Inaugural Session

The Seminar began, in the presence of Shri Kaliyan Vanamamalai Jeeyar Swamiji, with recitation of vaidika mantras in praise of Anna. The recitation, from the Taittiriya Brahmana and Taittiriya Upanishad, was rendered in authentic south Indian diction by Shri Raghava Sastrigal.
 
Welcome Address

Shri R. K. Mishra

Following the recitation, Shri R. K. Mishra began his welcome address with an obeisance to Shri Kaliyan Vanamamalai Jeeyar Swamiji. Introducing Shri Jeeyar Swamiji, Shri Mishra, recalled that he represents a matham of great antiquity that has a vast following both in the South and the North. Located at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district of Tamilnadu, Shri Vanamamalai Kshetra is one of the 108 bhu-vaikunthas, the special abodes of Shri Vishnu on earth. Shri Manavala Mamuni Jeeyar Swamiji, one of the greatest Vaishnava Acharyas of India, had graced the matham in the fourteenth century. The presence of Shri Jeeyar Swamiji, Shri Mishra said, has imbued this seminar with divine grace.

Welcoming the participants on behalf of the Observer Research Foundation and Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai, Shri Mishra expressed his special gratitude to the guests of honour of the morning: Shri Chaturanan Mishra, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, Shri G. K. Moopanar and Shri Jitendra Prasada. He pointed out that this cooperation amongst and presence of high leaders representing almost the whole of the current political spectrum has given this seminar a character that transcends all political parties, and the various divisions that mark our society. These introductory remarks were followed by a lucid description of the background and the objective of the seminar. We give a brief summary of Shri Mishra’s statement in his own words. Shri Mishra said:This seminar is a humble attempt to bring together sections of Indian people who are divided between political India and religious India, between intellectual India and common India, between thinking India and working India. Indian society seems to be broken in two; there is a divide; and people across this divide talk at each other, never to each other. We are unable to bridge this divide even on problems where the entire people, the entire nation, all sections of society must get together. After all, such coming together on crucial issues alone is the proof of nationhood and of a common civilisation.

Sometime ago, Shri Balbir Punj of the Business and Political Observer had gone to Shri Tirumala. On his return he told about an unusual gathering of the highest Acharyas of India. They had assembled together on the request of the Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai to deliberate upon the issue of scarcity and hunger from the perspective of sanatana dharma. The acharyas also released a publication of the Centre, entitled, “Annam Bahu Kurvita: Recollecting the Indian Discipline of Growing and Sharing Food in Plenty”.

“Annam Bahu Kurvita”, as many of us must know, is a mantra from Taittiriya Upanishad. I glanced through the book that borrows its title from the Taittiriya Upanishad. Those of us who have some understanding of Sanskrit are aware that vaidika mantras carry multiple layers of meaning. I was fascinated by the interpretation of the classical literature on the problem of food that this book offered and the way the authors placed a modern problem in the perspective of our classical understanding of life and society. And I was indeed impressed that the book was released by the highest acharyas of India’s various sampradayas, who agreed to gather at Shri Tirumala at the invitation of the Centre to discuss such a core issue of our economy and polity. I thought that the issue was important enough to be brought to New Delhi, the place where problems are created and also occasionally solved.

I happened to meet Shri Chaturanan Mishra around that time. I gave him copy of the book; with some trepidation, I must say. But Shri Chaturnan Mishra very enthusiastically said that it was an important enough subject to hold a seminar on and he would be happy to inaugurate it. Then we began approaching various political leaders and scholars on the subject, and the response has been overwhelming. If we had known the intensity of response we would have tried to spread the seminar over two days.

Presentation of the theme of the seminar will be made by Dr. Bajaj, but I shall like to briefly summarize the issues. The book presents essentially three points. One, that at the end of 18th century the productivity of foodgrains in India was higher than it is now and the availability per capita was many times more. Two, since Independence per capita production and consumption of foodgrains in India has remained almost static. Three, that our per capita consumption of foodgrains today is among the lowest in the world. It is mentioned in the book that the British had set up a famine commission in 1880. In their report the famine commissioners had stated that to survive at an animal level of existence the Indians would need about 200 kilograms of food per capita per year. We, the representatives of independent India, have assumed that this is enough; that if an Indian can survive at this level of food, then that is what he would get. We have fixed that level of production and consumption as our target. When we achieve that we think we are self-sufficient in food.

