The Self-Sufficient Village Republic

How Indian villages functioned as self-governing economic units; references from Megasthenes, Fa-Hien, and Hiuen Tsang; the gram sabha and economic decision-making; Charles Metcalfe's 'village republics'; Sanjeev Sanyal's research on India's indigenous economic systems

Lessons in this chapter

• Grama-Rajya: The Village as Self-Governing Unit — Where Empires Rose and Fell, Villages Remained
• Grama-Sabha: Democratic Economic Decision-Making — When the Village Gathered, Everyone Had a Voice
• Megasthenes-Sakshya: Foreign Accounts of Village Republics — What Greek, Chinese, and Arab Travelers Saw
• Swayam-Poshita: The Economics of Self-Sufficiency — How Villages Produced Everything They Needed
• Grama-Niyama: Village Regulations and Trade — The Rules That Made Markets Work
• Sanjeev Sanyal: Research on Indigenous Village Systems — How Modern Scholars Are Rediscovering Ancient Wisdom
• Relevance in 2026 and Beyond — Village Republic Principles in the Age of Supply Chain Shocks and Climate Uncertainty

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