Kundrakudi Adigalar has chosen to be autocratic, but patiently listen to
the ordinary people and has liberal in outlook. After he visited Russia, he
wanted to change the life style of village people to become entrepreneurs. He has organized Planning Forum, he got ideas
from the elite group for suggestions, and on the other side he seeks the active
participation of village people for implementation of village development
programmes. When he was a lay man, he was very much attracted by the high
thoughts of Ulaga Podhumarai Thirukural became his Pothuneri even at the age of
8 years old, since he was encouraged by the Tamil Professor Sethupillai and
recite and received quarter anna (25 paise) as appreciation gift every
day. After completed his school
education, he was joined as a bus conductor, a school teacher and an unpaid
apprentice in a paper factory for some time. But his heart was nerve in such
jobs his heart inclined towards spiritual, so he joined as a Accountant in
Dharmapuri Aatheenam in 1944 at the age
of 20 years old. His holiness of high
thoughts and practical thinking administrative skill made him to became the
head of the Aadheenam in 1947, where Aranganathan became the Kandasamy
Thambiran. His innovate schemes at Kundrakudi attract the iron lady of the
world Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who has sent the planning commission representatives
Dr. K.V. Sundaram, Joint Advisor and Shri K.V. Palanidurai, Senior Research
Officer to made a case study of Kundrakudi village, a brain child of Kundrakudi
Adigalar.1
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Success stories in
rural development are few in India. Wherever the success story have occurred,
it is necessary to document the experience, analyse the factors that have
contributed to the success and consider their relevance to the country as a
whole in terms of their replicability, This approach is likely to yield
valuable insights for evolving a model for rural development for the country. "This
is what I should like for all other villages", was the observation made by
our late Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi after going through a report under
the caption "Gains at the Grass Roots" published in "The
Hindu" dated, 9th September, 1984. The report related to the
accomplishments in rural development made by the Village Planning Forum (VPF)
in Kundrakudi, an interior village in Tamil Nadu State. The Planning Commission
received a note from the P.M.'s Secretariat with the above observation on the
Kundrakudi Experiment for further possible action.
The objectives of the present study
are to analyse the Kundrakudi experience as all example of local-level planning
for rural development; and to familiarize Kuntrakudi Adigalar, a trend setter like Rochdale of
England. To made the readers to understand the powers and functions as a head
of Matt, who are not only spiritual head, but also social reformer,
philanthropist, pioneer of planning commission of India, extends into the
realms of economics, sociology and every walk of human progress, which is the
cornerstone of the rural development strategy.2
To enable the readers
and researchers to understand these founding persons’ contribution, included a
social and religious leader, popularly known as 'Adigalar' and a group of
dedicated scientists from Central Electro Chemical Research Institute, located
in proximity to Kundrakudi.
To understand the
significant development works undertaken in Kuntrakudi industrial units
sponsored by the Village Planning Forum, the Community Wells, the Mulberry
garden, orchard etc. and held discussions with a wide spectrum of
community—farmers, industrial workers and women as well as various officials
and non-officials.
HISTORIC INCIDENT TO BECOME A HEAD OF THIRUVANNAMALAI
ADHEENAM
As he was a
renowned scholar, Kuntrakudi Adigalar’s
intellectual refined thoughts attracted Thiruvannamalai Pontiff’s eyes fell on
him, later he was selected as 45th head of the Kundrakudi
Thiruvannamalai Adheenam in the year 1952.
He was a trend setter and began transformation period in Matt’s
activities. He changed the regular recruitment order, practices in temples.
The Mutt was headed by His Holiness
Srilasri Deivasigamani Arunachala Desiga Paramacharya Swamigal (popularly known
as Thavathiru Kundrakudi Adigalar). Sri Adigalar was a great scholar and a
powerful orator and above all a religious reformer with progressive views. He
was a follower of Gandhiji, an admirer of socialism and a staunch supporter of
the cooperative movement. He has widely travelled both in India and abroad and
visited the Soviet Union, China, Japan, SriLanka and Malaysia. The rural
development movement around Kundrakudi is closely inter-twined with the social
and spiritual activities of the Mutt.
Sri Adigalar was deeply
moved by the poverty and 'unemployment among the people living in Kundrakudi,
and the nearby villages. He realised that preaching spiritualism to
semi-starved citizens would not help propagate the objectives of the religious
institution of which he is the head. Being a firm believer in Gandhiji's
ideals, he wanted the village to be self-sufficient at least in food grains and
other essential items.