These are the points concerning economics and statistics of food that emerge from the book. But more importantly the book seeks to link India’s current problems with India’s immediate and ancient history. The book really goes back to our roots and reminds us that abundance in production of foodgrains and abundance in sharing has been a part of Indian tradition. Those who are elderly enough and have not forgotten their pre-Independence childhood would know that this was the common practice in Indian families. Before sitting down to eat for themselves, our mothers and fathers used to always put away some portion for other human beings and for animals and insects. This was part of the Indian culture. We, until recent times, believed in the precept of Atithi Devo Bhava; to welcome the unknown guest on the door as a god has been our way. The book documents this culture of abundance and sharing. It also tells us how the classical Indian society institutionalised these practices, and how these practices were destroyed.

This is the basic proposition of the book and the seminar. The problem of scarcity and hunger that has come to prevail in India with the breakdown of the discipline of abundance and sharing has to be solved. Food after all is not merely an economic commodity; it is also a strategic commodity. Many of us remember, that in the 1960’s the then president of USA, Mr. Johnson, used to carefully watch every shipment of foodgrains to India. Every shipment was linked to the way India voted in the Security Council. To be smug and complacent about food is to jeopardize Indian security. Food is, of course, an economic commodity, but it is also a strategic commodity, and more than that it is an ethical and moral commodity. A society that cannot ensure food for every one, enough nourishment for every one, is surely a degenerate society; such a society can hardly instill a sense of dignity amongst its people.

I am indeed happy for the opportunity that the Observer Research Foundation has had to associate with this issue. I am sincerely grateful to all of you who have shown the inherent Indian capacity to rise above the smallness that unfortunately seems to prevail in the public life of our country today. I feel enthused and hope that if we can carry forward this spirit, we may be able to mobilise public opinion. We may be able to bring together the political and religious leaders of India, and also perhaps the intellectuals, to create a powerful movement to eradicate the problem of hunger and scarcity. After all this is a problem that has so much to do with national security and human dignity of our people.

Shri Mishra concluded his welcome address with a request to Shri Vanamamalai Jeeyar Swamiji to bless the occasion. He also suggested that Dr. Bajaj should make a somewhat detailed presentation of the theme of the seminar, before Shri Chaturanan Mishra formally inaugurated the seminar.

Blessings

Shri Kaliyan Vanamamalai Jeeyar Swamiji

Shri Swamiji offered his blessings in Hindi; the following is a brief English rendering of his message:
While taking part in the deliberations of this morning, my heart is indeed brimming with happiness. I also had the good fortune of participating, along with other Acharyas, in the unusual conference organized by the Centre last October at Shri Tirumala in the nearness of Shri Balaji. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the concern expressed by the Acharyas about the state of scarcity and hunger in India has been taken serious note of, and has led to this seminar at Delhi, where the senior political leaders of India are present. Shri Chandra Shekhar, Shri Lal Krishna Advani, Shri Ajit Singh, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Shri Murli Manohar Joshi and many others are scheduled to attend the seminar during the day. Shri Moopanar, Shri Jitendra Prasada and Shri Nawal Kishore Sharma are already here. Shri Vajpayeeji is also here. The honourable union minister for agriculture, Shri Chaturanan Mishraji is himself present. Chaturanana is also a name of Brahma, the creator, who with his four faces looks in all directions and ensures that all are always taken care of. It is perhaps appropriate that our agriculture minister carries the name of Brahma; I believe that this is a good omen. If, like Chaturanana Brahma, we begin to look around ourselves and begin to care for others, the problem of scarcity and hunger shall indeed be soon solved, and our great land shall once again become a land of plenty and prosperity.

