# S. K. Dey

Surendra Kumar Dey (September 13, 1906 – May 24, 1989) was an Indian politician, social engineer, and author. He served as the first Union Cabinet Minister for Cooperation and Panchayati Raj. He played a key role in the development of grassroots democratic institutions in India and was an advocate for the Panchayati Raj system, emphasizing local governance participation.

## Early life

Born on September 13, 1906, in Laxmibassa village, Sylhet district, in present-day Bangladesh, Dey pursued higher education in engineering at Purdue University and the University of Michigan in the United States.

## Career

Dey began his career as the Honorary Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Rehabilitation, Government of India, from 1948 to 1951. He was involved in planning and executing of rehabilitation programs for displaced persons following the partition of India.

### Ministerial Tenure

Dey was appointed as the Minister for Cooperation and Panchayati Raj under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He played a role in implementing the Community Development Programme (1953), that laid the foundation for Community Development Blocks across the country. His approach to rural development was based on coordinated administration and local community participation.
As a member of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957), Dey contributed to recommendations that led to the establishment of a three-tier Panchayati Raj system in India. The committee emphasized local decision-making and community involvement in governance.

### Rural Township

In 1949, Dey designed the concept of an agro-industrial township for rural development. The core of this model was its focus on combining agriculture and industrial development, with the township receiving support in goods and services from surrounding villages. It was designed to be self-sufficient and operate on a cooperative basis.
This model materialized as the “Mazdoori Manzil” project in 1950, in Nilokheri, Haryana. The project benefitted 7000 homeless refugees from Pakistan. Dey considered this model to be a welfare state in action.
Impressed with the model, Nehru termed it the “Mecca of Development” and called for the creation of many more Nilokheris across the country.
S.K. Dey appears to have been influenced by Rabindranath Tagore’s Sriniketan experiment for Rural Development and by the Gandhian idea of Rural Construction, which stressed self-sufficiency and manual labor. It could also be perceived as a Model of Rural Development based on a synthesis of Liberalism, Marxism, and Gandhism, with emphasis on individual liberty from Liberalism, stress on the right and duty to work from Marxism, and that of small-scale cottage and village industries from Gandhism.

### Panchayati Raj

Dey was a member of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957) which was set up to study the Community Development Programme. The Committee assessed the extent to which the program had succeeded in utilizing local initiatives and in creating institutions to ensure continuity in improving economic and social conditions in rural areas. The Committee held that community development would be deep and enduring only when the community was involved in the planning, decision-making, and implementation process, thus making a case for a strong Panchayati Raj system. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee proposed a developmental role for Panchayati Raj Institution in rural development and termed these as necessary for the success of community development and national extension programs (under the agriculture department).
Dey attributed philosophical connotations to the Panchayati Raj, which he explained in his book “Panchayat-i-Raj, a Synthesis”. He elucidated that the Panchayati Raj was an important link between the individual and the world at large, visualizing an intimate relationship between the Gram Sabha and the Lok Sabha and stating that democracy was to flow from the Parliament to the Gram Sabha. Dey urged state governments to prioritize establishing PRIs in their respective states. By the 1960s, all states had legislated on PRIs and more than 2, 17, 300 Panchayats had come into being.

### Other achievements

Dey played a key role in the establishment of the National Development Council and was involved in development journalism through his role in guiding “Kurukshetra”, a publication of the Ministry of Rural Development.