गांधी जी वर्णव्यवस्था का आधार जन्मना और कर्मणा दोनों मानते थे । पुश्तैनी गुणों के संरक्षण की अपनी परिकल्पना के कारण उन्होंने अपने वर्न में विवाह को कफी समय तक इष्ट माना । हालांकि रोटी-बेटी के प्रतिबन्ध हिन्दू धर्म के अविभाज्य अंग नहीं हैं ऐसा उनका मानना था । अस्पृश्यता के मसले पर कांग्रेस ने हिन्दू महासभा को सहयोगी बनाया था । डॉ. अम्बेडकर ने इसकी आलोचना की है । परन्तु महामनाअ मालवीय द्वारा साम्प्रदायिकता का विरोध तथा काशी विश्वविद्यालय में दलित छात्र-छात्राओं के पठन-पाठन तथा छात्रावासीय जीवन में आनेवाली जातीय-विभेद तहा छूआछूत की कठिनाइयों को दूर करने उनके द्वारा स्वयं पहल करने के उदाहरण से इस 'सहयोग' का सकारात्मक पहलू प्रकट होता है। काशी विश्वविद्यालय के दो चर्चित पूर्व विद्यार्थी श्री रामधन ( अब स्वर्गस्थ)  और स्व. जगजीवनराम के छात्र जीवन के अनुभव इसके प्रमाण हैं । परस्पर सम्मान के बावजूद महामना और गांधी जी के बीच रोटी - बेटी के प्रतिबन्ध के सन्दर्भ में मतभेद था । कलकत्ता की एक महिला कार्यकर्ता ने गांधी जी से इस मतभेद की बात पूछी थी । उसे गांधी जी ने उत्तर दिया - " रोटी - बेटी का प्रतिबन्ध हिन्दू-धर्म का अविभाज्य अंग नहीं है । यह रूढ़ि हो गई है । हरिजनों और दूसरी जातियों के बीच हरगिज भेद नहीं रचा जा सकता है ( महादेव भाई की डायरी , खण्ड दो , पृ. ११७ ) । सोनार जाति के एक सज्जन ने अन्तर्जातीय विवाह करने के सन्दर्भ में गांधी जी से व्यक्तिगत सलाह मांगी थी । गांधी जी ने उन्हें लिखा,"जात-पाँत की पाबन्दियों का धर्म के साथ कोई सम्बन्ध नहीं है । यह सही है कि वह हिन्दू धर्म में बहुत समय से चली आ रही रूढ़ि बन गयी है । मगर रूढ़ियां तो समय - समय पर बदलती ही रहती हैं ।" ( महादेव भाई की डायरी , खण्ड दो , पृ. १५५ ) । एक आर्यसमाजी श्री धर्मदेव ने वर्णाश्रम के सन्दर्भ में यरवदा जेल में १७ -१-१९३३ को गांधीजी से लम्बी बातचीत हुई थी । वर्णाश्रम पर बोलते हुए गांधी जी ने कहा " मेरी तो आजकल साधना चल रही है ।इस मामले में मैं आत्मविश्वास से नहीं बोल सकता क्योंकि मेरी साधना थोड़ी है । " ( महादेवभाइ की डायरी खण्ड - ३ ,पृ. ६१ ) उसी दिन लेडी टेकरसी ने गांधी जी से मिश्र विवाह की बात छेड़ी औए कहा " ये सनातनी इस मिश्र विवाह से बहुत डर गए हैं। " गांधी जी ने कहा - " अब यह भी मैं समझा दूँ । आज अस्पृश्यता के सिलसिले में मैं इसका प्रचार नहीं करता । पर इसमें कोई शक नहीं कि यह चीज मुझे पसन्द है । इसी चीज के बारे में निरन्तर विचार चलते रहते हैं और मेरे विचार अधिकाधिक स्पष्ट होते जा रहे हैं । मेरे सामने सवाल किया जाए तब जवाब देते-देते भी मेरे विचारों में स्पष्टता बढ़ती रहती है । " ( महादेवभाई की डायरी , भाग - ३ , पृ. ६६-६७ ) । सुरेश बनर्जी नामक एक कार्यकर्ता ने लिखा कि बंगाल में जात-पांत टूटे यही अस्पृश्यता निवारण कहलाएगा । उन्हें गांधीजी ने लिखा - " मैं आप से इस बारे में पूरी तरह सहमत हूँ कि जातियों को नष्ट होना ही पड़ेगा । लेकिन यह मेरी जिन्दगी में होगा या नहीं , यह मैं नहीं जानता। इन दोनों मुद्दों को  एक दूसरे से मिलाकर हमें दोनों को बिगाड़ना नहीं चाहिए । अस्पृश्यता आत्मा का हनन करने वाला पाप है । जात-पांत सामाजिक बुराई है । आप अपनी हमेशा की लगन के साथ जात-पांत से भिड़ जाइए । इसमें आपको मेरा अच्छा सहयोग मिलेगा ।" ( महादेवभाई की डायरी ,खण्ड दो , पृ. १०४ ) । इसी दौर में वर्ण व्यवस्था के वर्तमान स्वरूप के बारे में गांधी जी ने १४ - २ - १९३३ को कहा - " हम, सब शूद्र हो गए हैं इस अर्थ में मैं अम्बेडकर से सहमत हूँ ।"( महादेवभाई की डायरी खण्ड तीन , पृ, - १४३ ) । डॉ. अम्बेडकर ने मई १९३६ के एक लेख में गांधी जी के इस विषय पर दृष्टिकोण के सन्दर्भ में लिखा था , " हमें प्रतीक्षा करनी चाहिए कि उन्होंने जिस तरह जाति पर विश्वास करना छोड़ दिया है , उसी तरह वे वर्ण में विश्वास करना छोड़ देंगे । " ( राष्ट्रीय सहारा , २४-४-९४ द्वारा उद्धृत डॉ. अम्बेडकर का मई १९३६ का लेख ) ।

