Historically, India’s countryside has been a neglected lot. In pre-independence era alien rulers of British India, in connivance with their sovereign counterparts i.e. rulers of princely states, used to usurp major chunk of hard-earned income of hapless farmers, accrued from their agriculture produce, in the name of ‘lagaan’ (rent). The revenue so generated was spent, towards palatial luxuries, maintenance of armaments and beautification of the capitals, leaving the villages to fend for themselves. The intractable issue of rural development met the same fate at the hands of sovereign rulers post-independence. The plight of rural poor continues unabated. Majority of villages in India, including Haryana, UP, MP or Rajasthan which are focus of our attention on this forum, still remain without basic civic amenities viz. road, rail/bus service, education, health services, telephone, playgrounds, not to speak of cyber café , pub or discotheque which are still considered as ingredients of alien culture.


Now the question is, even after 62 years of independence, why the pace of development is so slow and lop-sided? Why the developmental activities are centered round the big/metropolitan cities only? In my perception the underdevelopment and backwardness of villages is due to a cumulative effect to the following factors:

(a) Dynastic politics: Politics has been monopolized by a handful of families, be it Haryana, UP or Rajasthan. By hook or by crook these families are able to capture power alternatively- thanks to the coterie of sycophants and vote- brokers around them. Once in power, these leaders exert their energies in accumulating money for themselves and their relatives gliding over Chandigarh, Lucknow, Jaipur or Delhi roads in their Hummers or SUVs giving a damn to their voters and their demands for developmental agenda.

(b) Indifferent attitude of educated youth towards politics and development of their area:

Majority of modern educated youth who migrate to cities or abroad stay away from politics considering it a dirty game which is a wrong perception overlooking the fact that politics is an inalienable part of our life and their indifference comes handy to the type of politicians mentioned above at (a). In the absence of any pressure group consisting of educated people from the constituency, the MLAs/MPs tend to be lax and conveniently ignore the demands for developmental schemes in their respective constituencies.

(c) Lack of political awareness among the villagers: Due to inadequate knowledge, they fail to pursue their agenda with administration in an effective manner and  fail to pressurise  the concerned officials responsible for implementation of the projected schemes.

(d) Malpractices in election: Money and muscle power plays a great role in election thereby making it easy for the corrupt, dishonest candidates with criminal records to make it to the Assembly/Parliament. Such people will have no concern for development of the area.


(e) Gotra Factor in election : Sometimes we are driven by Gotra factor while voting which results in selection of a weak and inefficient candidate who would not be able to deliver inspite of his good intentions – due to his inefficiency.

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PS: Comments from viewers are welcome