The question of food, which is the subject of this seminar, is extremely important. In our ancient literature Anna occupies a central place. There is a story in the Taittiriya Upanishad from which we heard a beautiful invocation this morning: Bhrigu goes to his father, Varuna, and asks to be shown the path towards the realisation of Brahman. The father asks the son to undertake tapas, intense meditation; because that alone is the way for all realisation. The son undertakes tapas; and finds that Anna, food, is indeed Brahman. The father asks him to continue his tapas, and then step by step the son sees Brahman in prana, the breath of life; in manas, the mind; vijnana, the knowledge; and finally in ananda, the bliss. The son thus reaches the ultimate reality of the universe; but the first apprehension of that reality for the great rishi is indeed in Anna. Such is the importance of Anna, which has been recognized not only in the Upanishad, but also in Shrimad Bhagavad-Gita and in the Puranas, Smritis and Dharma-Shastras.

Anna, food, is essential for life; and what is essential for life must be available to all. I am happy that leaders of all political parties have come together to discuss the problem of ensuring food for all. Their presence indicates that this is a problem on which there is indeed a national consensus. There is no problem that cannot be solved with such national consensus.

I offer my blessings to all those who are present here. Let all be happy, healthy and prosperous. Let there be an abundance of Anna in our land. Let our great motherland be laden with crops. This is my prayer to my ishta devata, the divine couple, Shri Varamankamba and Shri Devanayaka Vibhu. Let auspiciousness prevail! Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!

Introductory Remarks

Dr. J. K. Bajaj

Dr. Bajaj began with an obeisance to Shri Vanamamalai Jeeyar Swamiji. He prayed that with the grace of god and blessings of Shri Swamiji, the seminar would succeed in its objective, and the deliberations of the day would be of some help in ameliorating the condition of scarcity and hunger in which India finds herself today. These invocatory remarks were in Hindi; Dr. Bajaj continued with his statement of the problem in English; a summary of his statement follows:

Shri R.K. Mishra has indeed been kind to my colleagues and me in the Centre; he has succinctly stated all of what we have tried to say through our book and have been trying to put before the nation in various ways. I have only to elaborate a little on what Shri Mishraji has already said.

When one starts looking at the available information, the problem seems very obvious. It seems silly to us that we have to often repeat the well-known fact that India has been living on 200 kilograms per capita per year of foodgrains and that other countries do not live at this level of consumption. A total of 200 kg per capita per year of production and availability of foodgrains is not considered to be enough by any self-respecting nation. Dignified nations, whenever they come into their own, whenever they get the opportunity to make something of themselves, break out of such low levels of availability and consumption.

When a country produces and makes available only this much of foodgrains, then every grain of food and other edible materials is committed for human consumption, and therefore the animals have to necessarily go hungry. That is not acceptable to most societies; because human societies take care of not only human beings but also of animals, of insects, of other aspects of nature. But the 200 kg per capita per person that we produce, and that we have fixed as our target and limit, is normally not considered to be enough for human consumption also. Most economic thinkers think of this to be the level of availability at which human beings can continue to maintain a minimal level of physical activity. This is the minimum you have to make available for people to continue their mere physical existence. Below that level people begin to actually die of starvation.

This evening we shall probably have Prof. Jean Dreze with us. He, along with Prof. Amartya Sen, has been working on the problem of hunger and famine. In one of their better known books they make this rather strong assertion that during the great famine, that stalked China between 1959-61, about 30 million people died; and that, according to them, is also the number that keeps dying of malnutrition in India every eight years. The number of Indians who die before their due time every eight years because they do not get enough food adds up to the number that died in China in those three years of what is called the Great China Famine. These are the statistics about hunger in India! All active economists, all policy planners, and all those who have anything to do with numbers concerning Indian society and economy, are aware of these statistics. Those who do not believe in numbers, but have seen India at some grass root level, know how this hunger manifests amongst people and animals in India. Such hunger of men and animals surely destroys nations.

The information about scarcity and hunger in India has been public knowledge for quite some time. It is not that this situation has come about today; scarcity and hunger have been prevailing in India from the beginning of the 19th century. The British colonial administration began collecting statistical information on agriculture and food from around 1880. From then onwards availability in India has continued to hover around this same figure of about 200 kg per capita per year. The availability comes down during famine, but it almost never goes above 200 kg. We have not been able to raise production and availability above this level in the fifty years of independent functioning and development. Many countries of the world came to suffer scarcity and hunger during the colonial phase. Most of them, it seems, got over the situation soon after gaining their independence, and often raised their per capita production and consumption to double and more within the first few years of their independent functioning. We have not cared to undertake the first task that independent people set for themselves.