    १९४५ से गांधी जी ने घोषित कर दिया था कि वे सिर्फ उन विवाहों में शामिल होंगे जिनमें एक पक्ष हरिजन हो । इस लेखक के माता-पिता का विवाह अन्तर्जातीय और अन्तरप्रान्तीय था - गांधी जी ने उन्हें आशीर्वाद के पत्र में लिखा कि अन्तरप्रान्तीय विवाह होने के कारण तुम्हें न्यूनतम उत्तीर्ण होने के अंक दूंगा लेकिन प्रथम श्रेणी के अंक तो सवर्ण-अवर्ण विवाह को ही मिलेंगे । सवर्ण दलित विवाहों के सन्दर्भ में ७ - ७ - १९४६ के 'हरिजन ' में गांधीजी ने लिखा " ऐसे विवाहों की अन्तिम कसौटी यह है कि वे दोनों पक्षों में सेवाभाव विकसित करें । ऐसे विवाह से जुड़ी रूढ़िजन्य कठिनाइयाँ हर अन्तर्जातीय विवाह द्वारा किसी हद तक दूर होती जाएंगी । अन्तत: एक ही जाति रह जाएगी जिसे हम भंगी के सुन्दर नाम से जानते हैं - भंगी यानी सुधारक अथवा गन्दगी को दूर करनेवाला । हम सब प्रार्थना करें कि ऐसा मंगल-प्रभात शीघ्र होगा ।" ( कलेक्टेड वर्क्स ऑफ़ महात्मा गांधी , खण्ड - ८४ , पृ. ३८८-३८९ ) । जातियों के उन्मूलन के बाद वर्गों का  विभाजन आड़ा ( हॉरिज़ॉन्टल) होगा ,खड़ा (वर्टिकल) नहीं - गांधीजी ने ऐसी कल्पना की है ।

[ जारी ]

भाग १

भाग २

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had time and again promised to launch a major initiative for the revival of the ailing farm sector. Addressing recently the 53^rd meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in New Delhi, he used the right vocabulary to highlight the enormity of the prevailing agrarian crisis.

If words alone could deliver, Congress-led UPA Coalition would have done it long ago. But like the story of the four blind men and the elephant, the Prime Minister, his Cabinet colleagues and the 29 chief ministers who were present continued to shoot in the dark. Three years into power, it is quite apparent the government has no clue as to what needs to be done to resurrect agriculture.

It was almost a year back when Mr Manmohan Singh had visited the suicide-prone belt of Vidharbha and announced a relief package of Rs 3,750-crores. Embarrassed at no let-up in the number of farmer suicides, he had subsequently said that the relief measures would begin to show results after six months. It sure did. Six months after the Prime Minister’s visit, the suicide rate doubled. From one farmer suicide every eight hours, it is now one every four hours.

The Rs 25,000-crore booster for new farm initiatives to be launched by states in the next four years, and the 14-point resolution adopted by the NDC which aims at achieving four per cent growth in agriculture by the end of the 11^th five-year plan, falls in the same category. With the entire focus on integrating domestic agriculture with global economy, and bringing in agribusiness, corporate agriculture and food retail as the saviour, the roadmap being chalked out is likely to lead to further despair.

Ploughing Rs 25,000-crore into agriculture may seem like a mammoth effort to double the growth rate in agriculture. For each of the 29 states, the average support will not exceed Rs 1000-crore, which is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. Moreover, what is not being visualised is that the farm crisis has nothing to do in terms of growth rate. It essentially revolves around declining sustainability in agriculture and the economic viability of farming. Whatever be the new location-specific schemes the states may launch, nothing significant can be expected unless the real farm income goes up.

Take Punjab, the food bowl of the country. Farm indebtedness, both in the formal and informal sector, is around Rs 26,000-crore, more than the Centre’s total pledged allocation for the entire country. No amount of renewed thrust on increasing crop productivity, and that too without restoring the highly devastated natural resource base, as well as raising farm incomes, will revive agriculture. However, the 14-point resolution dividing responsibilities between the Central and the State governments makes little mention of sustainability and boosting farm incomes.

To expect the agricultural universities and the state extension machinery to draw up research plans considering region specific priorities taking agro-climatic conditions, natural resource issues and technology into account is a tall order given that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has already moved away from subsistence to commercial agriculture. The Indo-US Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture Research, Development and Marketing, launched in early 2006, provides for a diametrically opposite research direction.

The crucial issue of technology fatigue cannot be addressed without first ascertaining what and where has the 1^st Green Revolution gone wrong. Instead of pushing 2^nd Green Revolution (read agribusiness), the effort should have been to draw a balance sheet and then prepare a cropping pattern plan based on the availability of natural resources. For instance, it does not make any sense to cultivate sugarcane and cotton in the arid and parched lands of Rajasthan.

The action plan only focuses on improved seed supply, fertiliser availability and revamping of state agriculture extension system to reduce yield gaps. It also makes it mandatory for states to make amendments in Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act by March 2008, which will allow a variety of marketing trappings including contract farming and corporate agriculture. In essence, the entire focus of the farm strategy is to allow the private sector to take control of agriculture.

Although till date, 16 states have amended the APMC Act, some wholly and others partially, the fact remains that the entire effort of the government is to dismantle the food procurement and public distribution system in the days to come. By amending the APMC Act, the government is actually encouraging development of linkages to markets through a variety of instruments including contract farming and corporate agriculture. Such a system has already played havoc with wheat procurement forcing the country to turn into the world’s biggest importer of the golden grain.

Setting up a time-bound Food Security Mission by enhancing production of wheat, rice, pulses and edible oils comes at a time when the UPA government itself is lowering the custom tariff thereby allowing cheaper imports. Integrating Indian agriculture with global economy defeats the very purpose of ensuring food security. Take the case of edible oils. India was almost self-sufficient in edible oils in 1993-94. Ever since the government began lowering the tariffs, edible oil imports have multiplied turning the country into the biggest importer. Small farmers growing oilseeds and that too in the rainfed areas of the country had to abandon production in the light of cheaper imports.

Autonomous liberalisation of the farm sector has already seen import surges. Agriculture commodity imports have gone up by 300 per cent between 2000-2004. Coconut oil imports for instance increased from 7291 metric tonnes in 2004-05 to 22,307 metric tonnes in 2005-06. The import of pepper similarly increased from 2186.3 tonnes in 1995-96 to 17,725.3 tonnes in 2004-05. These are not isolated cases. Imports of spices and plantation crops including tea and coffee have been on an upswing. Importing food commodities is like importing unemployment.

Not even remotely concerned, the government is planning to further open up farm imports under the Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN countries. In the years to come, import tariffs on wheat, rice, pulses and edible oils – the crops that are considered crucial for food security – are to be further lowered. Cheaper imports will negatively impact food security. Unless of course the government thinks food security can be assured by buying food off-the-shelf.

