The Aundh Experiment was an early test of village-level

self-government __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

which began in 1938 in

Aundh State Aundh State was a Maratha princely state in the British Raj, in the Deccan States Agency division of the Bombay Presidency. The Principality of Aundh covered an area of 1298 square kilometers with the population of 88,762 in 1941. The capital ...

in present-day

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, and

Maurice Frydman Maurice Frydman (''Maurycy Frydman'' or ''Maurycy Frydman-Mor'' in Polish), aka ''Swami Bharatananda'' (20 October 1901 in Warsaw, Russian Empire – 9 March 1976 in Mumbai, Bombay, India), was an engineer and humanitarian who spent the later par ...

helped to draft the November Declaration, which handed over rule of

from the Raja to the residents, and became law in the Swaraj Constitution of Aundh in 1939. The Aundh Experiment was an unusual idea in pre-independence India, where the rulers of

princely states A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

were loath to hand over their power.Allen, pp. 314-5.

Development and ratification

At the time, Aundh was a princely state in British India, ruled by generations of Rajas since 1699. Unlike the

Provinces of India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, which were ruled directly by the British government, the princely states had a certain degree of autonomy—with each state making its own treaty with the

British Monarch The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwi ...

. In 1938, the ruler of Aundh, Raja Bhavanrao Srinivasrao, was approached by Frydman (also known as Swami Bharatananda), a Polish engineer who was a disciple of Gandhi. According to the Raja's son,

Apa Pant Appasaheb Pant (1912-1992), also known as Apa Pant, Appa Pant, Appa Sahib Pant, Appsaheb Balasaheb Pant, Parashuram-rao Pant (Parashuram being his first name), was an Indian diplomat, Prince of Aundh, Gandhian, writer and freedom fighter. A phil ...

, "Frydman had great influence with my father, and on his seventy-fifth birthday he said, 'Raja Saheb, why don't you go and make a declaration to Mahatma Gandhi that you are giving all power to the people because it will help in the freedom struggle.'" Raja Bhavanrao was a strong supporter of the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

, and stood up for the welfare of the people of Aundh, "in sharp contrast to the attitude and behavior of the majority of Maharajas and Rajas", according to

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

. The Raja readily endorsed the idea of self-government, Frydman wrote a draft declaration, and the Raja and his son traveled to Wardha to see Gandhi. There, Gandhi dictated the final draft of the constitution, which was sent to the state assembly to be ratified on January 21, 1939. The Raja was a self-proclaimed nationalist, and the beginning of the experiment in 1938 caused concern among the British rulers, who reprimanded him for being a friend of Gandhi, who they called "the rebel against the Raj." In response,

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

and the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

offered their support to the Raja.Alter, p. 104.

Swaraj Swarāj ( sa, स्वराज, translit=Svarāja '' sva-'' "self", '' raj'' "rule") can mean generally self-governance or "self-rule". It was first used by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to attain self rule from the Mughal Empire and the Adil ...

, or self-rule, was the foundation of Gandhi's movement for independence from British domination, and included the principles of decentralised self-governance and community building. At the inauguration of the constitution, Raja Bhavanrao affirmed Gandhi's ideals of Swaraj, declaring that:

We have to urge the people of Aundh to remember always that government being control, self government implies self-control and self-sacrifice. In the new era that is coming to Aundh, and we hope to the whole of our country, the strong will serve the weak, the wealthy will serve the poor, the learned will serve the illiterate. Self government without this spirit of service and sacrifice is bound to decay into some form or other of exploitation.

After ratification

After ratification, the state of Aundh was reorganized from the ground up, with local administration put in the hands of village ''

panchayat The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical ment ...

s'' with five elected representatives, voted into office through new voting rights given to all adults. Each ''panchayat'' chose a president, who represented them at regional ''taluka'' councils. Each ''taluka'' council chose a president and two representatives to a Central Assembly presided over by the raja. In spite of the Raja's role as leader of the Assembly, responsibility for regional government was, for all practical purposes, in the hands of the people. The ''panchayats'' were given responsibility for all matters relating to education, welfare, water supply, sanitation, construction and maintenance of roads and public buildings, and all other activities relating to the health safety, and social and economic wellbeing of the villagers. Between 1939 and 1945, twenty-seven new primary schools were established, making more than one per village. In addition, fourteen middle schools and three high schools were built and staffed, with the total number of teachers more than doubling. Adult education also saw a doubling of expenditure.Alter, p. 100. Several Indian National Congress leaders from

became actively involved in the Aundh Experiment in the 1940s, including Tatya Shikhare, Annasaheb Sahasrabudhe, and Nana and Bhau Dharmadhikari. When Achutrao Patwardan went into hiding to avoid arrest during the

Quit India The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule i ...

movement in 1946, he used Aundh villages as his base of operations. He went as far as adopting the language of the Aundh State Constitution, declaring that he and his band of freedom fighters were "''Prati Sakar''"—"self-governing and independent of the Central Authority." The Aundh Experiment in village-level self-rule endured until Indian independence in 1947, when all of the princely states were merged into the new

Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...

Notes

References

* Allen, Charles;

Dwivedi, Sharada Sharada Dwivedi (शारदा द्विवेदी),( 1942 – 6 February 2012) was an Indian author, historian and researcher. She wrote several books on the history and culture of both India and Mumbai (formerly Bombay). She was on the p ...

. ''Lives of the Indian Princes''. London: Century Publishing (1984). . *Alter, Joseph S. ''Gandhi's Body''. University of Pennsylvania Press (2000). . *Parel, Anthony. ''Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-Rule''. Lexington Books (2000). .

Development and ratification

After ratification

See also

Notes

References

Further reading