G G Parikh’s ‘something for Yusuf’, brings Meherally to life Yusuf Meherally Centre aims to provoke commitment to India, even as it works for material development
Dr G G Parikh, aged 82, sits ram-rod straight in the front seat of the Sumo as it moves fairly swiftly through Mumbai. It's the Republic Day, 2006 and streets are free. Mangla Behn, his wife sits with a gentle smile in the back seat. She is about two years younger than him. They are headed for Panvel from Grant Road, where they live. It's a 2 hour long haul even on holidays; they have done the 90 km weekly run for 35 years with rare exceptions.
Just past Panvel, the car slows down at Tara, an Adivasi village. A few women stand at the edge of a dusty road, in their formal best, with platters of flowers, kumkum, lit oil lamps and an arati for the Parikhs. A brass band of school children strikes up. A spindly-legged marching platoon of boys escorts the car slowly, through the bedecked, wet-eyed village to a 3 acre clearing. Here suddenly is a generously laid out school. It is one of Dr Parikh's realised dreams. There is a large gathering to honour G.G. - as he is fondly addressed- and Mangla Behn.
G.G. doesn't show his emotions; his are the only dry eyes. The man is determined and seems set to deliver his message at the meeting. From the conversation during the ride, it is clear it will ring with a passion that is said to belong only in the young. He half turns and whispers: "You see, forty years ago JP wanted to do something for Yusuf".
Then he walks slowly but firmly, using a stick, through the silently admiring crowd towards the dais.
The 'Socialist' tag:
Yusuf Meherally Merchant, to give the full name, was born in a wealthy Gujarati family in 1903. But he had no stomach for business. In fact disowning mercantilism, he dropped his surname. He trained as a lawyer but could not enrol as an advocate because of his record of agitation against the British.
Yusuf Meherally was a sensitive man and an aesthete. He bewitched and befriended everyone he met. His passion for the humanist ideal made people swarm around him. He was a frail man who kept bad health, but that did not abate his fire. He was of the crop of young men that dreamed of a just India after the British left. 'Communism' was a banned label then and so 'socialism' —for which there was then no working model— became a flag of convenience.
Acharya Narendra Deva, Achyut Patwardhan, Ashok Mehta, Prof Dantwala, Jaya Prakash Narayan [JP], Sane Guruji, Minoo Masani, N G Goray, R M Lohia and of course, Yusuf Meherally were the early socialists. To some of them, it was an economic idea, to some a reformist one, to others a violent revolution and to all, a passionate commitment to India. Most of them did not marry. They were driven, talented men, with a firm eye on the egalitarian India they wished to realise, but Gandhi kept emphasising on the importance of the means to that end.
Gandhi of course was the lodestar that you could neither resist nor ignore. It is often said Gandhi could make heroes out of fistfuls of clay. But it is also true that strong men were putty in his presence. Or else, how do you explain the fine crop of young men of the 1930s who, seduced by the Bolshevik Revolution, sought it as the key to 'liberate' India and yet could not defy Gandhi's patient, seemingly illogical ways?
A different 'young people':
Today most Indians are not aware of the political activism of young people in the first half of twentieth century. [A recent film 'Rang de Basanti' on the period has astonished unaware Indian youth.] Kisan Mehta's recollections of the times gives some of the flavour: "Chetana Restaurant had by then become a haunt for progressive thinkers and writers. It was a place where Jayaprakash Narayan, Achyut Patwardhan and other socialists met whenever they were in Bombay...Kalbadevi-Bhuleshwar-Hanuman Galli were Meherally's arena for fighting social oppression, injustice and inequality as well as for vanquishing the orthodox within the Congress. Meherally had exhorted me "to live dangerously and to keep hopes high and expectations low" while signing my autograph book." [Read a stirring sketch of Meherally's life at this link]
G.G. heard Meherally speak in 1942 at his college and was at once smitten. He became a Cadet Member of the Socialist Cell in the Congress. Within months his opportunity came to 'live dangerously'. Cadet G G Parikh, a student all of 18 years, was at Gowalia Tank, Bombay on August 8, 1942 to back Gandhi's call to the British to Quit India. He was arrested and slapped into Worli Jail for ten months.
