Customary village councils (CVCs) are widespread in India but are generally regarded as a waning ‘traditional’ institution, responsible for enforcing caste and gender inequality. This working paper from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), however, reveals a very different picture. CVCs are enjoying a revival and adapting to the democratic element in India’s modern formal institutions. As they have no monopoly, they continually have to earn the authority they exercise.
This paper draws on a data sample of 30 villages in Karnataka state collected between 2001 and 2005. The availability of an increasing range of resources to local communities through government programmes has created a niche for CVCs. They act as gatekeepers between their populations and higher-level electoral and bureaucratic authorities. This engagement is reshaping CVCs. They are becoming more pluralistic in composition, and taking on a wider range of local government functions, providing collective goods and services much valued by villagers. While still seen as ‘traditional’ by villagers, their roles as arbiters and enforces of caste and gender dominance are less significant.
CVCs engage in a wide range of activities, which can be divided into six broad categories:
- Dispute resolution: This is the staple activity of CVCs, for which they are most widely known. All 30 CVCs are engaged in dispute resolution and 80 per cent of local disputes are resolved by CVCs.
- Organising religious activities: In all 30 villages, CVCs play an important role in organising religious ceremonies and festivals.
- Social welfare: Some CVCs are involved in social welfare activities such as providing material support to the disadvantaged.
- Matching development funds: In contemporary India, some development programmes require matching contributions from the local level. CVCs have recently engaged in matching funds in 17 out of 30 villages.
- Autonomous development activities: In 23 out of 30 villages, CVCs have recently initiated their own development activities.
- Interaction with elected local councils (Grama Panchayats): CVC leaders and members interact with Grama Panchayats by contesting Grama Panchayat elections or deciding on the choice of candidates, and/or by influencing decisions about development projects. Such interactions took place in 29 out of 30 villages.
The story of CVCs in Karantaka at least shows that modernity does not necessarily drive out tradition. Policymakers should entertain the possibility that CVCs are becoming more ‘modern’ as they engage with formal political institutions:
- CVCs have in recent years begun to interact with higher-level formal state institutions, notably the Grama Panchayats.
- CVCs have become more pluralist in composition, incorporating to a higher degree both representatives of lower castes and the people who are elected from the village to the higher-level Grama Panchayat.
- Whilst they remain almost entirely male monopolies, they have, in a few cases, begun to allow women to become members for specific purposes.
