Gandhi envisioned independent India as self-governing village republics in oceanic circles

Evidence

Independence begins at the bottom. Thus every village will be a republic or panchayat having full powers. It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its affairs even to the extent of defending itself against the whole world … In this structure composed of innumerable villages there will be ever-widening, never-ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual always ready to perish for the village … Therefore the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle but will give strength to all within and derive its own strength from it. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 93

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures Gandhi’s own framing of his ‘oceanic circle’ village-republic model of post-independence governance — the exact utopian vision Ambedkar attacks in Annihilation of Caste.
• XREF: This is the direct target of Ambedkar’s critique that Gandhi’s village romanticism ignores the internal caste oppression within those very villages.