ABROAD
VISIT BROADEN HIS THINKING:
Adigalar visited to some foreign countries, particularly the
Soviet Union, influenced his thinking and ideas on the socio-economic upliftment
of the villagers. He became convinced that organising the villagers for
collective self-reliance and utilising the local natural resources of the area
in the most optimal manner constituted the essential strategy of rural
development. In order to give shape to these ideas, he launched a Village
Planning Forum in Kundrakudi on 2nd October 1977, the birthday of Gandhiji.
OBJECTIVES
OF VPF:
The main objective of
the Village Planning Forum, as envisaged by him, is the achievement of
self-sufficiency and eradication of unemployment in the village. In this task,
he decided to bring together the three
essential actors in the development drama, viz., The Government, the financiers
(represented by the State Bank of India) and a third party planner (represented
by the scientists of CECR1) for mutual interaction/cooperation in the
development process. The idea was to primarily revolve around the government
development programmes, modify them according to local' requirements and to
facilitate their implementation in a successful' way by bringing about access
to capital (provided through the commercial banks) and the scientific inputs
and knowhow (provided by CECRI, the third party planner).
The main aims of the
village-planning forum, as stated. in its constitution, are quite
comprehensive, consisting of some 15 items as follows :— 1. To uplift the
economically weaker sections of the society. 2. To improve the skills of the
local artisans. 3. To impart training to the local people for self-employment.
4. To train the local people for leadership through formation of cooperative
society, task assignment, participation in discussions etc. 5. To utilise the
available resources in the village for the development. 6. To improve the
awareness of villagers and to educate them in better health and family welfare
measures, sanitation and clean environment. 7. To introduce modern methods of
agriculture. 8. To encourage cooperative movements and to train villagers for
different functions in cooperative society like Directors, Presidents,
Vice-Presidents. 9. To improve irrigation facilities. 10. To improve cattle
wealth. 11. To bring the entire wasteland under cultivation. 12. To create an
atmosphere conducive to formation of integrated society free from race, religious
and caste-differences. 13. To take Science and Technology to the village.
14. To improve the academic performance
of students in-villages. 15. To make the villages self-sufficient in all
aspects in paddy, vegetables, milk, meat, fish, etc.
MEMBERS OF PLANNING FORUM:
The Planning Forum is
broad-based in composition with different interests represented in it. Sri
Adigalar is the coordinator of the Planning Forum. The following are the-other
members: 1. Selected village citizens (including women). 2. Presidents,
Vice-Presidents and Secretaries of the various, cooperative societies. 3. Local
industrial interests. 4. Representatives of commercial and cooperative banks.
5. Panchayat Union Officials. 6. Scientists from CECRI, Karaikudi. 7. Officials
of the Agricultural Department. 8. Officials of the Animal Husbandry
Department. 9. Officials of Agricultural Engineering Department. 10. Officials
of Education Department. 11. Officials of Electricity Board. 12. General
Manager of District Industries Centre, Ramnad. 13. Officials of Khadi and
Village Industries. 14. Village officials.
During the planning
commission members visit, they saw
extensive tracts of barren and degraded wasteland in the area. A sizeable
portion of the land must be government land, probably with the forest
department. A concerted effort should be made to profitably use this land. Such
lands on which there are no plans for afforestation in the next twenty years or
so, may be given on lease to registered cooperatives of landless labourers and
small and marginal farmers who live around such lands (for a period ranging
from .20—25 years) so that they may be put to appropriate economic use. The
Government of Gujarat has a scheme like this for the development of the
wasteland3.
The VPF in Kundrakudi that
have contributed to the success story in Kundrakudi. Re-stated in terms of
broad principles at the level of generality, these are: (a) Building up a
responsible and responsive Receiving Mechanism which will be a people's
institution for planning and development, to provide a forum for various people
to interact and to prepare an acceptable framework for planning. (b) Ensuring a
willing, understanding and adaptive Delivery Mechanism which, in effect,
implies bringing about attitudinal changes among the functionaries engaged in
development administration. (c) Bringing into existence a 'Think-tank' or
'Third Party Planner' which can play both an advisory role in planning on a
continuous basis, as Well as a catalytic motivational role in implementation
With some degree of involvement (not mere association) in the planning and
implementation process, (d) Identifying a local leader of high personal
integrity who is respected by all sections of the people and who can integrate
the functions mentioned in (a), (b) and (c). (e) Ensuring a style of
functioning (of the planning mechanism) which will be informed by an informal
group dynamic approach to decision making and which Would be neither compelling
nor absorbing in its performance and which Would be able to eliminate any
conflicts fluctuations arising during the planning process. (f) Adopting
flexible procedures and consensus building techniques as well as healthy
conventions in the working process.a dynamic role in the transformation of
wastelands in the area.
