Swaraj

by Arvind Kejriwal

The last one-and-a-half years in India have been defined by the anti-graft agitation led by Anna Hazare. His key lieutenant, Arvind Kejriwal, has played a central role in the movement.

In 2012, as it became clear that the political establishment was not going to accede to the main demand of the movement to pass the Lokpal Bill. Team Anna demanded the setting up of a Special Investigative Team to probe corrupt politicians. On 25 July 2012, Kejriwal, along with two of his colleagues and Anna Hazare, sat on a fast to press this demand.

This book, which serves as a manifesto for the movement going forward, gives practical suggestions as to what the ordinary citizen, the opinion makers and the political establishment in India can do to provide a political alternative, or to achieve true swaraj (self-rule).

The authors central point is that power must shift from New Delhi and the state capitals to the village councils and the town communities, so that people can be directly empowered to take decisions about their own lives. A must-read for anyone with a dream to leave behind a better India for the next generation.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, India

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Arvind Kejriwal is a social activist fighting for transparent and participatory governance. He is considered to be one of the main architects of the Jan Lokpal movement or the Anna movement, which shook the nation in 2011. He graduated in mechanical engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1989 and joined Tata Steel. In 1992, he joined India Revenue Service (IRS). He took a long leave from the government in the year 2000 to set up an NGO, Parivartan. In 2006,he resigned from the government. In 2006, he was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for his work on Right To Information (RTI).

Reviews

[Kedar Kulkarni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some observations -

Motivation - 4 cases exist in current system.
1. Representative takes good decision, people like it.
2. Rep takes good decision, people don't like it.
3. Rep takes bad decision(deliberately/by mistake), people like it.
4. Rep takes bad decision (deliberately/by mistake), people don't like it.
The mere existence of 4th case indicates that whole system is flawed and hence we restructure it without saying even a word about how it affects the first 3 cases. Policy dynamics? What's that?

Assumptions -
1. People are as far-sighted as the representatives they elect (who, by the way, spend rest of their lives learning about governance) and people always take good decisions.
2. Lokpal watches over everyone and is a non-corrupt body.
3. All people (want to) attend gram-sabha / mohalla-sabha.

Keywords - Control, punish

Concept - Today one corrupt rep gets to keep whole 1 Cr in bribe. So to be fair, we form new bodies which will enable 10 corrupt people to keep 0.1 Cr each. We give positive examples of Swaraj that are working in the current system and yet contradict ourselves in the next paragraph by saying current system does not work! Also we give lame explanations to justify how the whole exercise won't strengthen Khap panchayats and Naxalites.
Also this (actual sentence from the book), [if people fight with each other in gram-sabha] "they will have only themselves to blame for their fate, their life, poverty and unemployment".

Final verdict (My own) - Introduction of gram-sabha and mohalla-sabha as a citizen feedback system which can hold your rep accountable is good. For everything else, read motivation part above. I sincerely request everyone interested to read this book, think over it and make up your own opinions about the 'Swaraj' model. According to me, Kejriwal's interpretation of democracy is wrong. Also I don't see why Kejriwal's Swaraj gets so much importance when there are many other books by scholars presenting alternate models of democracy. This 140 page book is a pathetic exercise of redefining democracy.

[MG · Rating 1 out of 5]

Almost romantic, with gaping flaws.

The book correctly highlights that there are major problems in the governance structure today which cause much distress to the people. However, while reading the book it seems that everybody who is in any position of power right now is corrupt and the 'people' whoever they are, are all knowing. This is rather depressing.

According to the author all the problems would be solved if there is near complete transfer of power to the the gram/mohalla sabhas.

There are indeed some good suggestions in the book like:

1. the need to elicit opinion of people before their representatives vote in the legislatures
2. greater control over finances by preferring untied funds
3. no payments being made to contractors unless a certificate of satisfaction is issued by the gram sabha
4. power to recall the sarpanch
5. decisions of gram sabha to be binding on the sarpanch
6. making governement documents more accessible


However the author has gone to the other extreme and many of his suggestions can lead to major problems. Let us consider some of them:

allowing gram sabha to appoint and dismiss employees like teachers and doctors

There are many problems in this. Teachers and doctors are professionals, how will gram sabha ascertain which doctor/teacher is the most meritorious? Will each gram sabha create its own selection process? Suppose they are somehow properly selected, what will happen if the doctors actions though correct go against popular wisdom? And what are the rights of the employee when he/she is arbitrarily dismissed? Is he going to sue the entire village?
This is almost like electing teachers and doctors.

