While the people's planning programme that began in 1996 is credited for the proliferation of grass roots level institutions in Kerala, this only added to the dense network of associational life that was built up in the state through years of social mobilisation and concomitant state action. This paper, based on a study of a village panchayat in Kottayam, looks at the objectives and trends that characterised this 'institutional revolution' and assesses its implications for social capital formation and the building up of a vibrant civil society capable of playing a vital role in local governance.
