Who had proposed "Party Less Democracy" in India ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C or D (both accepted). This is a grace question: the commission's key credits two answers. C, Mahatma Gandhi — in his last testament (early 1948) he urged that the Indian National Congress be dissolved and reconstituted as a Lok Sevak Sangh, reflecting his vision of a service-based, non-party 'Ram Rajya'/Gram Swaraj polity above power-party politics. D, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) — in his 1959 tract 'A Plea for the Reconstruction of Indian Polity' he explicitly argued for a communitarian, party-less (partyless) democracy built from village councils upward. Because both men are associated with the idea, marks were given for C or D.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Shripad Amrit Dange was a founder-leader of the Communist Party of India — a committed party politician, not an advocate of party-less democracy.  (b) Lohia was a socialist thinker known for 'Chaukhambha Raj' (four-pillar state) and anti-Congressism, but he worked through and built political parties; 'party-less democracy' is not attributed to him.

Concept: 'Party-less democracy' is the idea that genuine, decentralised self-rule should rest on organic community/village bodies rather than on competing political parties. In Indian political thought it is linked to Gandhi (who wanted the Congress to give up power and become a body of servants) and, most explicitly, to Jayaprakash Narayan's blueprint for a bottom-up, communitarian polity.

State PCS 2019 Q2 — Indian Polity PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q2 — Indian Polity PYQ with Answer