Information about the prevalence of scarcity and wide-spread hunger in India is not new; it is just that we do not talk about it. But we at the Centre for Policy Studies fortunately have access to a different kind of information too. We have been looking into how India functioned in the 18th century. We have detailed and highly reliable information about various aspects of society and economy of about 2000 localities in the Chengalpattu region. The region surrounds the southern city of Chennai on three sides; the fourth side of the city of Chennai and the neighbouring region is open to the sea. This is, of course, not a very fertile region of India; it does not fall in any of the great and abundantly fertile river valleys of India.
India is a country of great river valleys. We have been endowed with an extraordinarily abundant geography. Every part of the geographical area of India is traversed by some great life giving river or the other. We have at least seven rivers of the kind that can each sustain a whole civilisation on its own. And so more than half of the geographical area of India is constituted of extraordinarily fertile lands. Not many parts of the world are so well endowed; in most countries of the world only a small proportion of the geographical area is cultivable and fertile.

The Chengalpattu region, about which we have 18th century records, is not one of the naturally fertile areas of India. It is a coastal area, sloping down to the sea. Fertility in this region can be won from the land only by careful and painstaking tending of the rainwaters, so that they may nurture the lands before running down to the sea nearby. Our information shows that in this difficult area average productivity of land was of the order of 2.5 tons per hectare, which is considerably higher than the average that we have been able to achieve today with all our efforts. This was the level of productivity in the difficult times of 1760’s, when the region had already faced unsettled conditions for about 30 years with the English and the French armies marching up and down spreading destruction in their wake.

If we average over not the whole region, but only over the essentially agricultural localities, the level of productivity turns out to be much higher. For the localities that produced more than 600 tons of foodgrains in a year, the average yield is as high as 5 tons per hectare. This latter average extends over localities that covered one-third of the cultivated land and contributed about two-thirds of the total production. Among these essentially agricultural localities there are some where productivity is almost unbelievably high; there are individual localities with fairly large lands that produced as much as 9 tons of paddy per hectare. We have visited some of these localities; even today they seem involved in extraordinarily intense agriculture.

When we look at production per capita rather than per unit of land, the data begins to seem even more fascinating. This fairly difficult region at an extraordinarily difficult time produced as much as a ton of foodgrains per capita per year. This level of availability is five times what we have established as our limit today; but it is near what the functioning affluent societies of today assure for their people. If you look at the amount of foodgrains that is consumed and utilised in Europe or America, you get numbers similar to what was being produced in Chengalpattu in the 1760’s. China today is fast approaching the same level of food production and utilisation. This is another set of data that we have about food in India.

We also have a third set of information. We have been reading some of the classical Indian literature, and we find that this civilizational literature of India has much to say about the place of food and sharing in life and the universe. It could be that what we have understood from the classical literature is just one interpretation of the text, as Mishraji just said; to us it seems the only interpretation. From whatever little of the classical literature of India we have been fortunate to see, it seems that all the texts—the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Itihasas, the Puranas and the Dharma-Shastras—are absolutely clear and absolutely explicit that the discipline of abundance in food and sharing is primary to dharma. This is not an implicit suggestion that the texts make, it is not something that has to be deduced or concluded from other statements. The texts explicitly tell us that dharma, which is the same as civilised living, begins with an abundance of food and the first dharmika act, first civilised act of a human being, is that of sharing one’s food with others before sitting down to eat for oneself.

Man does not eat till he has not shared. A responsible and capable householder, a grihastha, does not eat till he has not ensured that the hunger of everybody who comes within his domain of responsibility has been assuaged. The grihastha is responsible for all: for the unknown seeker of hospitality at the door, for the servants, the animals, and even for the ants and insects. When all of them have eaten, only then can a responsible grihastha lawfully eat and only then the food that he eats becomes amrita, the preserver and restorer of life. What he eats without having first shared is merely poison. The food that has not been shared is indeed the food, as Swamiji mentioned this morning, that eats man, instead of being eaten by him. The food that is eaten without due ceremony of sharing is food that shall eat you up, that is the explicit message of the classical Indian texts.

