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VERGHESE KURIEN - the Taste of India
The “Father of the White Revolution” died on September 9, 2012 at the Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital in Nadiad in Gujarat after a brief illness. He was 90 years and is survived by his wife and daughter.
True, Kurien had revolutionised the country’s dairy industry. It is in human nature to laud a man after his death, especially in this sub-continent. It is also in human nature to hold on to one’s beloved ones knowing well that everyone is mortal.
But in the death of Kurien, what came to light is his other side of the personality – people publicly hardly knew and a low-profile man he was Kurien hardly bothered to spread.
Though a Syrian Christian and his wife a protestant, Kurien was cremated at Anand, his ‘Karma bhoomi’ (work place). Notably, the tiny town in Gujarat (Anand) is almost a household word in India today – all owing to the success of his cooperative movement in milk in which women were involved in large number.
Needless to add, if someone still has doubts about this statement, it is advisable for them to see the Shyam Benegal’s prize-winning film ‘Manthan’. Late Smita Patil became a national fame instantly because of her role in the film. Manthan was sponsored by 500,000 farmers of Gujarat, constituents of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation. This was the first time in India that a feature film has been financed by farmers.
“Kurien was cremated according to his wishes. He wanted to be cremated at his Karmabhoomi. Kurien Sahab used to love calling him atheist. But he was a more nationalist than most,” recalls Shailendra Kumar, a former associate of his for four decades.
Another frequent visitor to Kurien’s house at Anand, C K Yagnik, also a former associate, says there was no religious symbol in his house!
“Dr Kurien was an irony of sort. He was a Malayali in Gujarat. When regional organizations and Kerala-origin Churches were busy calling Malayalis to sundry events, Dr Kurien was the only one missing. He was the only apolitical person I have ever seen,” wrote Binu Alex, Ahmedabad-based journalist and commodity watcher in his tribute to the legend.
In fact, true to his element, Kurien could not work with a project in his home state. “His own Kerala people did not understand him. Kurien’s view was in Kerala, an Amul model would have died down at the first stage itself. He praised the farmers of Gujarat for the execution and Tribhuvandas Patel for vision. Kurien believed he was just a bridge between these two. He had made his role clear,” says Alex adding to him “this man can never die”.
Kurien’s admirers like Shailendra Kumar, associated with him from 1968 to 2000, recalls him as a “gem of a person” and “a Bharat Ratna of poor Indians”.
Kurien had won several awards including the Padma Vibhushan (India’s second-highest civilian honour), and the Magasaysay Award, but the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna had eluded him.
As the founding chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Kurien made a stellar success story of the ‘Amul brand’ of dairy products.
Old timers say Kurien’s achievements with the GCMMF led the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to enlist his service nationwide and appoint him as founder-chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965.
“This was done to replicate Amul success nationwide and the rest is history. A key feature of success story with Amul was the invention of milk powder processed from buffalo’s milk. This changed the face of dairy movement and women empowerment,” says Kumar, who served with the NDDB under Kurien as the Human Resources head from 1968 to 2000.
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A JOLLY GOOD MALLU! There was another side to Late Kurien’s personality. He had a fantastic sense of humour. Once in Thiruvananthapuram, he was asked, “As a Malayali, a man from Kerala why don’t you do something similar to Amul movement in your own state?” Kurien’s cryptic reply was: “I have only one problem, in Kerala you have so many Mallus (Keralites)”. The reference was to the time-tested adage that Keralites also have a peculiar tendency, say like Bengalis and many other Indian communities, when people are focused more in opposing each other. No wonder, the media conference was left reverberated with a peal of laughter. |
The Amul group now comprises 15 local cooperatives with three million farmer members – the majority of them women – in around 16,000 Gujarat villages. The Amul business model has been replicated in several states and the World Bank has identified it as a key tool in the fight against poverty.
Shailendra Kumar, now based in Gurgaon near Delhi, also has fond memories of Kurien as a person and says, the late Milk Man was a “story teller per excellence and someone who spoke from heart”.
“During his visit to Pakistan, he was asked how as a Christian he was made the head of NDDB and expected to take care and protect cows and buffaloes. Kurien Sahab’s reply was: “This is India. During the escalated mini-Kutch war when an Indian Air Force plane was shot down by Pakistanis in 1960s, the IG police was a Muslim, collector was a Catholic and the state chief secretary too was a Christian. But in the national interests ‘several Muslim trouble makers’ were taken care of”.
Curiously as a Christian, he has also served in a cow protection committee with many RSS stalwarts of his time.
In their condolence messages, the President Pranab Mukherjee, the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have paid glowing tributes to Kurien.
In his missive to Kurien’s wife, Molly Kurien, the Prime Minister said Kurien’s “contribution to the welfare of the farmer and agricultural production and development of the country is immeasurable. Kurien was an icon of India’s cooperative movement and the dairy industry”.