State government to not have any power to give directions

This is ridiculous. What if there is an emergency like an epidemic and certain steps need to be taken? Will one need to convince each and every gram sabha before action can be taken? What if the situation gets out of hand in the meanwhile? Even the State government needs to work according to directions of the Central government at times, so why not the Panchayats. There is a need to rationalise the direction giving power but not completely do away with it.

There are several such problematic propositions in the book and I will not go into each of them here.

Some reviewers have compared this book to Gandhiji's Hind Swaraj and have called it model to achieve the Swaraj he dreamt of.
However Gandhiji's Swaraj is completely different. It is not merely "people taking all decisions for themselves" as is popularly believed.
It is more of a critique on the 'modern civilization' which emphasises on 'pursuit of comfort and convenience for the body'. According to him such pursuits leave us 'weak' and 'dependent'. And he even goes on to say that there is no need for doctors or railways and even literacy.
Rather his swaraj means self-rule that can only come from 'self-control'. Only when we are independent of material desires can we be truly free. Otherwise all our actions will be determined by such desires. Instead one needs to focus on ethical living.
Thus Kejriwal's Swaraj and Gandhiji's Swaraj are very different things.

It is good that such books are being written and people are increasingly discussing governance and political issues and looking for solutions. However one needs to resist the temptation of calling the entire current establishment as completely corrupt and refrain from extreme solutions that might only end up doing more damage.

[In · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the first view, it appears to be overly ambitious project. After a little thought in it, we recall that long back a certain Mr. M. K. Gandhi, proposed the same. Empowering the villages is the only road to empowering the nation. Making sure the building blocks are of perfect quality is the only way to make sure the whole structure will withstand anything.

The book advocates the importance of empowering the progress of individual village, by the villagers. This shift in power makes the villagers capable, resourceful and responsible for their actions and consequences. Their proposal keeps the Government only as a mediating entity, and not the dictator of policy formations.

The book also adds a lot of verifiable data points and case studies to strengthen the value of the proposal. The goodness of the model lies in trusting the purity of spirit of an individual, especially when he has to voice it out as a whole group. I buy that idea, I want to be the optimist who trusts the masses to take decisions towards the greater good.

[Vishwanath K N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very bad book to read.. Half of the book has wordings "Give power and fund to people/ gram sabha". Every page, every sentence has the same meaning. One single sentence is made as big book.. Very depressing book to read. Giving power back to people is good but AK's vision of complete power transfer in the hands of people create chaos. AK's arguments are very weak and naive. He presumes society is filled with morality and generalises everything with few exceptional examples. He still thinks like a youth of early twenties who thinks everything in this world is wrong and I can change the world with one action(like superhero)..

[Anurag · Rating 4 out of 5]

If somebody asks to define the books in just one word, that will be ‘Decentralization’. 'Swaraj' or self-rule focuses on political decentralization. Same is the focus of the book by Arvind Kejriwal. It talks about empowering people to take decisions about their own lives. Problems concerning Aam Aadmi (common man) like education, food & water, and housing are solved in the light of Swaraj.

The e-book version is free to download(just do a Google search) and is available in both Hindi and English. The Hindi version which I downloaded consists of only 80 pages and can be easily read in 3hrs. Apart from Swaraj and its usefulness in the current Indian sociopolitical context the book, in my opinion, can also be seen as the political ideology of Kejriwal and the recently formed Aam Aadmi Party(AAP).

I feel the book has the ability to serve a lot of readers. Its readers can be the people who want to know about: Swaraj, its implementation, its practicality, current sociopolitical issues in India and their resolution by self-rule and self-governance.

Easy to read, easy to comprehend!

[Anushree · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read the first few pages and you have read the complete book. Repetitive content, becomes very boring after few pages.

The book repeats three things again and again and again. (3 agains are less for its description)

- Everyone in the bureaucracy is corrupt and thats because of powers vested in central and state governments
- Give all the powers to Gram Sabha (from planning to execution, from funds to hiring govt employees)
- Punishment is important

He has no views on development and incentives. His intention is just to bring revolution. This will only lead to civil wars, definitely NOT growth.