Ensuring an abundance and sharing it widely as portrayed above is indeed a matter of personal ethics, it is an essential part of the ethics of being a righteous house-holder. But the texts also talk about the ethics of the state and the society in this matter. They insist that a society or a state that tolerates the hunger of even one person is beyond redemption. A country where even one person has to sleep hungry cannot be saved and is not worth saving.
This information about the classical Indian discipline of abundance and sharing is then the third kind of information we have been looking into. We have looked at what that we have been able to achieve today with all our efforts. This was the level of productivity in the difficult times of 1760’s, when the region had already faced unsettled conditions for about 30 years with the English and the French armies marching up and down spreading destruction in their wake.

To our mind, the most painful fact about India today is that we have begun to tolerate hunger of men and animals. We have begun to cultivate an uncaring attitude towards the people and the animals, and also towards water and land, with which we have been so well endowed. Indian lands are fertile, we have an abundance of water, and we have sunshine throughout the year. With such natural resources, all we need to grow an abundance of food is to begin caring for our lands and our natural endowments. In the Chengalpattu information, what is most striking is the care with which the Chengalpattu society husbanded its land and water.

Once a renowned historian asked me how did the Chengalpattu people obtain that level of production at a time when technology was not much advanced. I told him about the irrigation system of the area. When you look at the maps of their irrigation system, it seems as if they knew their land as well as one knows the palm of one’s hand. They it seems knew every up and down of the land, and used the knowledge to develop an almost unsurpassable, yet seemingly effortless irrigation system. That kind of knowing and caring is a very Indian way; we care for the land, we care for our neighbourhood, we care for the people, animals and the insects. It is the caring that produces abundance; and we have stopped caring.

In this kind of situation, when a whole society forgets about its intrinsic attributes of caring and sharing, it is perhaps not enough to merely talk of statistical information about acute scarcity and widespread hunger; we have to recollect ourselves, we have to recall what we have always thought to be the essence of being Indian, we have to once again bring to our mind the great discipline of growing and sharing in abundance that our civilization has been teaching and practising with such intensity. Our book is essentially an exercise in recollecting, recalling and remembering. Because, we believe, that once we recollect ourselves and our discipline, we shall also learn to obey the discipline and thus recreate the abundance for which we have been renowned. To recollect is also often to recreat. Once a people recollect their essential way of being, implementing that way of being in practice is often simple.

Let me add that even if we in our wisdom decide that we need not follow the essential Indian ways any more, that today we have to do things in the modern way, even then we shall have to somehow solve the problem of scarcity and hunger. Prevalence of hunger amongst large numbers is not considered a proper state of society anywhere in the world. I do not know of any great economic thinker, who believes that a nation can achieve any kind of prosperity, any kind of economic activity at a reasonably dignified level, till the lands do not begin producing an abundance and there is not a surplus of food. This is what Adam Smith says, in his Wealth of Nations, in so many words.

To us however the Indian ways are important. That is why, we believe and hope that with the blessings of our great saints and the cooperation of our people, we shall soon make the effort to recollect ourselves and our ways, and soon free this great land of ours of the stigma of scarcity and hunger.

Shri Chaturanan Mishra
Union Minister for Agriculture

Shri Chaturanan Mishra presented his address in Hindi. The following is an abbreviated translation of his address:

I am thankful to the Observer Research Foundation, especially to Shri R. K. Mishra, and the Centre for Policy Studies for organizing this seminar on a subject that crucially concerns agriculture in India. I must also congratulate the authors of the book, “Annam Bahu Kurvita”, that Dr. Bajaj just mentioned. They have broughttogether almost all that is said in our civilizational literature on the question of food and its distribution.

Coming to the theme of the seminar, let me first point out that food and foodgrains are not the same thing. Food is a much larger term; it includes milk, fruit, flesh and fish. I want to make it clear that being the minister for agriculture, I shall certainly make the necessary effort to enhance the production of foodgrains, but it is also important to pay attention to other elements of food. Man cannot live on foodgrains alone. Proper nutrition requires the consumption of much else besides foodgrains.

It shall be inappropriate for me to quote from the Shastras in the presence of Shri Swamiji; though we have been traditionally a family of Sanskrit scholars. Let me therefore just give one example: In the Mahabharata when Bhishma Pitamaha is lying on a bed of arrows awaiting his end, Yudhishthira asks him about the essence of dharma, and Bhishma Pitamaha says that giving of food is indeed the essence of dharma. That is the position of our Shastras; but, I believe that no Indian should need to receive food from others; all of our people should be able to produce for themselves and eat for themselves.

