Sir, I am sorry that Dr. Ambedkar went out of his way to speak about village panchayats and say that they did not provide the proper proper background for a modern constitution. To some extent I agree but at the same time I do not agree with his condemnation of the village panchayats and his statements that they were responsible for all the national disasters. I think that in spite of revolutions and changes, they have preserved Indian life and but for them India will be a chaos. I wish that some statutory provision had been inserted regarding village autonomy within proper limits. Of course there are difficulties because there are villages which are very small and there are big villages, and many of them may have to be grouped for establishing panchayats, but I do think that at some stage or other when all the provinces have set up panchayats, their existence may have to be recognized in the Constitution, for in the long run local autonomy for each village must constitute the basic framework for the future freedom of this country.
