This is a story of a dream to which the interacting faith of a great many people finally gave substance.

Realisation of the dream began with the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union, which was then like a small but sturdy plant, full of sap. That plant has grown into a fruitful tree, with spreading roots and branches, but it is still nourished by the soil from which it sprang. Likewise are the towering concrete structures and landscaped gardens; the array of computers; the clever, highly skilled technical staff; the busy researchers, eloquent teachers, and eager students: they all draw their purpose from the `white revolution' that has brought so much of rural India out of the feudal age.

The white revolution has not been easy to achieve. At one time, the milk lake of Kaira district was stagnant. A few traders skimmed off fat profits, leaving to the numerous producers only a sour thin whey of inadequate payment. But the cooperative movement bean to churn that lake and soon it overflowed, spreading throughout the country.

(In an interview to The Hindu Business Line in May 2006, Kurien said: "He (Sardar Patel) firmly believed that a revolution in marketing the farmers' produce - which would be beneficial to the farmers - was necessary. Sardar Patel was convinced that in order to save themselves, the farmers needed to control the procuring, processing and marketing of milk." They got Tribhuvandas Patel, who by his own admission "did not know anything about the dairy business", to be the chairman of the Kaira Cooperatives.)

Image: Dr Verghese Kurien
Text and photographs excerpted from: The Amul India Story by Ruth Heredia. Price: Rs 295. Published with permission from Tata Mc-Graw Hill Publishing Company Limited. Copyright 1997. All rights reserved.

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