Revolution takes time:
Mangla Behn was born in Sholapur, Maharashtra in 1925. Her father was a Gandhian and Theosophist. He was a progressive man who sent his daughter to Shantiniketan to imbibe Tagore's sensibilities. G.G. continued his active role as a socialist even as he pursued his medical studies. He and Mangla met as fellow activists and eventually married.
But that was later. One gun-shot on Jan 30, 1948 was to change many things. As Gandhi lay dead, the force that he wielded over his followers, weakened. Many went into government and more or less succumbed to the ways of the British Raj. Lohia began his rebellion and took on the Congress. Sane Guruji was so disillusioned at the non-arrival of the just India of his dreams, that he killed himself. Yusuf Meherally wasted away to an untimely death in 1950. JP turned to Vinobha Bhave and his Bhoodan movement. "And there are some today who call themselves 'socialists' " with whom G.G. will not care to exchange a greeting. Socialists had scattered or mutated.
Several years later in 1975, JP was to precisely specify how one were to achieve a 'total revolution' that would create a fair India: "This is not something that can be achieved in a day or in a year or two. In order to achieve this we shall have to carry on a struggle for a long time, and at the same time carry on constructive and creative activities. This double process of struggle and construction is a necessity in order to achieve total revolution."
Back in the fifties, this process was already apparent to young Dr G G Parikh. Yes, he believed - as he does still- that the prevailing order must be constantly questioned and changed, but in the while, constructive work was necessary. One cannot sit and wait for that moment that will change everything. He began his medical practice at Grant Road and attended to the poor free. He responded to JP's call in the mid-1970s for a 'Total Revolution' and was jailed when Indira Gandhi perceived an 'Emergency' closing in on her. He campaigned for socialists he respected, in electoral politics.
But all that seemed too little. That's when G.G. heard afresh, what JP had been urging socialist friends for years: "We must do something for Yusuf". How quickly this fine fighter for a just India had been forgotten by the media and the establishment.
One time was not enough:
In 1961, G.G. started the Yusuf Meherally Study Centre in one room in Bombay. It was somewhere for socialist loyals to meet and discuss ideas. In such a meeting, someone suggested a one-day medical camp at Tara near Panvel. It seemed so do-able as G.G. himself was a doctor.
That camp opened G.G.'s eyes to a rural India that Gandhi was always focused on. "300 people came to that one day camp in 1967, looking for medical help. Most of the needs were trivial and yet they were not ever available before we came," he says. There was no way they could wind up and walk away. G.G. kept coming back every Sunday and soon Mangla joined him. As problems of rural life revealed themselves to the Parikhs and they responded to them, Yusuf's spirit settled at Tara.
Since that day in 1967, the Yusuf Meherally Centre, has come to sit on a 150 acre campus and is the hub of activities for 20 villages around it. Villagers are mostly of the Katkari tribe whose women have suffered due to abandonment and alcoholism amongst its men. Children have been denied education -and therefore, opportunities. Cash income was non-existent.
The most obvious solutions came first: a medical centre, a 30 bed hospital, women's support and thrift groups, micro production activities like oil milling, soap making, food processing etc and then of course the large school that we began this story with. Money has been forthcoming with moderate effort. "There is no lack of money in India when your work is transparent and results are obvious," says G.G.. He has raised close to Rs 1 crore every year for 20 years now,-most of it Indian- with which to develop the centre.
There are unobvious surprises as well at the Centre. An association with Shripad Dabholkar led to a pilot 10 Guntha Project run by Deepak Suchde. If proven, this can revolutionise food production in marginal lands. Then there is the G.G. dream to reinvent the Khadi movement to transform rural economy. The Centre also rallies every time there is a major disaster - from the East Pakistan refugee crisis of 1970 to the tsunami of 2004.
Back in the fifties, this process was already apparent to young Dr G G Parikh. Yes, he believed - as he does still- that the prevailing order must be constantly questioned and changed, but in the while, constructive work was necessary. One cannot sit and wait for that moment that will change everything. He began his medical practice at Grant Road and attended to the poor free. He responded to JP's call in the mid-1970s for a 'Total Revolution' and was jailed when Indira Gandhi perceived an 'Emergency' closing in on her. He campaigned for socialists he respected, in electoral politics.