The factors that have
contributed to the success story in Kundrakudi were as follows: Re-stated in terms of broad principles at the
level of generality, these are: (a) Building up a responsible and responsive
Receiving Mechanism which will be a people's institution for planning and
development, to provide a forum for various people to interact and to prepare
an acceptable framework for planning. (b) Ensuring a willing, understanding and
adaptive Delivery Mechanism which, in effect, implies bringing about
attitudinal changes among the functionaries engaged in development
administration. (c) Bringing into existence a 'Think-tank' or 'Third Party
Planner' which can play both an advisory role in planning on a continuous
basis, as Well as a catalytic motivational role in implementation With some
degree of involvement (not mere association) in the planning and implementation
process, (d) Identifying a local leader of high personal integrity who is
respected by all sections of the people and who can integrate the functions
mentioned in (a), (b) and (c). (e) Ensuring a style of functioning (of the
planning mechanism) which will be informed by an informal group dynamic
approach to decision making and which Would be neither compelling nor absorbing
in its performance and which Would be able to eliminate any conflicts
fluctuations arising during the planning process. (f) Adopting flexible
procedures and consensus building techniques as well as healthy conventions in
the working process. (g) Devising a
network of informal consultative groups outside the regular institutional
mechanism for group action, which would expand the scope of public
participation and also ensure, voluntary agency participation. (See Annexure
IV) (h) Imparting Training both formal and informal for the local youth
inducted into the development projects to provide both the skills as Well as
moral qualities. 5.23 The principles stated above need to be interpreted
appropriately to suit every situation. There can be no fixed rules of the game.
Each situation is unique in itself and demands a different approach.
CONCLUSION
Department of Central and State
Governments are implementing numerous schemes in every part of the country.
Unfortunately, these have tended to acquire a certain uniformity because of
Central/State direction and guidelines provided by the State/Central
Governments. Although these guidelines provide for flexibility of operation
with reference to area peculiarities and specificities, the normal government
machinery at the lower levels does not exercise this prerogative for various
reasons, which we may not go into. It is only when an enlightened local body is
present, which is in a position to intervene and can articulate the local area
specificities and needs, that these considerations enter explicitly into the
formulation of plan schemes and appropriate modifications in these schemes are
made to suit local resources, local peculiarities and local needs of the
village. 3.2 Part of the success of the Kundrakudi experiment may be ascribed
to the fact that the Village Planning Forum was able to exercise some thinking
as to the choice of schemes relevant to the village area and in this way
rendered the government schemes both area— specific and people-specific. It is
proposed to discuss here only a few of those schemes which may be considered
significant from the point of view of their 'trigger potential' for area
development. The emphasis in this discussion is not so much on the physical
details of a particular scheme, as on its social dynamics, i.e. the part played
by the people in its formulation and implementation. He was not only a village development planner, but also work for inter religious
harmony during Mandaikadu riot, and work for social justice at keelvenmani
incident in Tanjore district, active participant in Bhoodan Movement for land
for landless. He lived as a saintly life
and thought what a saint can do as a servant of God for social justice with
humanity. He is a man of multifaceted personality lived for peace, harmony by
shown his love on humanity and being a pioneer of Indian Planning commission by
spreading his service as social movement like Rochdale of England in Tamil Nadu. Hence, rightly called him as Rochdale of Tamil Nadu.
END NOTES
1.
Towards improved Local Level Planning for
Rural Development Lessons from some Experience, Planning Commission, Government
of India, New Delhi, 1986, pp.1-23.
2.
Dr. K.V. Sundaram, Joint Adviser (MLP)
and Shri K.V. Palanidurai, Senior Research Officer, Planning Commission
(hereinafter referred to as Study Team in this report) visited Kundrakudi
village during February 13—16, 1985 and discussed with the founding figures of
the Village Planning. Forum,
3.
On 16-6-1982, the Government of Gujarat
passed a resolution for giving such land as has been classified as forest land
and is barren and deforested which cannot be afforested by the Forest
Department, to responsible bodies like educational institutions, registered
societies, public trusts, and industrial establishments for afforestation. On
27-9-1984, this was replaced by another resolution which stated that forest
wasteland would be leased only to registered cooperatives of landless labourers
and small and marginal farmers.
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