Shri. R. Elango was born and brought up in Kuthambakkam village, in the adjoining district of Chennai City and was involved in the social work right from his childhood. After completing his B.Tech in Anna University, he joined Oil India and shifted to CSIR as a Scientist. He resigned from his government job to contest the village elections after he saw the miserable conditions liquor had created.

Having demonstrated that effective and participative planning in local governance can dramatically improve village development, Elango is now using his Panchayat Academy to build networks of emboldened local leaders who embody a common vision of good democracy and governance.

Shri. R. Elango shares with Marie Banu Gandhian principles and his inspiration to launch egalitarian villages.

In what ways has Mahatma Gandhi inspired you and your work?

Gandhi is big inspiration for everyone. He was a man known for simplicity, for non-violence and above all truth.  From one’s childhood, Gandhi’s ideologies are conveyed to you in one way or the other and his teachings closely track you.

When I was 9 years old, Mahatma Gandhi’s 100th birth anniversary was celebrated in a big way. His portrait was decorated like a deity and there were many processions organised by the villagers, especially school-going children. This was during the month of October when people worshipped Lord Vishnu. When I witnessed the celebrations, I perceived Gandhiji to also be a God.

While at school, we were taught moral stories of  Harichandra and how he spoke only the truth; about Shravan and how he obeyed his parents, etc. This makes us inculcate attributes like truth and obedience while young.

Later, witnessing the poverty in my villages and seeing the lives of farmers and their humble way of life, I was further attracted towards Gandhi’s principles. I was touched by Gandhiji’s commitment and truthfulness and decided to follow his path.

Do you think Gandhi’s philosophy is still applicable in today’s world?

Truth is the basic driving force; our lifeline. Be it a father-son or husband-wife – you should have faith in the relationship. Else, misunderstandings will be caused and might lead to abuse.

All religions also advocate for truth through their scriptures – be it Gita or Bible or Quran. I would say that these are all hypothetical, whereas we have witnessed Gandhiji living in our own country. As long as the truth exists and we kindle it, there is a chance for each of us to be a Gandhian.

The prominent face of Gandhiji is in our Indian Currency which is meant not only to commemorate his life but to also drive his values in each one of us.

What was your motivation to create model villages?

I gave up my government job and started my life as a villager in my native Kuthambakkam. When I was elected as the Panchayat leader, I had the opportunity to build a model village. Issues like discrimination, caste conflicts, domestic violence and alcoholism were prevalent in those times.

Caste plays a crucial factor in villages. While all the caste groups worked together during the day, sharing their food and tea, they went back to their homes in the evening – and interacted only with people who belonged to their own caste/community. This led me to conceive the idea of having a model village where people of all castes live together so that the vehemence between castes can be mellowed down.

As Kuthambakkam panchayat was in the belt of Chennai, I had to seek the approval  of the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Dr. M. Karunanidhi to allocate the Panchayat Land for the model village. He was a great leader and a social emancipator who said that this was a historic initiative. He named it ‘Samathuvapuram’ and his government granted us permission. After a lot of discussions on how to bring the communities to live together, we finally decided to have twin houses where the neighbour belonged to a different caste.

The then Collector of Tiruvallur District and present Home Secretary, Shri. S.K.Prahakar IAS took the lead and created the first model village in Mapedu and later at Tirutanni. Dr. V. Irai Anbu IAS, the present Chief Secretary, launched the model village in Kanchipuram when he served as District Collector here. Later, the State Government of Tamil Nadu advised all the District Collectors’ to create one model village in their respective district.

The 77th model village was launched at Kuthambakkam to commemorate the 77th birth anniversary of Dr. M. Karunanidhi. I am now pursuing a research on the effectiveness of Samathuvapuram and lobbying with the government to launch it in more villages. 

About Panchayat system in India and your efforts to transform the villages?

Interestingly the Panchayat System in India is very much in existence for a very long time now. When Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was working on the constitution, he recognised the villages to be dominated by caste and felt that the panchayat would be dominated by the upper caste alone. Thus, he did not focus on this much. With pressure from Gandhians, he included a schedule 40 in the Constitution, but did not give much power to panchayats.

When Shri. Rajiv Gandhi came in, he analysed the reasons why villages did not to grow as expected. He recommended the 62nd amendment to Panchayat Raj in the Indian Constitution and aimed to connect Panchayats with the Parliament. Unfortunately, his efforts failed in the Rajya Sabha due to the state level leaders opposing it as they perceived it affecting the power of the state. However, in 1992, during the regime of ninth Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narasimha Rao, the Government passed the 73rd Amendment in the Parliament to implement Panchayati Raj in the entire country.

I focused on creating a ripple effect by creating model villages and succeeded at that. In the first five years, I tried to solve the problems in my own village. Later, I focused on the neighbouring villages, started traveling across the state and coordinated with the District Collectors in identifying locations for model villages. We created a network among the Panchayat leaders in these villages and offered training to them on how to develop their panchayats.

Please share the future plans of the Panchayat Academy?

Shri P.N.Devarajan, Founder of CSIM, has been my inspiration. His concept of making young people to think for others is laudable.

Interestingly, after 20 years of my journey in the domain of sustainable livelihood, and the results of Samathuvapuram, I am now focusing on Panchayat Academy to train Panchayat leaders on village administration and how they can align their work with UN sustainable development goals. We are calling it Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Solutions. We are looking for partnerships and am sure that the academy will benefit many villages in the years to come.