But all that seemed too little. That's when G.G. heard afresh, what JP had been urging socialist friends for years: "We must do something for Yusuf". How quickly this fine fighter for a just India had been forgotten by the media and the establishment.
One time was not enough:
In 1961, G.G. started the Yusuf Meherally Study Centre in one room in Bombay. It was somewhere for socialist loyals to meet and discuss ideas. In such a meeting, someone suggested a one-day medical camp at Tara near Panvel. It seemed so do-able as G.G. himself was a doctor.
That camp opened G.G.'s eyes to a rural India that Gandhi was always focused on. "300 people came to that one day camp in 1967, looking for medical help. Most of the needs were trivial and yet they were not ever available before we came," he says. There was no way they could wind up and walk away. G.G. kept coming back every Sunday and soon Mangla joined him. As problems of rural life revealed themselves to the Parikhs and they responded to them, Yusuf's spirit settled at Tara.
Since that day in 1967, the Yusuf Meherally Centre, has come to sit on a 150 acre campus and is the hub of activities for 20 villages around it. Villagers are mostly of the Katkari tribe whose women have suffered due to abandonment and alcoholism amongst its men. Children have been denied education -and therefore, opportunities. Cash income was non-existent.
The most obvious solutions came first: a medical centre, a 30 bed hospital, women's support and thrift groups, micro production activities like oil milling, soap making, food processing etc and then of course the large school that we began this story with. Money has been forthcoming with moderate effort. "There is no lack of money in India when your work is transparent and results are obvious," says G.G.. He has raised close to Rs 1 crore every year for 20 years now,-most of it Indian- with which to develop the centre.
There are unobvious surprises as well at the Centre. An association with Shripad Dabholkar led to a pilot 10 Guntha Project run by Deepak Suchde. If proven, this can revolutionise food production in marginal lands. Then there is the G.G. dream to reinvent the Khadi movement to transform rural economy. The Centre also rallies every time there is a major disaster - from the East Pakistan refugee crisis of 1970 to the tsunami of 2004.
The 10 Guntha Project:
Guntha is a traditional measure of land in Maharashtra. 40 gunthas make an acre. Shripad Dabholkar's critical analysis of the interaction between plants, sun light and physical organic requirements convinced him that 'modern' agriculture was wasteful and unprofitable, and therefore forbidding.
If one were truly scientific, farming can be simple and profitable. Dabholkar called it Natu Eco [pronounced, 'natcheko'] farming. It is this knowledge that he took to the farmers of Maharashtra, to revolutionise grape and mango growing in small lots all across the state. One of his revolutionary beliefs was that a family of five can live well on 10 Gunthas or 1/4 acre.
G.G. was a great friend of Dabholkar and sought him out to do something for poor Adivasis who are generally left to fend for themselves on marginal lands. After Dabholkar's death, his long-term disciple Deepak Suchde has been a passionate evangelist of Natu Eco farming. At the Yusuf Meherally Centre, Deepak Suchde, funded by the Dr Malpani Trust, has established a pilot 10-G project to demonstrate its premises. These can be summarised broadly as follows:
§ Almost any terrain can be farmed : roof-tops, barren rock and derelict land. All you need is access to a lot of biomass. Cow-dung, -urine and small quantity of jaggery are fermented for three days to get what is known as Amrit Pani in Natu Eco farming. Then green and dry crushed biomass is pickled in the Amrit Pani for a day or two. The drained mass, crawling with soil animals is layered with a little earth, wood ash from cooking and piled 1 foot high. In 45 days, this turns into sweet smelling nursery soil or Masala Mitti in Natu Eco.
§ Productive root system of plants and trees are only 10" deep. The deeper and wider root system you find in nature are for anchoring the plant. So, if you propped a plant, a foot of enriched soil [or, Masala Mitti] is enough. The plant produces physical material from sunlight and atmospheric carbon and nitrogen; only micro-nutrients are sought from the soil.
