India is a rurally-dominant nation with 72% of its population living in villages, and most of it depends on agriculture. Hence, when we talk about national growth, the development of villages and agriculture becomes significant. For centuries villages have been the core of India’s life. In fact, they are the soul of a nation. India owes its existence to its millions of villages that nourish its urban population and where distinctive evolutionary features within our eternal culture incessantly flourish by natural process despite epochal disturbances.
India’s villages have always been self- dependent units having underlying support from agriculture, animal husbandry, conventional industries, and their inherent community system. They were independent and self-reliant, appropriately utilizing indigenous resources. When Britishers came, they weakened this autonomous, self-sustaining system of villages and dominated control over it. They announced certain directives and rulings harnessing this community system and chose local leaders as their representatives to exercise control on villages and constrained the conventional community system to depend on the British administration system.
After independence, Indian legislation came into force, but development policies remained the same, centered on urbanization instead of rural development. Its consequences are now evident to all. After passing seven decades of post-independence, a profound difference has developed between towns and villages. As a result, villages are squeezing, and towns are overburdened with population.
In the post-independence period, large industries were encouraged instead of supporting conventional small sectors. Thus, despite witnessing onward movement under Green Revolution due to massive mechanization and increased use of chemical fertilizers, its benefit too was taken by a specific group. As a result, the gap between the poor and rich widened.
Conventional traits like the dignity of labor, self-reliance, and self-esteem prevailing in society gradually diminished. Today’s mentality is so spoiled that none wants to do labor- oriented jobs. An educated young denigrates work for wages and feels high in serving even as a clerk. Despite the easy, simple, and toiling life of rural regions, he acknowledges cities’ indigent and frustrated life as his destiny.
After adherence to prominent industries in the name of development, we witnessed liberalization when multinationals made their way into the country. Their radiance pushed back the skill-oriented conventional sector of rural India, and most of them are now irrelevant. Simultaneously self-reliant system of villages based on mutual cooperation was also ruined. Consequently, this situation forced migration to urban areas in search of employment. In some provinces, the situation has become so terrible that only women and the aged are left in villages, and educated ones are all settled in towns and reluctant to return. How can we justify the nation’s growth as balanced and satisfactory in such a desolate rural life?
Because of the large-scale use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and processed seeds to yield a maximum harvest, water, land, air, environment all are under the threat of pollution. Fruits, vegetables, and other edible stuff have become toxic, and as a result, a large population is cursed to bear terrible consequences. Environmental balance is under threat due to the massive exploitation of natural resources. Worldly attractions have made man greedier. Man today is straying away from his cultural roots and nature and, despite the material progress, finds himself under dilapidated condition. In this context, whatever is achieved in the name of development shows that we have lost more than what we have gained.
This all scenario reveals a dire need for comprehensive development that can ensure overall growth of rural and urban regions, and benefits of this development do not remain confined to a specific class or person but reach lower level farmers as well.
Time has come when we reconsider rural life’s importance and return to villages where a functional infrastructure may be initiated to facilitate long-lasting development with a harmonious relationship with nature. We should dedicatedly put efforts to nourish it and refrain from exploiting it. Instead of destroying the protective layers of nature, let us preserve them and enjoy the bliss of versatile development.
Visualizing the inevitabilities associated with extensive rural development, revered Gurudev had presented innovative solutions and benevolent ideology. He had predicted that population pressure would cease from cities and feeble villages would evolve into smaller towns with a solid infrastructure. Banking facilities hitherto available for large industries will soon be available for small and cottage industries in villages. An extensive infrastructure of cottage industries under the aegis of cooperative societies would come up in villages and towns. He had a firm belief that the future belongs to villages and summoned all to come back to villages.
Our Mission has already outlined a comprehensive development framework under the seven-point program – sadhana, education, health, self-reliance, environmental protection, women empowerment, de-addiction, and eradicating evil customs in villages. Therefore, the volunteers of All World Gayatri Pariwar should initiate significant steps to ensure the comprehensive development of villages by enforcing these seven movements in villages.
Akhand Jyoti Magazine 2022 Jan-Feb