White Revolution

White revolution_Verghese Kurien

What do you know about pasteurisation, an interviewer asked the young man who had applied for a Government of India fellowship for a Masters in Engineering abroad. Some thing to do with milk? Was the uncertain reply. The year was 1946. In his biography From Anand: The story of Verghese Kurien, MV Kamath recounts the story of how the youngster was selected to do a Masters in dairy engineering by a government committee that was impervious to gis peas that he be allowed to specialise in metallurgy instead. As it turned out, Michigan State University did not have dairy engineering, and Verghese Kurien was able to do metallurgy and Physics. But when he came back to India in 1948, it was to a small and unknown village in Gujarat called Anand that he was sent, to work out his two-year bond at the Government creamery on a salart of Rs. 600 per month. Hating his hob, he waited impatiently for his fetters to loosen. That did not happen. What it did was that V. Kurien, by the conjuction of politics, nationalism and professional challenge, decided to decide to stay on. He would transform rural India.

Verghese Kurien, who became a legend in his lifetime for building a cooperative movement that transformed the lives of poor farmers while making India self-reliant in milk production, died on Sunday in Nadiad at the age of 90. He was in hospital suffering from a series of problems associated with old age.

Born on November 26, 1921 in Kozahikode kerala , stidied at Madras University for a Bachelor of Science in 1940, a Bachelor of Science in 1940 . he was the recipient of several distinguished Indian and international awards. To give a short selection of them: nationally the Padmashri ;Padmabhushan ; Krishi Ratna ; and the Padma Vighushan . Out side India, it was the Ramon Magasaysay Award for Community Leadership ;the Wateler peace Prize of the Carnegie Foundation for the year 1986. Till his death he was a bitter critic of the policies of liberalisation in India which he believed opined India to unfair competition from multinational companies. He laid out his objections to liberalisation as earl as 1995. With liberalisation and globalisation, it seems to me India’s national boundaries have ceased to exist. He told . I an sorry, I do not think it is a good thin because if you have opened up this market under such terms what it implies is that other countries can put their products into our markets . Are you aware that all those advanced countries subsidise their exports.

When presented with the criticism that the cooperative movement could not replicate the successes of the Anand not replicate the successes of the Anand model in other parts of India , Mr. Kurien agreed but was unfazed by it, contesting it soundly. Is the democratic form of government successful in all parts of India. But the solution to the problems of democracy is more democracy. There can be no democracy in India unless you erect a plurality of democratic structures to underpin democracy like the village cooperative which is a people’s institution.

If in 2012 India is the largest producer of milk in the world contributing six percent to national GDP and 36 per cent to the agricultural GSP it is Verghese Kurien with sis socialist vision and technology- led approach, who made it possible.