Article 40 — Organisation of village panchayats

The State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.

Source: Constitution of India, as published by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Article 40 was Mahatma Gandhi's most significant imprint on the Constitution's DPSP. Gandhi believed that true independence for India — a country of villages — required decentralised self-rule at the village level, not just Westminster-style parliamentary democracy at the top. He called this concept 'gram swaraj' (village self-rule). Ambedkar was more sceptical of village-level governance, seeing villages as centres of caste oppression rather than democratic community. The article was a compromise: it put panchayats in the DPSP (aspirational) rather than the Fundamental Rights (enforceable). The 73rd Constitutional Amendment of 1992 finally gave full constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions, adding the Eleventh Schedule and Part IX to the Constitution.

• 73rd Amendment (1992) — Added Part IX (Articles 243 to 243-O) and the Eleventh Schedule, giving constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions and mandating elections, reservation, and devolution of powers.

• Article 243
• Article 243A
• Article 243B
• Article 243G

Last reviewed: 3 July 2026