The Relevance of the Green thought of Gandhi
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them
except in the form of bread. This thought can come only in a person
who could feel the pain and helplessness of many in the lowest strata of society
who do not have anything to eat and drink. What is needed is to give a morsel
of food and a few drops of water to quench the thirst. This humanitarian thinking and feeling for the
unfortunate hungry poor millions found its clear expressions from Mahatma
Gandhi, who had a clear vision and mission on food security.
The
humanity is progressing and prospering all round with better living conditions,
luxuries, opportunities and accomplishments.
These sparkling spots are overshadowing the important concern on the
very existence of mankind, food to feed the hungry in the first instance and
for the masses at a later stage.
Money
can never be a substitute for food. Money can buy food but cannot generate and
produce food. This fact is conveniently not understood or realized. Across the
country, there is shortage of food now. Prices shoot up many fold on rumors of
scarcity. Independent India has been witnessing these shortages in the case of
onion, potatoes, chillies, sugar and what not. The production, supply and
availability of the main staple food are important criteria for international
accreditation.
For
ensuring uninterrupted production and supply of food, the primary sector
agriculture needs to be recognized. “To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves”,
Gandhi remarked and wished to bring back home the vital role of agriculture. Forgetting
ourselves meant self declared anarchy. Non availability will harbor supply shortages leading to price rise and
hunger situations.
Leaving exceptions to one or two progressing countries in Africa,
the rest of the world continue to be starving. The accumulation of this sorrow
leads to malnutrition and deteriorating health of the people. Coming back from the Dark Continent of
Africa, the traditional food producing tracts in many countries are changing
the stature to accommodate modern trends of development. Requirements of raw
and processed food in the country are rapidly addressed through the means of
imports. This is the only easy prescription even the Governments in power can
do. Likewise, from being a merchandise, food is turning tables of international
politics and diplomacy.
This
has its total relevance in the modern day situations when many people who are
not seen in open are still fighting for one meal a day. As the society revels under progress and
development with sufficient food to eat and variety of drinks and beverages to
drink and rejoice, far away in the shanties
and huts in the hills, in the valleys plains and on the shores ,
Agriculture
as a main stream in the country’s economy and the farmer in the central place
would bring prosperity to the people and the nation. Mahatma Gandhi’s thought about agriculture
went beyond just ordinary expectations. What India needs in its agricultural
sector are millions of lok sevaks selflessly committing to the singular tasks
of tapping the vast expanse of human resource to produce crops and produces to
feed the nation. As Mahatma Gandhi said
To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
Bapu,
as all in India fondly calls Mahatma Gandhi, in his untiring travels and
struggle to free the nations from the Western supremacy had been basically
addressing from the very basics. From poverty to hunger, from discrimination to
deprivation and from agriculture to small agri enterprises and from small
industries to cottage industries. Every segment has its direct linkage from
supply of raw materials to the ultimate production front. Yes in all its complexities, farmer was in
the central place.
Gandhi
had right from his basic thoughts considered the problems in agriculture as the issues of the peasants and farmers. There is a core link to the very basic
existence of human being, his family and children and their future. When he
proclaimed that India lives in its villages, he meant that Villages are the
souls of the country which further brought the two players to the fore - The
farmer and the farm labourer, the two electrifying forces of the agriculture
economy.
Gandhiji
was never against mechanization but advocated use to a limited extent. As agriculture lost its preferential choice,
vast expanse of cultivable lands went unutilized and is remaining fallow.
Farmer and the farm labour, the two main actors, have stopped their role plays.
The many centuries old script of these two actors also got erased. The inactivity is contributing to the phasing
out of the two species. Farm labour as a
vocation is not very popular now. New generation is not attracted or amused in
accepting farming as a way of life. The result
heavy pressure on service and other allied sectors on account of excessive
presence of manpower.
For
Gandhiji, agriculture was a way of life and the path for rural development. In fact his experiments with different
strategies to win over his arguments for his fight for social, economic and
political freedom had its beginnings in farm related activities engulfing the
entire gamut of agriculture including animal husbandry. What he said and practiced many decades ago in the Tolstoy and
Phoenix farms are finding its true applications universally now. The 2014 International Year of Family
Farming (IYFF) by the United Nations aims to
raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farming by focusing world
attention on its significant role in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing
food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources,
protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable development, in
particular in rural areas. Family farming includes all family-based
agricultural activities, and it is linked to several areas of rural
development. Family farming is a means of organizing agricultural, forestry,
fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture production which is managed and operated by
a family and predominantly reliant on family labour, including both women’s and
men’s.
Family farming has an important socio-economic, environmental and
cultural role.
Prior
to his tirade against the British rule in India, South Africa was Mahatma
Gandhi’s testing ground. His outcry against the racial discrimination in South
Africa paved the foundation for this conviction of non violence. The Gandhian
Constructive Programmes had its early structuring during the African days as we
go by learning the genesis and working of the Tolstoy and Phoenix farms.
