BHAGAT SINGH’S SOCIALIST INDIA
Dedicated to
R. H. Richharia
R. L. Brahmachari
Statement
It is paradoxical enough, that the commissioned report of the “father” (sponsored by WB and other multinational corporations) of the so-called “Green Revolution”, one who is responsible for the present catastrophic condition of the Indian farmers, is now being placed by the farmers themselves as the basis of their movement demands!
Following events are to be noted in this case:
- After the Second World War, arms and ammunition industry was in low ebb. To compensate the matter, a large amount of war-waste was utilized in agriculture either as chemical fertilizer or as pesticide. Seeds were modified according to the character of the war-waste.
- Many agricultural universities have been installed since then to endorse this metamorphosis of war-waste to agricultural means of production.
- This type of profit-making agro-scientific imperialism (instead of community-based, collective [samavaya] and indigenous production), has led to the massive destruction of agricultural fields, farmers’ livelihood and biodiversity as well. Moreover, farmers have to buy seeds from the multinational companies instead of utilizing the indigenous varieties, which are time-tested, and have been passed down since generations.
- This capitalist-endeavour has been endorsed by the inorganic scientists or technical intelligentsia. To subscribe Print and Electronic Capitalism, scientists are also bound to publish papers (by cutting bamboo trees!), as they live inside the domain of “publish or perish” (and publish rubbish). Therefore, they have truncated data for overproducing research papers without having any social engagement. Swaminathan is the guru of these scientists in this case. Swaminathan developed a variety of wheat, named “Sharbati Sonora”, which he claimed to contain more lysine than the Mexican strains from which it had been derived. This lysine, according to Swaminathan, is a good nutrient for the malnourished Indian children. But this claim was re-examined by CIMMYT and it was found in 1969 that it was totally incorrect and false. In 1972, Vinod H Shah, an agronomist at the ICAR had to commit suicide after declaring that the ICAR scientists had manipulated data. Despite this fact of duping, Swaminathan got heaps of awards from different prestigious institutes. An I.C.A.R. Enquiry Committee headed by P. B. Gajendragadkar was formed and an investigation was carried out by it into the Sharbati Sonora case. It was found in the investigation that “someone” (who??!!) had purposefully manipulated and changed the value of the lysine content in the wheat variety, so that it could be considered as a “great discovery”!
- According to Swaminathan, the Green Revolution was introduced to compensate India’s food scarcity. However, Amartya Sen thought otherwise by introducing the concept of ‘entitlement’.
Conclusion
If the farmers are today in the road for the fight of their survival, then they must follow their own traditional and indigenous form of farming, while refraining themselves from the agro-scientific imperialist model. Even in case of animal husbandry, they must not follow the dictates of the commission.
Akhar Bandyopadhyay
Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay
Hyperlinks:
- MS Swaminathan – Wikipedia
- Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan – PowerBase
- An Enquiry Commission Report: The Gajendragadkar Report on ICAR, 1972
- An Analytical Report: TOP FOOD SCIENTIST PUBLISHED FALSE DATA
- Putting Wheat in Its Place, or Why the Green Revolution Wasn’t Quite What It’s Made Out to Be – The Wire
- Dr. Richharia’s Story – Crushed, but Not Defeated!
Akhar Bandyopadhyay 