Both India and China have experienced economic changes and growing social consciousness which have generated new challenges for local institutions. This volume closely studies the resultant grass-roots political experiences in these countries from an interdisciplinary perspective. It examines the process of democratisation and highlights the growing demands for participation and the complex power structures interjecting them.The contributors to this volume discuss issues relating to institutional structures and the dynamics of local governance in a changing socio-economic environment that panchayati raj in India and village committee system in China represent. In addition to the political economy of rural areas, they also focus on the role of gender, caste, class, ethnicity and religion in local political processes.