4. The village centres and the larger groups must be practically
autonomous.
5. The residuary power of control must remain in the Central Government,
but the exercise of such power should be exceptional and for that purpose
proper safeguards should be provided, so that the practical autonomy of
the local centres may be maintained and at the same time the growth of the
Central Government into a really unifying state may be possible. The
ordinary work of such Central Government should be mainly advisory.
As a necessary corollary to what I have ventured to suggest as the form of
Government which we should accept, I think that the work of organising
these local centres should be forthwith commenced. The modern
sub-divisions or even smaller units may be conveniently taken as the local
centres, and larger centres may be conveniently formed. Once we have our
local areas--"the neighbourhood group"--we should foster the habit of
corporate thinking, and leave all local problems to be worked out by them.
There is no reason why we should not start the Government by these local
centres to-day. They would depend for their authority on the voluntary
co-operation of the people, and voluntary co-operation is much better than
the compulsory co-operation which is at the bottom of the Bureaucratic
rule in India. This is not the place to elaborate the scheme which I have
in mind; but I think that it is essentially necessary to appoint a
Committee with power, not only to draw up a scheme of Government but to
suggest means by which the scheme can be put in operation at once.