Surendra Kumar Dey (September 13, 1906 – May 24, 1989)^[1] was an Indian politician, social engineer, and author. He served as the first Union Cabinet Minister for Cooperation and Panchayati Raj. Dey played a key role in the development of grassroots democratic institutions in India and was a significant advocate for the Panchayati Raj system, promoting the involvement of local communities in governance.^[2]

Surendra Kumar Dey was born on September 13, 1906, in Laxmibassa village, located in the Sylhet district of present-day Bangladesh. He pursued higher education in engineering at Purdue University and the University of Michigan in the United States.^[3]

He began his career as the Honorary Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Rehabilitation, Government of India (1948–1951). In this post, Dey proved himself to be a “social engineer” and was noticed by top government officials, including then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Dey's commitment to developing grassroots democracy prompted Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to place him in charge of Rural Development in newly independent India.

After Nehru's death, Dey resigned from the ministry and dedicated his time to building Panchayati Raj institutions in the country. As minister, his key project was the Community Development Programme (1953), which would later form the basis of Community Development Blocks across the country.^[4] Dey's concept of community development was rooted in his belief that the community could help itself rather than looking “towards the government as Mai-Baap”. Dey's model of community development is characterized by a three-pronged strategy: development of the area, coordinated administration, and development of the individual and the community.

The first Community Development Project was undertaken in Etawah, U.P. in 1948. In 1952, 55 such projects were initiated across the country. Following their success, the Community Development Programme was scaled up to all blocks in the country.

In 1949, Dey designed the concept of an agro-industrial township for rural development. The core of this model was its focus on combining agriculture and industrial development, with the township receiving support in goods and services from surrounding villages. It was designed to be self-sufficient and operate on a cooperative basis.

This model materialized as the “Mazdoori Manzil” project in 1950, in Nilokheri, Haryana. The project benefitted 7000 homeless refugees from Pakistan. Dey considered this model to be a welfare state in action.

Impressed with the model, Nehru termed it the “Mecca of Development” and called for the creation of many more Nilokheris across the country.

S.K. Dey appears to have been influenced by Rabindranath Tagore’s Sriniketan experiment for Rural Development and by the Gandhian idea of Rural Construction, which stressed self-sufficiency and manual labour. It could also be perceived as a Model of Rural Development based on a synthesis of Liberalism, Marxism, and Gandhi-ism, with emphasis on individual liberty from Liberalism, stress on the right and duty to work from Marxism, and that of small-scale cottage and village industries from Gandhi-ism.

Dey was a member of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957) which was set up to study the Community Development Programme. The Committee assessed the extent to which the programme had succeeded in utilizing local initiatives and in creating institutions to ensure continuity in improving economic and social conditions in rural areas. The Committee held that community development would be deep and enduring only when the community was involved in the planning, decision-making, and implementation process, thus making a case for a strong Panchayati Raj system. The Balwantrai Mehta Committee proposed a developmental role for Panchayati Raj Institution in rural development and termed these as necessary for the success of community development and national extension programmes (under the agriculture department).

Dey attributed philosophical connotations to the Panchayati Raj, which he explained in his book “Panchayat-i-Raj, a Synthesis”.^[5] He elucidated that the Panchayati Raj was an important link between the individual and the world at large, visualizing an intimate relationship between the Gram Sabha and the Lok Sabha and stating that democracy was to flow from the Parliament to the Gram Sabha. Dey urged state governments to prioritize establishing PRIs in their respective states. By the 1960s, all states had legislated on PRIs and more 2, 17, 300 Panchayats had come into being.

Dey also played a role in the institution of the National Development Council and made a contribution to the field of development journalism by guiding “Kurukshetra”, the monthly organ of the Ministry of Rural Development. ^{[6] [7] [8]}