar

3 Altekar, A. S., The History of Village Communities in Western India, Bombay University Economic Series, No. 5 (Bombay, 1927).Google Scholar

4 Tinker, Hugh R., The Foundations of Local Selj-Government in India, Pakistan and Burma, London University History Studies (London, 1954).Google Scholar

5 Indian National Congress, Village Panchayat Committee, Report (New Delhi, 1954).Google Scholar

6 India, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Agricultural Legislation in India, Vol. V: Village Panchayats (New Delhi, 1954).Google Scholar

7 Figures taken from official as well as unofficial sources.

8 India, Local Finance Enquiry Committee, Report (Delhi, 1951).Google Scholar