Feeding the Hungry

The bhoodan movement recognises the need for land being in the hands of the tiller. It is a nonviolent attempt to solve this serious problem. I am quite convinced, as I watch our struggle for more food in India, that we cannot provide such until every agricultural labourer owns the land on which he works. There cannot be any absentee ownership. Here again, there must be a careful study out of which must grow a definite and nonviolent national program. Gramdan is a natural approach to cooperative farming and village industries. Again it is my conviction that if we are to have a natural and substantial Cooperative Movement in India it must flow from the people themselves. It cannot come from the Government. The Government can and will play a very important part in such a movement. However, it must be fundamentally an expression of the people concerned. When the people work together, facing this large food problem of India, then only can we feed all adequately.

In solving the food or any other problem in the village we must face the need of minimum physical strength. We cannot expect hungry people to work hard, to have the needed initiative, to take the necessary leadership, to have the needed morale and to rise above an animal level of existence. The present economic system brings food to the people who are able to buy it. It does not provide adequate food for the men who produce it. This is most unjust. Gramdan is working towards this end. The public must be more sensitive to and more cooperative with this important approach to another of our great national problems.

Rural workers are constantly stressing the need for kitchen gardens. However, in many villages the local family has no place where they can even construct a latrine. There must be a minimum of land in each village for each family. Where villages are crowded, we can resort to common gardens and orchards. This kind of cooperative effort is not easy. However, it must be attempted. In our health programs we must stress the preserving and increasing of food values. For example, a common procedure in our South Indian villages is the germination and sometimes the sprouting of grams, pulses, millets and maizes. By this often important and protective food values are increased 10 per cent and more. When we are deficient in food these methods are extremely important.

We must also give more attention to the proper use of the soil. New buildings are often built upon good soil. This should be prohibited unless absolutely necessary. We have so many stony and dry places that it is a crime in these days to fill up a rice field to build a building thereon. The question arises also in my mind whether we should not plant millions of palmyrah and other sugar producing trees in sandy and dry areas where they will grow and thus release good wet lands from the necessity of producing sugar. It is also a fact that we are using more sugar than needed. If this is true, then we should educate our people. In this connection, I am convinced that more of our millets and maizes can be used in the preparation of our biscuits and breads.

That again would help us to improve our diets and increase our food supplies. I suggest these practical programs because it is at this point that gramdan workers can make a substantial contribution to Government efforts.

I would also stress the sanitation program. “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Health is essential to a good social program. Gandhi made scavengers out of his workers and this had many implications. The Government and the gramdan movement have still to make one village clean. We cannot have sound health without cleanliness. We need all of the village wastes to feed the soil if we are to make our efforts most fruitful. Gandhi again taught us the importance of composting night soil. We are tending to get away from this important emphasis. I know of no place that is seriously taking up the composting of night soil and other village wastes. Even the Sanitation Institutes are not facing these potentialities as seriously or as effectively as they might.

Special Challenges of Today

All of us are painfully aware of the passing of another of our outstanding national leaders. We have yet to appreciate the unique contribution of Nehru in formulating a great nation building program. For the moment I am thinking primarily of the Community Development Program which now covers every village in India. India is a land of villages. At least 80 per cent of our people still live in the village. Perhaps food is the outstanding problem of India. The village provides for the nation the answer to these basic needs of people: food, clothing and housing. However, it is my conviction that a rural-based society alone can produce a rich and lasting culture and civilization. The foundations of a democratic, socialistic society can only be provided by a village-centred nation. If we are to have a substantial spiritual base I am convinced that it must find its foundations in the villages. We are stressing cooperation in India today. The natural forms of cooperation are always evident in a village economy. If there is any truth in my claims, then sociologists must study this aspect of social life most carefully that we may know best to develop in the future.