Tolstoy farm founded in
1910 by Gandhi proved to be an ideal laboratory his experiments with education
and agriculture. "Tolstoy Farm was a family in which I occupied the place
of the father," wrote Gandhi, and that I should so far as possible
shoulder the responsibility for the training of the young". The routine of the children on the
farm was divided between attending classes and contributing to the maintenance
of the farm. As at the Phoenix settlement manual work was combined with
instruction on a daily basis, but Gandhi took this concept one step further at
Tolstoy by introducing vocational training to give "all-round development
to the boys and girls". Although at this stage there was no attempt to
educate the children through the medium of a specific handicraft, Gandhi
enabled each child to become self-supporting by supplementing their education
with vocational training. Their ages ranging from six to sixteen, the children
had on an average eight hours of manual training per day, and one or, at the
most two hours of book learning".
The activities at Tolstoy
Farm included general laboring in the farms, cooking, scavenging, sandal-
making, simple carpentry and messenger work. But Gandhi did not recommend
manual activities merely because they were materially productive or
remunerative. In addition to productive crafts, manual work of a purely
constructive nature was also essential for the maintenance and development of
community life. The contribution of work such as sweeping, scavenging and water
fetching was seen to be invaluable to the psychological, social and moral
well-being of an integrated community. Gandhi's objective in this context was
to inculcate the ideals of manual work, social service and citizenship through
all the activities of children from the earlier formative years.
As he returned to India to
the din and bustle of political activities, Gandhiji had set his foot in two
major activities in agriculture sector - His first Satyagraha in Champaran district
of Bihar in 1916 and the struggle
in Kheda district of Gujarat in 1918.
In Jabir in Champaran of Bihar, British
landlords forced many thousands of landless labourers
and poor farmers to grow indigo and
other cash crops instead of the food crops which were necessary for their
survival. The ruthless militias of the British landlords silenced the people
and offered only measly compensation. In the aftermath of a devastating famine,
the British levied an oppressive tax which was raised in due course. Without
food and without money, the situation was growing progressively unlivable and
the peasants in Champaran revolted
against conditions in indigo plant
cultivation in 1914 at Pipra and in 1916 at Turkaulia. Raj Kumar Shukla, an indigo
cultivator, persuaded Mahatma Gandhi to
go to Champaran and
the Champaran Satyagraha began.
Gandhi arrived in Champaran 10 April 1917. He
visited many villages and interacted with over 8,000 cultivators and recorded
their statements to gain an understanding of their grievances. Gandhiji could realize that the ignorance of
the cultivators was one of the main reasons why it was possible for the
European planters to repress them. He set up voluntary organizations to improve
the economic and educational conditions of the people and opened schools and
also taught the people how to improve sanitation. The government realized
Gandhi’s strength and his devotion to causes. They themselves then set upon a
committee to enquire into the grievances of the cultivators. They invited
Gandhi to serve on that committee, and he agreed. The result was that within a
few months the Champaran Agrarian Bill was passed. It gave great relief to the
cultivators and land tenants.
In
Gujarat, again Gandhi toured the
countryside, organized the villagers and gave them political leadership and
direction. Many aroused Gujaratis from the cities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara joined the organizers of the revolt,
but Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhai Patel resisted the involvement of Indians from
other provinces, seeking to keep it a purely Gujarati struggle.
A
major tax revolt was organized with the result all the different ethnic and
caste communities of Kheda rallied around it. The peasants of Kheda signed a
petition calling for the tax for this year to be scrapped in wake of the
famine. The government in Bombay rejected the charter. They warned that if the
peasants did not pay, the lands and property would be confiscated and many
arrested. And once confiscated, they would not be returned even if most
complied. None of the villages flinch.
The
tax withheld, the government's collectors and inspectors sent in thugs to seize
property and cattle, while the police forfeited the lands and all agrarian
property. The farmers did not resist arrest, nor retaliate to the force
employed with violence. Instead, they used their cash and valuables to donate
to the Gujarat Sabha which was officially organizing the
protest.
The
revolt was astounding in terms of discipline and unity. Even when all their
personal property, land and livelihood were seized, a vast majority of Kheda's
farmers remained firmly united. Gujaratis sympathetic to the revolt in other
parts resisted the government machinery, and helped to shelter the relatives
and property of the protesting peasants.
And
today after over 65 years of the passing away of Mahatma Gandhi who authored
Hind Swaraj, the country is now calling back home the forgotten tips of Mahatma
Gandhi. More sensibly the country has found its impacting strength in the
Gandhian model as an alternative development model which has the moral values
illustrated in community oriented experiments in agriculture to address the
current day crisis in agriculture.
Gandhian ideas in agriculture are finding its total acceptance when
there is a great mass movement towards organic agriculture, decentralization at
the local government and cooperative level to bring in the benefits of
development to the farmer and the farm labourer. *