For a country like India, with 60-crore farmers, such a policy imperative will spell doom. Indian farmers are not only producers but also consumers. What is needed is a farming system that allows production by the masses in a sustainable and viable way.

Easy reading - http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df7vhcvn_0f3hjs7

Devinder Sharma Blog - www.kisanbharat.blogspot.com

Indian Food Policy - www.foodpolicy.in

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080204&fname=SEZ+%28F%29&sid=1

As per this article, the people of the village named avasari khurd, 40 km from pune, came forward and setup their own SEZ with everyone being the stakeholder. Initially, the land value is at 1.5 lakhs per acre, but when they started registering their company, and alloted the land to a developer, the land value shot up to 2 crore per acre. But, the interesting point is that the villagers , still live in their own land, and reap the benefits of SEZ, thus witnessing a collective growth.

Its really a positive news. I read it long back, and stored it as draft.. I dont know whether it has now materialized in to success or not. But the concept is all inclusive one.

I had few reservation over the above attempt. Agriculture is not even considered as an entity. They had setup agro based units, but from where do they source agricultural products. Ok.. if from the surrounding areas, then it means, those who are involved in agriculture is still impoverished, unable to realise the benefits of this SEZ.

Why cant it be like, both agriculture and industry co-exist with each other? I would like to extend the above SEZ, that has most fertile land used for agriculture for feeding the local people, and the remaining for real estate and industries. By this, everyone will share the infrastructure, and particularly, the area will be a self-sustained one. Its somwhat similar to Kibutzu of israel.

When i read dharampal's description of our villages, i could not resist comparing with the above concept of SEZ. In our traditional setup, most of the villages had been self-sufficient, with all facilities, like education, irrigational infrastructure, medical persons, mid wives, a local chief to govern, a temple, and a gram sabha, to discuss their daily problems. A council headed by the chief would provide justice to any issues arising out of that village.

There were right mix of people, from all sections. Predominant vellalars controlled the region, while the vysyas traded, shudras provided labour, and a local police, gaurding the village. (In traditional tamil villages, still we can see people known as "Kaavakaaran".. particularly, in our area, the vanniar people provided this policing service. ) . The industrious people, produced goods and sold it abroad. (Karur & Musri area of Tamilnadu, was famous for overseas tradition, with Roman and greek empires, before christ..).

There were no private property, and there was no concept of land ownership. The king appoints a leader, who overseas all internal affairs. The local chief will allocate land to different sections of people. All those who use the land has to pay taxes to the temple. Those who did not pay taxes continuously for years, will be evicted out of that land.

For those aged, and childrens, the temple served as public entity where they had ample space to leisure and play. When there was any death, the village chief will arrange for the funerals, and consoling the family. When there was a birth, the same would make sure, the midwives attended the people.

The most important striking feature is that the economy is highly local. ie, the village has to pay certain amount (around 20%) to the king, and the rest is used locally. Hence, every village was almost wealthy, and hence none of our people took to begging or suffered from poverty, before britishers conquest. At times of draught, the prospering region came forward to help those people. (there was mention in our history, that the kongu chiefs fed the madurai people, when the river vaigai, dried up)

There are lot other things that describe our traditional setup. Particularly, gandhi's article in young india, as available through dharampal's book, gives us lot of insight. Unfortunately, we had never realised the true picture of our society, and rather, carried away by the poverty ridden villages, that arised out of british exploitation. I am not an expert in this, but, the more i learn, the more it fascinates. Particularly, my initial 10 years of life, living a complete village life, gave me some inputs, in understanding the village descriptions available in dharampla's books.

let me come to the point.. In what way, knowing these details help us?

I will do a post later in the coming days, on how i feel we could have been a developed nation, if we had understood our history properly and pursued our inherent strength..

But, before that, can you relate anything on the above description of the tradition village, with what i have said in the beginning of this article?

Please share your views.

Just presenting the works of dharampal in bullet points. (More about dharampal in www.dharampal.net)

• To the British darkness and ignorance had wholly different meanings and to the majority of them, these terms conveyed not any ignorance of arts and crafts or technology, or aesthetics but rather the absence of the knowledge of Christianity and its scriptural heritage.

• Peasants, artisans, those engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel, or in the various processes of its flourishing indigenous textile industry, or its surgeons and medical men, even many of its astronomers and astrologers belonged to this predominant section i.e. Sudras is unquestionable.

•   Some of the important changes brought about the British were (i) revenue enhancement and centralization, (ii) attempts at breaking the sense of community (geographical, or based on occupation or kinship) amongst the people of India, (iii) reducing their consumption to the minimum through higher taxation and lowering of wage rates, and (iv) an imposition of newer concepts of property rights and laws.

• They created a system of landlordism, ryotwari and peasant indebtedness.

• Deliberate & planned lowering of the wages of Indians.

Caste

• When the British began to conquer India, the majority of the rajas in different parts of India had also been from amongst such castes which have been placed in the sudra varna.

• Yet it can, perhaps also be argued that the existence of caste has added to the tenacity of Indian society, to its capacity to survive and after lying low to be able to stand up again.
• The British demonized caste because it stood in the way of their breaking Indian society, hindered the process of atomization, and made the task of conquest and governance more difficult.
• Today’s backward classes or Sudras cultural and economic backwardness is post 1800 due to impact of British economic policies.
• Madras Presidency 1822 survey showed sudras and castes below formed 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the total students in the Tamil speaking areas.
• Some of today’s Bihar’s notified tribes were whose ancestors were warriors and gave unceasing battle to the British till they got exhausted and succumbed to the overwhelming British power. Besides being warriors, their main occupations are said to have been of ironsmith (Iuhar) etc.

Agriculture

•         In 1804 according to The Edinburgh Review wages of the Indian agricultural laborer were also much more than British counter part.

•         There is a paper by Capt. Halcott on the drill plough employed in south India. He has said that he never imagined a drill plough considered as a modern European invention, at work in remote village in India

•         High Yields were on account of the variety of seeds available to the Indian peasant, the sophistication and simplicity of his tools, and the extreme care and labor he expended in tending to his fields and crops.

Industry

• Around 1800 India had 15-20 lakh weavers with mining being major industrial activity. Due to British policies by 1820 Indian industry was on its knees.
• There are accounts of the Indian process of making steel which was called ‘wootz’. The British experts who examined samples of ‘wootz’ sent to them by one Dr. Helenus Scott have commented that it is decidedly superior compared in any other steel they have seen.