§ For optimum photosynthetic efficiency of plants and trees, luxurious canopies are unnecessary and only increase transpiration. Careful attention is paid to canopy management by considered trimming and pruning.
§ Per square foot of Natu Eco farm, only one litre of water is required for ten days. For 10-G or 10,000 sq.ft, water requirement is only 1,000 lpd. This can be harvested from rain, supplemented by intensive recycling of all gray water.
§ Apart from the initial setting-up cost, a Natu Eco farmer needs no cash to buy anyhing from outside. He can produce all grains, vegetables, fruits, herbs, oilseeds and fuel wood for a family of five and have surpluses to generate a small cash income.
The 10-G plot designed by Deepak Suchde at Panvel, draws from Permaculture for lay-out, and adheres to Dabholkar's ideas in practice. Tall trees are planted along the edge, where a hedge of Vettiver prevents run-off of top soil. The !0-G are divided as follows: 1 G each for a family homestead; for workshop and stores; for cattle and chicken; for fruit trees; for paddy and other grains; for a nursery; for water storage; for cotton and fibres; for fast growing fuel wood. Half Guntha each are reserved for spices and oil seeds.
The pilot at Panvel is just over a year old and already fruit and vegetables are regularly produced. The first attempt at growing rice was washed away by heavy rains. Paddy has been sown again. The entire soil was close to lateritic. Judiciously placed Masala Mitti piles are the bed on which all plants grow. No electricity is used. All watering is by hand. Even for paddy.
Deepak Suchde has just started to develop a large parcel of land in Madhya Pradesh. He is available as a professional Natu Eco consultation. He can be contacted over his mobile [0-94224-43390] or email [deepak_suchde@rediffmail.com]. Dabholkar's definitive book 'Plenty For All' is available from Suchde, for Rs.450 each [-which includes postage within India]. Video CDs on the 10-G project are also available from him. Enquire for prices.
Firm focus:
Amidst all this, the steady passion for 'total change' has not dimmed in G.G.. He has said elsewhere:
"We have come to the conclusion that constructive work of a million-plus voluntary organisations, which have two-crore workers and mobilise nearly Rs.1,800 crores annually, has not changed society; it has only applied some balm to the poor and to some extent done what the state should do. In a sense, this has only prevented the sensitive and idealistic youth from doing some basic work. Reflecting on this, the Meherally Centre came to realise that if sangharsh [struggle] is combined with rachna [creative thought], basic changes will occur.
"During the freedom movement people accepted many new values much more easily and the same happened during the JP movement. Hence there is a need for sangharsh with rachna to effect basic changes in society. In view of this, the centre established the Yusuf Meherally Biradari to promote communal harmony and fight injustice."
The Biradari
On several weekends, young students gather and discuss social issues: communalism, consumerism, marginalisation of women and the poor, the environment, crisis in agriculture and of course the limits of present ways of governance. G.G. sits at the edges of such gatherings of the young Biradari and watches intently for signs of ignition. "If you want enduring change for the better, youth must learn to agitate for it. The greatest tragedy of today's India is the lack of this urge," whispers the 82 year old.
The School
Gandhi in the dark:
Which is why, at the Republic Day function of the Yusuf Meherally School, he is dry-eyed as he listens to speech after speech heaping praise on him and his wife. Nor is he taken in much by all the feet-touching and garlanding. When he finally rises to speak, he returns to the need for 'sangarsh'. Settling down in comfort or doing token social work is not enough. The only worthwhile education is the one that leads to sustainable change for everyone.
It's dark during the long drive back to central Mumbai. It had been a long, busy day. Everyone is silent. Then apropos of nothing,G.G. pipes up: "I *Enjoy* reading Gandhi," he says, and pauses a long while."Every time I am lost or confused, I open anywhere in his collected works and within minutes I find him uncannily relevant. Then I am quickly healed and determined again." He resumes his silence, enfolded in his conviction.
Which urges this thought: Must sit down and look up Gandhi; wonder what he has said today.
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Dr G G Parikh
D 15 Ganesh Prasad,
Naushir Bharucha Marg, Mumbai - 200 007
Phones: Home: [022] 23803455; Mobile: 098200 26375;
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