In Kibbutz, many Gandhians saw Bapu's ideology come true

India did not warm up to Israel for several decades since Mahatma Gandhi died. However, only a few in the city know that several Gandhians found Bapu's vision of community living, with each member contributing his bit, come to fruition in Israel.

In fact, some of these Gandhians were so impressed with Kibbutz in Israel that they visited them often, trying to emulate their ways back home. 'Kibbutz' is a term used for an enterprise or organisation which is collectively owned and run by an entire community in Israel.

Hasmukh Patel, a Sarvodaya worker and Gandhian, who would go on to establish a drip irrigation system in the ashram that he worked, said he spent two months in 1987 in a Kibbutz in Israel. "The Kibbutz living is an almost perfect representation of the community life that Gandhi advocated. It is a social idea with none of the members earning wages but everyone taking care of others,"said Patel. He said that when he went to Israel, the relation between India and Israel was not very good and they could not even directly go to the country.

"Another thing that Israel can actually teach is how to develop and sustain a cow economy," he said talking of the country's strides in animal husbandry.

He, however, also rued the fact that living in a Kibbutz was on the decline. "I went to Israel because I realised we needed more than Charkah to remove poverty and agriculture seemed to hold the answer," said Patel.

Arun Dave, another Gandhian, who experienced Kibbutz living during his visit to the country in 2009, said it envisaged what Gandhi had always said about education. "In Kibbutz, the stress is not just on education but on education that is relevant to society, something that Gandhi also stressed on. In fact, in the Ashram that Bapu established everyone shared the work and that was similar in Kibbutz too," said Dave, managing trustee of Lokbharti Gram Vidhyapith, the first rural vidyapith to be set up in the country.

In fact, Dave said that following his visit to Israel, he embraced technology and use of machinery with more gusto. Parimal Desai, another Gandhian who belongs to a family of freedom fighters said his wife and he spent over a month in 1987 in one of the Kibbutz in Haifa in Israel. "It is very similar to the concept of trusteeship floated by Gandhi where the power was not in one individual but everyone collectively took responsibility. The fruits and labour both were to be distributed among the members. In a Kibbutz there is no leader. Everyone does every work," said Desai. In fact, so impressed was Desai with the Kibbutz that his son Hardik too spend a month and a half in one of the Kkibbutz four years ago.