•       Incidentally, modern plastic surgery in Britain is stated by its inventor to have been derived from and developed after the observation and study of the Indian practice from 1790 onwards.

• Because of the British desire to invest newly acquired British capital, a new structure of industrialization began to be established in various parts of India, especially round Calcutta and Bombay, by about 1880.
• The larger proportion of the historical and traditional professionals of Indian Industry however, even today, work outside the modern industrial complex, and mostly work individually and on their own. In the idiom of today they would form a fairly large proportion of the ‘Backward’ and ‘Other Backward’ castes.
• According to current findings the India-China region produced around 73 per cent of the industrial manufactures of the world around 1750.

•        Cloth was manufactured in practically all the 400 districts. Many districts of south India had 10,000 to 20,000 looms in each district even around 1810. Also India had some 10,000 furnaces for the manufacture of iron and steel. Indian steel was considered of very high quality and in the early decades of the nineteenth century, it was being used by the British for the making of surgical instruments.

• In 1763 smallpox was consciously and deliberately introduced in North America by the British military commander to kill local population.

•    One of the major characteristics of India has been its emphasis on communities based on shared localities as well as relations of kinship termed as jatis, in contrast to the preference for individuation in non-Slav Europe. It was complementarities and relatedness amongst groups within localities, and more so within regions, which has shaped India’s polity for the past two thousand years and more. This interrelatedness and the consensus, which grew out of it, seem to be the major elements that define the Indian concept of dharma.

•  India needs to focus on agriculture, education, forging close relations with the Buddhist countries of South East Asia & Far East but an important priority should be to re-establish self esteem, courage, community feeling, and collective freedom

Just presenting the works of dharampal in bullet points. (More about dharampal in www.dharampal.net)

• To the British darkness and ignorance had wholly different meanings and to the majority of them, these terms conveyed not any ignorance of arts and crafts or technology, or aesthetics but rather the absence of the knowledge of Christianity and its scriptural heritage.

• Peasants, artisans, those engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel, or in the various processes of its flourishing indigenous textile industry, or its surgeons and medical men, even many of its astronomers and astrologers belonged to this predominant section i.e. Sudras is unquestionable.

•   Some of the important changes brought about the British were (i) revenue enhancement and centralization, (ii) attempts at breaking the sense of community (geographical, or based on occupation or kinship) amongst the people of India, (iii) reducing their consumption to the minimum through higher taxation and lowering of wage rates, and (iv) an imposition of newer concepts of property rights and laws.

• They created a system of landlordism, ryotwari and peasant indebtedness.

• Deliberate & planned lowering of the wages of Indians.

Caste

• When the British began to conquer India, the majority of the rajas in different parts of India had also been from amongst such castes which have been placed in the sudra varna.

• Yet it can, perhaps also be argued that the existence of caste has added to the tenacity of Indian society, to its capacity to survive and after lying low to be able to stand up again.
• The British demonized caste because it stood in the way of their breaking Indian society, hindered the process of atomization, and made the task of conquest and governance more difficult.
• Today’s backward classes or Sudras cultural and economic backwardness is post 1800 due to impact of British economic policies.
• Madras Presidency 1822 survey showed sudras and castes below formed 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the total students in the Tamil speaking areas.
• Some of today’s Bihar’s notified tribes were whose ancestors were warriors and gave unceasing battle to the British till they got exhausted and succumbed to the overwhelming British power. Besides being warriors, their main occupations are said to have been of ironsmith (Iuhar) etc.

Agriculture

•         In 1804 according to The Edinburgh Review wages of the Indian agricultural laborer were also much more than British counter part.

•         There is a paper by Capt. Halcott on the drill plough employed in south India. He has said that he never imagined a drill plough considered as a modern European invention, at work in remote village in India

•         High Yields were on account of the variety of seeds available to the Indian peasant, the sophistication and simplicity of his tools, and the extreme care and labor he expended in tending to his fields and crops.

Industry

• Around 1800 India had 15-20 lakh weavers with mining being major industrial activity. Due to British policies by 1820 Indian industry was on its knees.
• There are accounts of the Indian process of making steel which was called ‘wootz’. The British experts who examined samples of ‘wootz’ sent to them by one Dr. Helenus Scott have commented that it is decidedly superior compared in any other steel they have seen.

•       Incidentally, modern plastic surgery in Britain is stated by its inventor to have been derived from and developed after the observation and study of the Indian practice from 1790 onwards.

• Because of the British desire to invest newly acquired British capital, a new structure of industrialization began to be established in various parts of India, especially round Calcutta and Bombay, by about 1880.
• The larger proportion of the historical and traditional professionals of Indian Industry however, even today, work outside the modern industrial complex, and mostly work individually and on their own. In the idiom of today they would form a fairly large proportion of the ‘Backward’ and ‘Other Backward’ castes.
• According to current findings the India-China region produced around 73 per cent of the industrial manufactures of the world around 1750.

•        Cloth was manufactured in practically all the 400 districts. Many districts of south India had 10,000 to 20,000 looms in each district even around 1810. Also India had some 10,000 furnaces for the manufacture of iron and steel. Indian steel was considered of very high quality and in the early decades of the nineteenth century, it was being used by the British for the making of surgical instruments.

• In 1763 smallpox was consciously and deliberately introduced in North America by the British military commander to kill local population.

•    One of the major characteristics of India has been its emphasis on communities based on shared localities as well as relations of kinship termed as jatis, in contrast to the preference for individuation in non-Slav Europe. It was complementarities and relatedness amongst groups within localities, and more so within regions, which has shaped India’s polity for the past two thousand years and more. This interrelatedness and the consensus, which grew out of it, seem to be the major elements that define the Indian concept of dharma.

•  India needs to focus on agriculture, education, forging close relations with the Buddhist countries of South East Asia & Far East but an important priority should be to re-establish self esteem, courage, community feeling, and collective freedom

His books on Eighteenth Century Indian Science and Technology, Pre-
British
Indian Education System, Panchayat System in the pre-Colonial era and
others
all have brought about a new method of looking at the past of this
country
and at the archival material available with the various archives,
museums
and libraries on India.

