Based on a study conducted in forty-two panchayats across twelve states of India, the book explores the functioning of democratic decentralisation in the villages of India. Offering insights about rural India from a micro-level perspective, it examines changing power relations, power to the excluded groups through the panchayati raj system and the resulting social change by taking into account aspects of politics, caste and gender. Presenting a variety of data and numerous case studies, it highlights empowerment and discrimination against the marginalised castes and women by giving their own accounts of such episodes. It brings to attention certain issues in local governance such as dominant castes using strategies to minimise the effective presence of Scheduled Castes in panchayats and the importance of ideological orientations and sensitivity of the political parties towards gender, caste and empowerment in determining the functioning of the panchayati raj institutions.