Social Base of Grassroots Politics in Assam

India has been experiencing chequered results of democratic decentralization process initiated more than a decade ago. The new dispensation of devolution of power and funds in a relatively more transparent manner following the 73rd CA Act, 1992 has brought about a change in the rural leadership pattern as well as in the process of village empowerment. The new politico-administrative era has led to the emergence of local leadership in the country with a new vigor. Assam is not an exception to that new revolution of grassroots governance, where the experiment of Panchayati Raj system had been a gross failure in the past. But the new dispensation had added a new lease of life to the PRIs in Assam and added a newer dimension in representation. At the academic level, PRIs, generally do not attract much scholars and academics in the state to a desired extent. Here, in the present book "Social Base of Grassroots Politics in Assam", an attempt has been made to fill up this vacuum of our knowledge regarding the sociological appraisal of grassroots politics in the Indian state of Assam. The author has grouped some very pertinent issues through an inquiry of social background features of the representatives of panchayats of a specific universe based in Assam for a broader understanding and generalization of grassroots governance. The quality of representativeness of any political organ in a democracy is the very basis and essence of democratic governance and it is also important to look as to how our plural society finds representations in the political apparatuses, be it in the top or in the bottom. Here lies the significance of studying the grassroots governance, which is now, becomes a part of the constitution itself. The book deals with intensively the PRIs of Assam with a special reference to the district of Kamrup from a sociological perspective. It is probably the first attempt of this kind, which is interdisciplinary in its approach, and it obviously addresses to a large audience even beyond the social science disciplines. Our administrators, policy-makers, planners, political activists, students, scholars and general readers interested in the study of grassroots governance  and democratic decentralization as such will find Dr. Jogendra Kr. Das's book useful and stimulating.