It has been his quest to understand the meaning and life of ordinary
people
of this country, their methods of organising their lives and the tools
and
means they adopt in doing so, their customs and culture and their
aspirations, he has travelled a vast research journey mostly alone
and
documenting scraps of material which incidentally has opened a huge
body of
knowledge for the rest of the world. He maintains, that it is the need
to
convince himself of the meaning behind the events in history and
ascertain
and validate the facts that has driven him in his work. That some of
them
have been published and the publications has inspired many individuals
and
launched institutions is a consequence he probably did not  predict
or
prepare for.

eCourse :
The eCourse - DHARAMPAL'S INDIA would highlight his views, work and
interpretation of historical events. Though by no means this would
claim to
be comprehensive, we have designed this course to be an introduction
and
orientation to his larger works.

SAMANVAYA has had the privilege of working with Dharampalji for over 2
years
now.

The course will be limited to few people who are inclined towards
further
learning / work based on this understanding. The course would consist
of
short capsule of materials selected by people who have worked with
Dharampalji; these would be mailed across followed by a discussion on
the
same. If you are interested to register, please mail
samanv...@vsnl.com with
a note on yourself and why you are interested. The course will be for
a
duration of 3 weeks on-line starting late September.

Latest Book by Dharampalji :
THE BRITISH ORIGIN OF COW-SLAUGHTER IN INDIA
With Some British Documents on the Anti-Kine-Killing Movement
1880-1894 /
Published by: Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas (SIDH) /
To be
released later this month.
More on this book soon at www.samanvaya.com/dharampal

Today (19th February) is the date of birth of Shri. Dharampal. Since his demise, there have been many discussions on how to take his work forward. We at Samanvaya, have done what we know best, put together the material that we have in our collection in the form of a website.

We are happy to announce the new website www.dharampal.net which will be an online repository of Dharampalji's website. Among its features, it contains a downloadable version of some of his publications, a collection of unpublished archival compilations, his note on possible future work based on them, related initiatives, life sketch, etc.
Currently the site is hosted in the Samanvaya website. Some of the features are not currently available or fully ready yet. This we will have ready in very soon.
We have provided a few snippets of the material in the website at the end of this mail. It is our hope that this Endeavour will be found useful by not just his friends, but, also those who want to embark on a journey of a discovery of India anew.

We welcome your comments and participation. We wish to thank many friends of Dharampal ji for their voluntary interest and association in this effort, without their guidance, this effort would not have been possible.

Warm regards,
Ramasubramanian
Chief, Samanvaya, Chennai

India
chief@samanvaya.com
mob : 9444957781
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Samanvaya - Knowledge Services for Development Sector
www.samanvaya.com
Please Note: Samanvaya New Office Address from 1st March 2007:
Samanvaya, 2nd Floor, Old No. 94, New No. 179, Royapettah High Road,
Mylapore, Chennai - 600004
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Dharampal.Net --- Some of the current information include:

Work Ahead :
It may be worth mentioning that, these researches and studies were taken up by Dharampal in his individual capacity, also because he was not considered a scholar or a historian and did not even have a University degree. It may be mentioned that a question about his not having a degree was raised in the Bihar legislature during 1973.

Archival material :
"...The extent to which it has been carried throughout all the irrigated region of the Madras Presidency is truly extraordinary.
An imperfect record of the number of tanks in 14 districts shows them to amount to no less than, 43,000 in repair, and 10,000 out of repair, or 53,000 in all.
It would be a moderate estimate of the length of embankment for each to fix it at half a mile; and the number of masonry works, in sluices of irrigation, waste weirs, & e., would probably be not over-rated at an average of 6.
These data, only assumed to give some definite idea of the extent of the system, would give close upon 30,000 miles of embankments (sufficient " to put a girdle round the globe" not less than 6 feet thick) and 3,00,000 separate masonry works. The whole of this gigantic machinery of irrigation is of purely native origin ..."

India 1947 - 64 : Events and their background - "When I first read President Roosevelt’s advice on India to the British in August 1942 (India: The Transfer of Power, vol 3), I took his statement to imply that the British should "act in such a way that India stays in the western orbit", quite literally.
It was only years later that I understood that Roosevelt was not thinking in terms of his preference for the West or the USSR, but rather that they, he and the British, "should try to think of some arrangement by which India found its place in the European and American, i.e., western orbit, rather than the Asiatic."
Quite naturally, Roosevelt and his friends, could not conceive an India, run according to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.

Relevance of Dharampal :
... His interest in history or his work on the archives has been according to him, only an incidental outcome of his quest for understanding the reasons why the nation was in the state he found it in.
Perhaps that is why he never sought company among ‘historians’ and always seemed to befriend politicians, activists and such kind. His quest for understanding why things were so was obviously attached with the corollary why can’t things change from this situation...

Among the established Indian historians, Dharampal has yet to find his place compared to the sheer significance of his contributions. His books are based painstakingly, and entirely, on colonial British documents of East India Company, and commissioned surveys, conducted in parts of India, before the annexation of India. His writings are abundantly rich in written references and references, to documents outlining the deliberate colonization agenda of British imperialism. He shows the determination of British civil servants in colonizing India as per set patterns, often referred by Gandhi as "divide and rule" rationale.

Dharampal effectively dispelled colonial myths and facile untruths about Bharat, the deliberate underplaying of civilizational achievements, and at bringing out the real strength, structure and working of the Indian society. His complete works, were published a few years ago by Shri Claude Alvares of Other India Press, Mapusa, Goa, in six volumes.

Another major result of Dharampal's work among contemporary Indian thinkers, is how he was able to establish the intellectual connection, between Gandhi's ideas and his politics of non violence. Today, based on Dharampal's work, Gandhi can be seen as a visionary philosopher, while at the same time, an earthy political man, who understood the compulsions of the British, as well as the strengths of non violence as a strategy, appropriate for mainstream Indian freedom movement.

He passed away on October 24, 2006 at Sevagram (Gandhi’s ashram) near Wardha (Maharashtra).

He is survived by a son and two daughters. His son, David, lives in London and a daughter, Gita, is a professor of history at Heidelberg University of Germany. His wife died in London in 1986.

Shri Dharampal had no formal training in history, but maybe, precisely because of this, he was able to chart a new path in analysis and study of pre colonial Indian history. He effectively dispelled many colonial myths about the state of Indian society pre British, generated by a body of British and British universities trained and influenced Indian historians of recent times. He took the focus away from Marxian and colonial interpretations of Indian history. His body of writings, serve now as a seminal and powerful inspiration, for many foundational reinterpretations and interventions, in Indian society, and its rationale, in contemporary Indian thinking.