Should have read this before elections!

[Singh · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good read for the semi-literate.

[Girish H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Problems are good.. but the solution is not convening.

[Aanchal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is in fact a long essay written to highlight the advantages of Panchayati raj system over the present system. The book focuses on providing swaraj (self-rule) to villages and mohallas in towns.
The book brings before us the views of Team Anna/Aam Aadmi Party. The book is a thought provoking one and leaves you thinking where the country is headed. The examples of various successful experiments experiments conducted all over India to give powers to gram sabha and mohalla sabha say it all. They show that there is a lot more development and less corruption when people rule (a true democracy). Today we choose the government but after elections we have no say in the decisions taken by them. We have to abide by these decisions regardless of the fact that they are totally against us. Today's system has made the government "of the people", "by the people" but in no way "for the people". The book discusses various views to establish the government "for the people" as well and bring in true democracy in India.
A must read.

[Parth Agrawal · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book follows a pattern and that pattern is that it generates interest and establishes that its gonna take you through a good learning spree of the subject matter but as soon as this reaches to a crescendo,it drops you ḍown back on earth.

Initially it keeps on ranting about the age old problems that India has had since independence. Afterwards it has a myopic focus on the key topics "Gram Sabha" "Gram Panchayat" and "Mohalla Sabha". The whole narrative revolves around this and extensive hagiography of the above mentioned topics goes on.

Solutions per se have been provided at the end but are a bit far fetched as the author has tried to claim that every problem of corruption in administration and execution of the law in India can be solved by "proper" empowering of the panchayati system.

[Rohit Shinde · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about Arvind Kejriwal's manifesto for the upcoming elections in 2014. He is a social activist turned politician. He has floated his own party and intends to fight election through it.

This book is not a book in the traditional sense. It is an election manifesto. He states what chanages he wants to implement. Although he sounds idealistic, I would like to give this guy a chance.

[Nishtha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The core moves around for the decentralization of powers for the betterment of people, for the proper utilization of resources and many more.
It emphasizes for creating GRAM-SABHAS on small levels so that the problems can be solved on the ground level. Its more of a utopian society. It also questions the basic pillars of our nation as DEMOCRACY and Federalism.
Small idea big change !

[Varsha Gupta · Rating 1 out of 5]

In 2011 this guy seems to be like a nice one but now the biggest fraud of all time. He came to change the politics of India. However, he has done the same. Raping women for ration card. Seeling tickets of an upper house. Yes, Arvind, you have changed the Indian politics. Now, no one ever believes on a newcomer of politics even if he appears to be genuine.

[Dhirendra Verma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Swaraj is practically a not possible dream of upcoming India. It will only cause disturbances in society. Its my own viewpoint as I see people fighting even for a little money, how can they decide development issues in open?

[Ashish Om Gourav · Rating 1 out of 5]

Monochromatic & confuses the immensely touted concept of 'swaraj' with 'Gram & Mohalla' Sabhas-model of Governance. It's as much above the surface as it is underneath.

[Gaurav · Rating 1 out of 5]

हाँ देख लिए तुम्हारा स्वराज। खाली भांजते हो।

[Kartik Singhal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ended up reading a Hindi book after many years, a 'Kathetar' (non-fiction, new word learnt!) on that.

Little Background:

I haven't followed Kejriwal's or Anna's movement from the beginning. I first gave serious attention when AAP managed to win a substantial number of seats in Delhi last December. Since then, I have come to admire Kejriwal's clarity of thought, his ideas and his mission, all of which can be ascertained in any of his recent interviews or QA's with audience where neither the interviewer nor the public leave any stone unturned to grill him.

In a couple of months since then, I realized, he and his team have managed to gather a good amount of support at least among the young educated middle class. But I could not imagine how his ideas appeal to the larger population of the country. I decided to find out by diving further.

Review:

This book lets one understand what Kejriwal means when he uses words like Swaraj or when he says if we let the current status quo maintain, "ye desh nahi bachega".

