Gram Panchayat is a feudal Indian system that is prevalent in India along with the modern judiciary and legislative system. The system was allowed to continue in the pretext that the rural economy was the backbone of agrarian India and hence the traditional system should be allowed to continue till the time that it can be absorbed into the mainstream governance. Apparently some of the rural areas did turn into "talukas" and districts where in they were semi-governed by state forces.
However it seems the time is ripe for this system to be discontinued as more and more people have come to rely on constitutional governance. So what these forces are doing is using psychological forces to continue to rule the people who have no idea that India has turned into a democracy, or for that matter, what democracy is.
Just like people say there should be a civil law common for people of all religion, the law an judiciary should be common for all. The gram panchayat has its own constitution and is a law making entity in itself. That would not be such a problem if it was handing out justice, but these panchayats are harbouring caste politics and increasing caste/religion based differences. Bring everyone under state rule. Enough of this gram panchayat, the whole country is anyway rural in mindset, it will never change if these people keep making decisions for people whose horizons end at the boundary of their village.