Dedicated Dharampal website - maintained by Samanvaya, Chennai - http://www.samanvaya.com/dharampal/

Discussion group for relevance of Dharampal to contemporary Indian society.

Relevance of Dharampal :
... His interest in history or his work on the archives has been according to him, only an incidental outcome of his quest for understanding the reasons why the Indian nation was in the state he found it in.
Perhaps that is why, he never sought company among ‘historians’ and always seemed to befriend politicians, activists and such kind. His quest for understanding why things were so, was obviously attached with the corollary, why can’t things change from this situation

Ram, Samanvaya, Chennai - India

Dharampal on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharampal 

Dharampal Blog - http://www.dharampal.blogspot.com/

Sharanarthi Google Online Group - http://www.groups.google.com/group/sharanarthi

Sharanarthi Blog - http://www.sharanarthi.wordpress.com

India will have 400 million agricultural refugees

By Devinder Sharma

It was on the cards. With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing the formation of a new rehabilitation policy for farmers displaced from land acquisitions, it is now official — farmers have to quit agriculture.

Ever since the Congress-led UPA Coalition assumed power after an angry rural protest vote threw out the erstwhile BJP-led NDA combination in May 2004, the Prime Minister had initiated a plethora of new policies for the spread of industrialization. After having laid the policy framework that allows private control over community resources – water, biodiversity, forests, seeds, agriculture markets, and mineral resources — the UPA government finally looked at the possibility of divesting the poor people of their only economic security – a meagre piece of land holding.

“Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is an idea whose time has come,” the Prime Minister had said at an award ceremony in Mumbai sometimes back. Supported by all political parties, including the Left Front, he has actually officiated a nationwide campaign to displace farmers. Almost 500 special economic zones are being carved out (see The New Maharajas of India http://www.stwr.net/content/view/1392/37/). What is however less known is that successive government’s are actually following a policy prescription that had been laid out by the World Bank as early as in 1995.

A former vice-president of the World Bank and a former chairman of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a body that governs the 16 international agricultural research centers, Dr Ismail Serageldin, had forewarned a number of years ago. At a conference organised by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai a few years back, he quoted the World Bank to say that the number of people estimated to migrate from rural to urban India by the year 2015 is expected to be equal to twice the combined population of UK, France and Germany.

The combined population of UK, France and Germany is 200 million. The World Bank had therefore estimated that some 400 million people would be willingly or unwillingly moving from the rural to urban centres by 2015. Subsequent studies have shown that massive distress migration will result in the years to come. For instance, 70 per cent of Tamil Nadu, 65 per cent of Punjab, and nearly 55 per cent of Uttar Pradesh is expected to migrate to urban centres by the year 2020.

These 400 million displaced will constitute the new class of migrants – agricultural refugees.

Acerbating the crisis are the policy initiatives that promotes privatization of natural resources, take over of farm land, integrating Indian agriculture with the global economy, and moving farmers out of agriculture – in essence the hallmark of the neo-liberal economic growth model.

Agricultural reforms that are being introduced in the name of increasing food production and minimising the price risks that the farmers continue to be faced with, are actually aimed at destroying the production capacity of the farm lands and would lead to further marginalisation of the farming communities. Encouraging contract farming, future trading in agriculture commodities, land leasing, forming land-sharing companies, direct procurement of farm commodities by amending the APMC Act will only drive out a majority of farmers out of subsistence agriculture.

Although the land holding size is diminishing, the answer does not lie in allowing the private companies to replace farmers. Somehow the entire effort of the policy makers is to establish that Indian agriculture has become a burden on the nation and the sooner the country offloads the farming class the better it will be for economic growth.

Contract farming therefore has become the new agricultural mantra. Not realising that private companies enter agriculture with the specific objective of garnering more profits from the same piece of land. These companies, if the global experience is any indication, bank upon still more intensive farming practices, drain the soil of nutrients and suck ground water in a couple of years, and render the fertile lands almost barren after four to five years. It has been estimated that the crops that are contracted by the private companies require on an average 20 times more chemical inputs and water than the staple foods.

Sugarcane farmers, for instance, who follow a system of cane bonding with the mills, actually were drawing 240 cm of water every year, which is three times more than what wheat and rice requires on an average. Rose cultivation, introduced a few years back, requires 212 inches of groundwater consumption in every acre. Contract farming will therefore further exploit whatever remains of the ground water resources. These companies would then hand over the barren and unproductive land to the farmers who leased them, and would move to another fertile piece of land. This has been the global experience so far.

Allowing direct procurement of farm commodities, setting up special markets for the private companies to mop up the produce, and to set up land share companies, are all directed at the uncontrolled entry of the multinational corporations in the farm sector. Coupled with the introduction of the genetically modified crops, and the unlimited credit support for the agribusiness companies, the focus is to strengthen the ability of the companies to take over the food chain.

I have always warned that agribusiness companies in reality hate farmers. Nowhere in the world have they worked in tandem with farmers. Even in North America and Europe, agribusiness companies have pushed farmers out of agriculture. As a result, only 7,00,000 farming families are left on the farm in the United States. Despite massive subsidies in European Union, one farmer quits agriculture every minute. Knowing well that the markets will displace farmers, the same agriculture prescription is being applied in India.

A Planning Commission study has shown that 73 per cent of the cultivable land in the country is owned by 23.6 per cent of the population. With more and more farmers being displaced through land acquisitions, either for SEZ or for food processing and technology parks or for real estate purposes, land is further getting accumulated in the hands of the elite and resourceful. With chief ministers acting as property dealers, farmers are being lured to divest control over cultivable land. Food security and food self-sufficiency is no longer the country’s political priority.

The government has very conveniently taken refuge behind an NSSO study that says some 40 per cent of the farmers have expressed the desire to quit farming. After all, what the government is facilitating is to make it easier for the farmers to abandon their land. It believes that a rehabilitation policy for the farmers therefore is the need of the hour. What is however not being seen through is that an agrarian economy like India cannot afford large-scale displacement of farmers. It will lead to social unrest the kind of which has not been witnessed. What India needs desperately is a policy paradigm that restores pride in agriculture, stops take-over of agricultural lands, and ensures sustainable livelihoods for 600 million farmers.