Most of us reading this review can't claim to fathom the problems faced by people at the lowest level of social hierarchy. The author describes those problems, how they came to be in the present system and how things can radically change. Both the problems and their suggested solutions are backed by facts, examples (from other democracies) and experiments demonstrating years of research.

We have all heard that definition of democracy by Abraham Lincoln - "government of the people, by the people, for the people" - but probably never gave a thought about how that could work out in reality. By real life examples, author manages to convince how participatory democracy at the grass root level could be a solution to many of the country's basic problems, how empowered people are responsible people.

You read the book with a critical eye and tend to raise doubts or find flaws in the presented ideas but don't get too surprised when you get all your answers before you reach the last chapter. Just to cite one (spoilers ahead), I was skeptic when most of the book talked about gram sabhas and not how the idea of Swaraj would play in big cities. Come the last but one chapter, and I learn why - our constitution recognizes gram sabhas but doesn't talk about any such general meetings at city level, but experiments done at Delhi in the form of muhalla sabhas illustrate how effective these meetings could be.

Go, read the book to understand the positive ideas behind all the 'negativity' spread by Kejriwal. If not for that, then just for a small, thoroughly enjoyable and hard to come by non-fiction.

[Anshul Goel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kejriwal has explained what a democracy means and how we as a country are really far from it. He has explained how things can improve by shifting the power back to people. He has literally given solution to each and every problem of the country through this solution which was practiced till 1860 when British dismantled it to gain power. Since then, we as a country have moved year by year away from democracy.
Book talks about various issues that have plagued our country and how can they be resolved through the much suggested and talked about democratic setup. Various examples from across the globe has also been given in the book to enlighten us about the democracy.
I would say a definite read. At least one would know what democracy is and how far have we come from what we used to be; world’s first democracy at Vaishali.
I would give a 4/5 on book, for I came across a bit of repetition but would give 5/5 for the content..!!

[Priyank Kumar Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A must read book for every Indian.This book highlights the problem the citizens of India are facing & emphasises on giving power to the people challenging the prevailing political system in the country.It also explains how this will lead to the betterment of the people & the country.

[Pranay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost a complete account of what has been done and what is needed to change the condition of India as a democracy. I thank the author to provide the solution of the same. Great Work!

[Pratip Aditya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The editing could have been a better nontheless the message comes out clearly. This book to some might be a book of activism and corruption but underneath it lies an economic perspective which probably has never been tried before in Indian Economy- the bottom-up approach. Though the reliability of this new way is still to be tested, the book though is a good read. It could have been better had the grammatical and punctuation errors been rectified

[Mohit Garg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read so many articles, editorials and essays on the subject of this book so I didn't find anything new in it..but this book serves the objective of it and explains with so many examples in layman's language 'what is swaraj'? And how it can be achieved? How real power can be transferred to people through Gram Sabha? It highlights the problems of the current system where people have no say in the functioning of the government, they rarely see elected representatives after elections, people have no say over policies and programmes, functioning of government workers and officials, no control over funds etc. By empowering the Gram Sabha author points out that most of the problems of villages can be solved. In case of towns, it talks about empowering the Mohalla Sabha in line with the Gram Sabhas.

This book is written in a very simple language and many real life examples from different parts of the country are there to elaborate a point. Also, author forego his right to claim royalty on this book so that publisher can make available this book to maximum number of people at a reasonable price.

[Aditya Ajith · Rating 3 out of 5]

GIVE THE POWER TO PEOPLE!

The true meaning of Swaraj.

Arvind Kejriwal articulates what it means for people to decide for their own lives and lays down postulates for bottom up development of Indian villages and cities.

[Vinit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly gives a lot of examples of advantages of empowerig gram sabhas and decentralising power to the roots

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I happened to be in Delhi on the day(s) of the election, and soon after when the Aam Aadmi Party swept into power on their astonishing new broom, with the promise of cleaning the Augean stables that masqueraded as the democratic polity of India. It was an eye opener to me that every driver, maidservant and sweeper that throngs the fringes of the rich and middle class homes and play places, had voted for them, and cheered as news came in indicating the complete crushing of the Congress dynasty and the bruising of the BJP elephant.