Another point I wish to make is that there is no connection at all between per capita availability of foodgrains and people dying of hunger. I want to make this absolutely clear. Sometime ago, there were reports about people dying of hunger in Kalahandi region of Orissa; at that time the Government of India held a stock of 9 million tons of foodgrains. So the availability does not really matter. If people die of starvation in any region it is only because of poor management. If there is starvation in any part of India and we get the report in time, we shall certainly make food available there, even if we have to import food from abroad.

The issue of “Food for All” is being discussed all over the world. Recently, the United Nations held a conference on the subject in Rome; I was one of the delegates there. But the fact is that today science and technology have advanced so much that we can banish hunger from this planet. The USA alone can grow enough food to feed most of the world; but they do not grow, they pay the farmers to keep their fields uncultivated. Because, they are afraid that if they grow more food, prices in the world-markets shall crash. Whom should we blame for this situation?

But let us talk about our own country. I am certainly against imports of foodgrains. But we have to occasionally import to keep enough foodgrains in government stocks in order to discourage profiteering. We have grown a record harvest of 198 million tons of foodgrains this year. There is no reason why we should need to import from anywhere, or why anyone should remain hungry. But if the traders hoard stocks of foodgrains and let people die of hunger, then who is to blame? This is not the fault of the government or the agriculturists, it is just the system that we have adopted that is to blame for the starvation of our people.

It is also important to take note of the advances in science and technology. Our land, that has been cultivated for centuries, has got exhausted. After all the land also gets hungry; and it is important to look into what the land needs. If we could begin a large-scale movement to test our soils everywhere, and if through the spread of modern science and technology we could determine the exact needs of fertilizer, water and other inputs for different fields and different crops, then we could grow just any amount of foodgrains. We have so far adopted green-revolution technologies on only about 30 percent of our cultivated lands; if we could spread the same technologies to the other 70 percent then we might feed twice the population of India. And it shall not take very long to do; it can be done in 10 to 15 years. Similarly, if we could use advanced technologies to improve the stock of our cattle, we may produce abundant milk. All this is not happening, because our government does not have enough capital; and the educated amongst us do not want to reach up to the poor growers of foodgrains and producers of milk.

The small and marginal cultivators of India are today ready to adopt modern technologies. But purchase of improved seeds, chemical fertilizers, and other inputs requires capital, for which the cultivator must get credit. Ifwe could arrange for the necessary credit, and if we could provide water, then those small cultivators of India can grow enough not only to feed India but also much of the rest of the world. We have been blessed with fertile lands and excellent climate. We have great potential to produce foodgrains, fruit and vegetable for the world. We can be the leaders of the world in these areas. But, the government does not have the capital to provide the necessary credit and irrigation. So far we have been able to provide irrigation on only about 30 percent of our lands. The private sector in India has no interest in these matters, they only want to go into areas where they can make quick profits without much effort or investment. The multinationals are interested in selling cold-drinks and potato-chips. None of them are keen to invest in agriculture. And, if we ask them to invest, they demand subsidies. Whom all can we subsidise? Landless workers need subsidy, marginal cultivators need subsidy, agriculture needs subsidy; and they want us to subsidise capitalism also!

Let me end with the assertion that we are capable of producing enough food for ourselves. We have fertile soils; we have excellent climate; we have great scientists and technologists and the institutions for scientific and technological development; we have competent and dedicated cultivators; we can lead the world in agricultural production. If there is anything lacking, it is the capital for fully developing the resources we have.
I am happy that leaders of all parties have come together to discuss this problem. It is not a problem that concerns any particular political party; it is a national problem. And I am convinced that if we work together we shall be able to produce enough not only for ourselves, but also for the rest of the world.

Thanking Shri Chaturanan Mishra for his inaugural address, Shri R. K. Mishra assured him that the issues raised in the address would be focused upon during the deliberations of the seminar. Shri R. K. Mishra especially referred to the issue of subsidies raised in the inaugural address, and suggested that if we could decide that the state shall subsidise only foodgrains for the hungry and nothing else, then the problem would become simpler. After all, most subsidies are intended to ultimately help feed the hungry. Why not provide for feeding of the hungry directly, instead of subsidising fertiliser, water, electricity and hundreds of other things?

