Page:Consensus Decision-making.pdf/5

 Introduction

Participatory democracy, strengthening of civil society, popular initiatives through NGOS-all these have now become a part of the current political discourse. That the base of democracy-and therefore participation of the people in the democratic process-should be widened, is being appreciated, at least at the theoretical level. In fact, as long as equal participation of all the people is lacking, 'democracy' is just a misnomer. Vinoba had written in 1941,

""There is a polity that calls itself "democracy and poses as sarvayatan (Rule by all). Its show is going on in Europe and America. But no system based on violence can be termed sarvayatan even if it pretends to work on the principle pfof [sic] 'one man - one vote""

'Rule by all' is what should be aimed at. And to advance in that direction, ways and means ought to be developed for the equal participation of all in making and implementing decisions that concern them.

It is here that consensus decision-making is crucial. Any other decision-making process is bound to be violent. Branding consensus decision-making as Utopian will therefore take us nowhere. If it is desirable, then what is needed is to think with wisdom and creativity and make experiments to make it a reality.

During the great Gramdan Movement, Vinoba exhorted the people, again and again, to work in this direction; for therein lies the key to the success of the self-governance of the village community-the Gram-swaraj. Thousands of villages declared their resolve to follow this path. But the Movement unfortunately stagnated, and ultimately petered out in the absence of grassroot work, which would undoubtedly have included experiments in consensus decision-making. 4