So to the book, it's a simplistic book of no great literary value, but it's a passionate cry for a better and more viable mode of democracy that currently scars India as she is bled dry by the corrupt and powerful, while the middle classes shrug and turn away whinging about corruption and doing nothing about it. (I have to shamefacedly include myself in that sorry bunch)

Some people seem to think its a political manifesto, but given that it was written in the days before the AAP came into being, to me it reads like something of a technical manual of how to fix the problem of corruption that begets endemic poverty.

Given that the Westminister model in India has been bastardised to such an extent, there is no harm in trying another model of Swaraj, or self rule. Kejriwal lays out the problems and proposes a model blinding in its simplicity, extreme local government by the people, for the people and of the people. Other people cry out that it is anarchical, and mobocracy, but the greatest thing of Kejriwal's thinking is the respect and trust he gives the 'aam aadmi' or common man. Surely they can do no worse than the current mobs? In this current model, India seems headed for chaos anyway, as naxalism gains ground as the poor become more and more desperate.

The book refuses to descend into communal, casteist or religious propaganda, or even class warfare, so maybe its does of common sense is not such a bad idea.

Sadly by now, we've seen a return to shoddy power politics by the status quo with the dismissal of the AAP party and the Governor's refusal to hold elections. You can watch a lot of interviews on Youtube and elsewhere, where Kejriwal handles himself very well, for a novice politician, or maybe he isn't one at all?

A quick read, and a telling commentary on present day India. Surely we need a third choice?

[Sanju Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that is highly relevant in the conditions prevailing in our country today.

I feel that every Indian should read this at least once, it takes little investment from your part (90 Rupees and three hours).
Arvind Kejrival denounced the royalties for the book to make it affordable, so that the message could reach maximum people.

'Swaraj' takes the idea of 'self-rule' proposed by Gandhi and churns out a thorough analysis that makes perfect sense, given the political and economic conditions in India right now.
It is precise and to the point. He takes us through the inherent inefficiencies in our political system, citing examples wherever possible. He then goes on to introduce the idea of local self government (Gram Sabhas) and the crucial need for electoral and political reforms.
Sure there are Gram Sabha's in the country today, but they are given little or no power to make decisions that can actually benefit people.

There are many criticisms/doubts raised against gram sabhas. The book attempts to go through each of these and explain how they can be dealt with, and does a marvelous job at that. The accounts of certain exemplary Gram Sabhas that have completely transformed some backward villages in the country will surely bring a smile to your face.

Most people associate Aravind Kejriwal with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but this was written way before AAP's inception (July 2012), and whether you are an AAP supporter or not, I highly recommend that all my fellow Indians give this one a read.
This is the India that Gandhi envisioned. And we can definitely reach that goal if we all work together.

[Avinash Pandey · Rating 4 out of 5]

#Swaraj# Reading this make an urbanite to see the shady mirror and murkier politics which ampute development at ground level. Swaraj is people self rule where gram sabhas comprising villagers decide what they want and officials have to oblige by fulfilling those demands or face punitive action decided by such gram sabhas. The funding must be allowed ' untied' to any social schemes such as NREGA, Indira Awas Yojana or Sarv siksha abhiyan, let the villagers decide their priority and necessity and invest amount as per local prevalent inadequacies. Let not Delhi decide the scheme uniformly to increase ground water reserve , albeit unaware of the fact that the periphery rural area is actually flood prone and may require a dam or better controlled irrigation.
Kejriwal puts forward a apt solution to deal with this age old problem of corruption and nepotism which plagues rural development.

Disclaimer: Kejriwal has declared not to take royality on sales of this book.. costs only Rs 150.
" Change is hard at the beginning, messy in the middle , but beautiful at the end.
Best wishes for AK and Delhi.

[Akshaya Srivatsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a believer and a skeptic of Kejriwal's suggestions in this book. The sure way to know is to try it out and that he is already doing that in Delhi. This books talks about a paradigm shift in politics: where power is devolved from all the "Babus" in Parliament to the people of India.

Great read. Principles sound very left but who cares: he has some great suggestions to fix India's crumbling democracy.

[Gautam M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book's suggestions appears good on paper, the central theme of endowing power and autonomy to "Gram Sabhas" while other government servants and political leaders carrying out the orders of the "Gram Sabhas" looks a far away dream in this country...

[Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of sand-castles, some of them sturdy, some of them very weak. But, what more can one expect from a book on governance?