Keynote Address

Shri Jitendra Prasada
Vice-President, Indian National Congress

Shri Jitendra Prasada presented his keynote address in Hindi; below we provide a brief English version of it:

This effort to bring together different sections of political opinion to comprehend the problem of hunger and malnutrition in India, undertaken on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of Indian Independence, is indeed extremely important. By organizing this seminar the Observer Research Foundation and the Centre for Policy Studies have earned our gratitude. If we could hold similar deliberations, transcending all political divide, on other issues of national importance, then we would probably begin to find solutions for some of the more vexed national problems.

While I was coming to attend this seminar, I happened to meet a scholarly friend of mine; and he told me that the kind of elaborate discussion that we find in prithivi-sukta of Atharvaveda on the issues of production and distribution of food can hardly be found in any other ancient literature of the world. I have not had the opportunity to read the book of Shri Bajaj and Shri Srinivas in detail; but the effort to bring together all that has been said in the civilizational literature of India concerning the production and distribution of food in abundance is indeed praiseworthy. And, what Dr. Bajaj has said today about looking at the problem of food from the perspective of both production and sharing together is indeed important.

Experts estimate that India’s population shall stabilize by the middle of next century at around 1.4 billion. If that is true, then increasing food production is of fundamental importance. Even today China produces more than twice as much foodgrains as India on a cultivated area that is somewhat less than ours. Productivity of lands in India is much below the rest of the world. If we could merely achieve in other parts of the country the level of productivity that we have achieved in Punjab, then we would emerge as the leading agricultural nation of the world.

We need to provide whole of the country, especially the eastern parts of the country, with the technology, irrigation, credit and inputs that we have so far made available only in limited areas. Without such spread of productivity, the self-sufficiency in food that we have been talking about shall only remain an illusion. As has been pointed out this morning, we are self-sufficient only to the extent that we can keep our people from dying of starvation; this cannot be a desirable state of affairs.

We have not been able to make any major agricultural effort since the green-revolution of the late sixties. During the last few years total production of foodgrains has become stagnant. Meanwhile availability of pulses, which are the main source of protein in Indian diets, has come down drastically. Availability of coarse grains, which form a major part of the food-basket of the poor has been sharply declining. And, notwithstanding appreciable increase in the production of oilseeds, total availability per capita remains low and much below demand.
Our distribution system also seems to have failed. States in the South, like Kerala and Tamilnadu, do have some viable distribution system, but in the North, I believe, not even ten percent of the population is covered by the public distribution system. The result is that people have to resort to agitation and even plunder in order to feed themselves. I recently heard that truckloads of food, vegetables and fruit passing through Bastar were being looted; then a perceptive administrator arranged for distribution of food in the area, and the looting stopped.

The problem of food therefore has to be looked at from the perspective of production, distribution and also of population. Only when we study the problem from all these three angles, and make plans accordingly, we shall be able to arrive at an appropriate solution.
Let me end by once again congratulating the organizers of this seminar. I hope that they shall also make the effort to involve leaders of different political parties in similar deliberations on other important issues facing the nation.

Chief Guest’s Address

Shri G. K. Moopanar
President, Tamil Manila Congress

While calling upon Shri Moopanar to present his address, Shri R. K. Mishra recalled that it is fairly well-known that his family has been a great supporter and benefactor of the classical music tradition in Tamilnadu, but it is perhaps not so well-known that Sri Moopanar’s family has been an equally ardent supporter of the tradition of sharing food.

Shri G. K. Moopanar in his brief address expressed his happiness at being able to participate in such a seminar. He said that when Shri Mishra spoke to him about organising a seminar for recollecting the traditions of producing and sharing food in abundance, he felt really elated at the thought. He felt that we should all really be talking about issues of this seriousness; that alone would help in solving the problems of the country. He told the organisers that he would have been happy if this seminar were held in Chennai; and hoped that the dialogue initiated in this seminar would not stop at Delhi alone, and would continue in other parts and cities of the country.

Concluding his address, Shri Moopanar repeated his offer to host a similar seminar in Chennai.