( Devinder Sharma is a food and agriculture policy analyst )

jalbhoomi blog - http://www.jalbhoomi.blogspot.com/

Before Water Disappears

An Australian TV journalist asked me the other day: “Rice farmers in India are drilling millions of tube wells in a desperate search for water. Isn’t such over-exploitation of groundwater going to lead to a catastrophic situation in the years to come ?”

The question was loaded, and coming from an Australian journalist whose own country was reeling under a serious drought for the sixth year in a row, it clearly showed that water had already turned into a major global problem. The magnitude of the emerging water crisis is such that it transcends national borders, and even continents.

It isn’t that only rice farmers are to blame. While rice farmers in India are consuming about 5000 litres of water to produce one kilo of rice, Australian farmers cannot shrug-off their role in over-exploiting the groundwater by saying that they do not produce much rice. Australia is a major beef-producing nation, and studies show that a kilo of beef requires 70,000 litres of water.

If you are rearing cattle only for milk, you are using more than 900 litres of water to produce a litre of milk. Wheat requires about 3,168 litres of water to produce one kilo of golden grain. Globally, a thousand tonnes of water is required to produce one tonne of grain.

Take the case of wheat and rice, the most common cropping pattern that is followed in the irrigated regions of the country. Both the crops require a little more than 8000 litres of water in a year to produce one kilo each of wheat and rice. This is a huge waste of water resources you will say. Now you know why the groundwater table has been steadily on the decline. There is an urgent need to change the cropping pattern goes the common refrain. Policy makers and business houses ask farmers to shift from wheat and rice to cash crops.

Shift to cotton or sugarcane or cut flowers. Somehow it is presumed that shifting the cropping pattern to these crops will ease the water crisis. The industry steps in, propagates a change in cropping pattern, without telling the nation that the alternative being suggested are going to suck the ground water supplies dry in a terribly short time. Irrigated cotton alone consumes as much water as is required by wheat and rice. Water requirement for sugarcane is four times more. And cut flower cultivation requires 20 times more water than cotton.

Over the years, first the induction of green revolution technology, including the high-yielding crop varieties, resulted in more and more mining of the underground water. Small farmers have drilled more than 22 million tube wells hundreds of meters below the surface. Water is being mined ruthlessly. As a result water table has plummeted to alarming levels. Despite the alarm bells ringing for quite sometime now, the fact remains that no one has cared to set the water balance right.

We all know that high-chemical input based technology has already exhausted the soils and ultimately led to the lands gasping for breath. With water-guzzling crops (hybrids and Bt cotton) sucking the groundwater aquifer dry, agriculture has collapsed. Indian farmers are drawing out 200 cubic kilolitres of water from the underground strata every year. Not even a fraction of this is being added back to the groundwater resource.

Instead, the Ministry of Agriculture has been unabashedly advocating crop diversification, mostly cut flowers. Tamil Nadu is the latest among the States beckoning farmers to have a share in the US $ 40 billion global floriculture trade. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat have already done the damage. Sops are being announced to attract farmers to cultivate roses, carnations, gerbera and other cut flowers. State governments are providing attractive and handsome financial packages including subsidies, technical backstopping, extension and post-harvest management support.

What the Ministry is not telling is that the cut flower cultivation will hasten the process of water depletion leading to desertification. Rose cultivation requires on an average about 212 acre inch or 212 inches of water in an acre of land.

Let us now look at the damage already done. In Punjab, the food bowl of the country, of the 138 development blocks, 108 have already been declared dark zones. The level of groundwater exploitation in these blocks has been in excess of 98 per cent against the critical limit of 80 per cent. In Uttar Pradesh, the Central Ground Water board has identified 22 overexploited and critical blocks in the state, of which 19 blocks are located in western UP (comprising the sugarcane belt). Similarly, out of the 53 semi-critical blocks identified, 28 are located in western UP. Water table has already plummeted to a level that agriculture is becoming an unviable proposition.

Faulty cropping pattern is amongst the main reasons for the resulting water crisis. All these years, the dryland regions of the country, which comprise nearly 75 per cent of the total cultivable area, have increasingly come under the hybrid crop varieties. While the crop yields from the hybrid varieties was surely high, the flip side of these varieties – these varieties are water guzzlers – was very conveniently ignored. For the sake of comparison, let us take the example of rice.

The high-yielding varieties of rice normally require about 5000 litres of water under drylands to produce one kg of rice. Common sense tells us that the rice varieties cultivated in the dryland regions of the country should be those that require less amount of water. What is in reality happening is just the opposite. Large proportion of the cultivable lands in drylands are now sown with hybrid rice varieties which require still more water for growing, its requirement of water touches 7000 litres for one kilo of rice grain.

Strange that in Punjab, which has assured irrigation, only high-yielding rice varieties are cultivated which require relatively less water. In the rainfed parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, hybrid rice varieties, which require roughly twice the quantity of irrigation water (than Punjab), are grown abundantly.

Not only rice hybrids, all kind of hybrid varieties that require higher doses of water – whether it is of sorghum, maize, cotton, bajra, and vegetables are promoted in the dryland regions. In addition, agricultural scientists have misled the farmers by saying that the dryland regions were hungry for chemical fertilisers. Add to this the thrust on contract farming, which requires more chemical inputs and water will turn the dryland regions barren in the years to come. Water table will plummet beyond reachable limits, as a result of which the impact of deficient rainfall will become more pronounced forcing farmers to abandon agriculture and migrate. This is what normally leads to famines.

We want to encourage cash crops farming because we want the farmers to earn more from international trade. This makes sense only if crops (including food crops) were being hydroponically cultivated in the Indian Ocean. To produce crops for export therefore defies any sensible logic. A former Vice-Chancellor of the Punjabi University, Patiala, Dr S S Johl, puts it more succinctly. He says that when Punjab exported 18 million tonnes of surplus wheat and rice in 2003-04, it actually exported 55.5 trillion litres of water. Feeding this surplus grain to the domestic population obviously makes sense, but exporting such huge quantities of scarce water to the foreign countries comes with a huge social and environmental cost.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will surely like to turn a deaf ear to these words of wisdom from Dr Johl. He is happy reiterating in Parliament that the speedier completion of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation will give a boost to agriculture exports. Unfortunately, the gains in trade are not at all being measured in terms of the water crisis ahead. The cost of production of wheat and rice (and other crops as well) does not include the cost of water. Imagine if 5000 litres of water that is required to produce one kilo of rice were to be measured as an input cost, rice would go beyond the reach of even Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal.

The urgent need therefore is to draw a cropping pattern based on the availability of groundwater and the surface water irrigation. Instead of looking up to grandiose schemes like US $ 200 billion Interlinking of Rivers to distribute water, the thrust should be to draw a balance sheet for agriculture linked to water availability. Britain had also considered inter-linking of rivers as a solution to water crisis but dropped the idea when it became know that it wouldn’t serve the purpose.

Interlinking of rivers is being pushed in the name of ushering in a second Green Revolution. A similar grandiose irrigation scheme, called the Sharada Sahayak Irrigation network was launched at the time of Mrs Indira Gandhi to bring about a green revolution in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh. While eastern UP still is looking for that elusive green revolution, the same will be the outcome of the flawed plan to inter-link India’s rivers. The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) for the State of Gujarat is a pointer to the shape of things to come.

The CAG report for the period ending March 31, 2006 shown that bulk of the water from the Sardar Sarovar Project meant for the drought-prone villages of Kachchh have been diverted to non-drought prone areas of the region and to the industries of Gandhinagar. The most glaring diversion was of 255 million litres per day to Gandhinagar, which was not covered under the master plan.

It is no use stressing on popular water conservation schemes without first taming the industry. Few know that to produce a tonne of steel, we require about 1 lakh litres of water. Each golf course (and there are nearly two dozen in the National Capital Region of Delhi) consumes an equivalent quantity of water daily that would have sufficed the need of 18,000 middle-class households. What is the use of saving water in the parched and arid lands of Rajasthan if we allow the marble industry, producing almost 91 per cent of total marble in India, to guzzle every hour around 2.75 million litres of water. No wonder the majestic lakes of Rajasthan have all gone dry.

But who cares ?

It is easy to blame the politicians and policy makers. What we forget is that you and me too are responsible for the water crisis. As long as we don’t look beyond the statistics and analysis that appears in the newspapers, we too are part of the conspiracy of silence.

REGD. OFFICE: 11, TRISARAN SOCIETY, KHAMALA, NAGPUR - 440 025.
PH. 2282447/457 MOBILE-9422108846. vidarbha@gmail.com

REF: - FARMER'S SUICIDES
DATED-18th June, 2007

Ø HUNDERES OF FARMERS STARTED DHARANA AGITATION BEFORE BANK FOR FRESH CROP A S BANKS REFUSED TO GIVE FRESH  CREDIT TO  FARMERS IN VIDARBHA .
MOHAN DHARIA SUPPORT VIDARBHA FARMERS LOAN WAIVER STIR
NAGPUR-18th June 2007

HUNDREDS  OF FARMERS STARTED AGITATION FOR FRESH CROP LOAN

The reported decision of NABARD that "The decline in credit allocation targets is surprising in the context of Centre's directives to banks to double flow of credit to the agriculture sector in three years starting 2004-05," VJAS leader kishor tiwari informed .vidarbha farmers wills strongly protest and we will not only restore credit outlay to Rs.3, 300 crore but will have loan waiver too, kishor tiwari added.

Hundreds  farmers of Yavatmal distt. started DHARANA AGITATION before Central Bank of India  Pandharkawada Branch in Yavatmal District demanding fresh crop loan to every defaulter farmers will over due loan waiver,Kishor Tiwari said.

It is complete injustice with west dying cotton farmers as most of the growth in priority sector lending has gone to districts in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada, largely due to SHARAD PAWAR NCP base regions as compared to Vidarbha. For instance, Pune gets a 91% rise in its credit allocation target. NABARD is acting against the   agriculture sector plan for six districts of Vidarbha was prepared based on the last three years' trend though an upward revision of Rs 1,275 crore was made specially under the PM's relief package during 2006-07.
"The PM's package, among other factors, rightly appreciated lack of an extensive network of formal credit in Vidarbha as one of the root causes of suicides. Cutting down on credit allocations for this reason amounts to punishing Vidarbha for being chosen for the PM's package, now cotton farmers are left at mercy of private money Leander inviting more farm suicides.

Now time has come for separating vidarbha state from maharashtra due complete contrast in fiscal condition and increasing backlog of region and we will press this demand in future too if we are being neglected and forced to kill ourselves ,kishor tiwari added.

CREDIT IS THE MAIN CAUSE OF RECENT SUICIDES
As bankers have stopped giving fresh crop loan and drop down the credit facility by 40% as per NABARD order ,debt starved cotton farmers are killing themselves, Kishor Tiwati Vidarbha Jan adndolan Samiti informed today.

When Indian finance minister submitted his annual budget for year 2007-08, it was warmly welcomed as "agriculture budget" but in result as per order of NABARD bankers association has taken decision to suddenly drop down the credit outlay for vidarbha cotton farmers .as reported the credit bonanza for farmers in Vidarbha seems to be over. After aggressive lending in the previous fiscal, the credit allocation targets set under the annual credit plan for 2007-08 for six districts of Vidarbha show a steep decline. Incidentally, these are the districts that have been reporting maximum farm suicides and where farmers' dependence on illegal money-lenders has been one of the root causes .

Credit lending targets for six districts have been revised downwards compared to last year, as per recent decision of bankers association. In 2005-06 fiscal, banks disbursed credit of Rs 765 crore in six districts. But thanks to the PM's package, the crop credit shot up to Rs 2,033 crore in the last fiscal. The current plan, however, allocates only Rs 1,683 crore for crop credit For instance, Yavatmal district, which has reported maximum suicides, has been earmarked a target of only Rs 434.96 crore which is almost a 30% decline from its 2006-07 target. Washim district shows a decline of 41%, Akola 36%, and Buldhana 38%, against the previous fiscal's targets. District credit plans have been finalised on the basis of broad guidelines prepared by NABARD.

MOHAN DHARIA SUPPORT VIDARBHA FARMERS LOAN WAIVER STIR
veteran Gandhian leader mohan dharia has in letter to VJAS  supported vidarbha Cotton farmers stir for fresh credit and complete loan waiver in fact he was indefinite fast last year and Maharashtra govt. promised to fulfill is demands but then back out.VJAS leader has announced that next step of agitation will be held before bank of maharashtra patan branch on 2nd july 2007, release added.

Kishor Tiwari
President
Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti
Email : vidarbha@gmail.com
Contact - 094221 08846