The proposed memorial for Joshi, who left his imprint on agrarian economics and politics by espousing an alternative economic paradigm, which held that lack of remuneration in dry-land farming lay at the roots of poverty, will come up on his land at Angarmala near Pune.
At a time when the issue of construction of state-funded memorials for departed leaders and icons keeps creeping up frequently into political lexicon, followers of farmer leader and Shetkari Sanghatana founder Sharad Joshi are planning to build his memorial with contributions from farmers and without seeking aid from the government.
The memorial is being conceived as "one going beyond conventional brick and mortar ones", and serve as an education and "inspiration" for farmers by familiarising them with the works of the farmer leader, who sought greater economic and technological freedom for agriculturists, including access to markets with a lesser role for the government.
The proposed memorial for Joshi, who left his imprint on agrarian economics and politics by espousing an alternative economic paradigm, which held that lack of remuneration in dry-land farming lay at the roots of poverty, will come up on his land at Angarmala near Pune.
Incidentally, Joshi, a former Rajya Sabha MP, had, in a major break from Marxist, socialist and Nehruvian thought, promoted a new doctrine which sought that the state reduce its overarching influence across personal and economic lives of individuals.
Joshi (81), who propounded theories like "Bharat vs India", (on the economic-cultural divide between India and exploited, agrarian Bharat) and the need for loan waivers and remunerative pricing for agriculture, passed away in Pune on December 12. His associates will meet in Nashik on Saturday and Sunday to chart the future course of action for the Sanghatana and the farmers' movement.
"We are planning to construct the memorial with aid from farmers and without any help from the government," Joshi's associate Ravi Kashikar, who also heads the Shetkari Sanghatana Nyas, told dna. They plan to collect a minimum of Rs500 from contributors with receipts being issued by the trust. The corpus will be used for the works.
"The memorial will have details of his movement, the need to take his work forward... an up-to-date library, book exhibition, citations and awards and the larger economic agenda propounded by him," noted senior Shetkari Sanghatana leader and said former MLA Wamanrao Chatap, who is also member of the nyas (trust).
Chatap, who heads the Swatantra Bharat Paksha, the political arm of the liberal farmers organisation, added that the memorial, which is proposed on around six acres of land bequeathed by Joshi to the trust at Angarmala near Chakan, will have a "wider design".
"We do not want it to become a place of pilgrimage but a site for inspiration," he said.
Chatap said the trust would meet on Saturday and the next day a meeting of the expanded working committee of the Sanghatana would be held to discuss the further course of action and other issues. The establishment of study groups on access to technologies and freedoms, remunerative pricing for agricultural produce, FDI in agriculture, export-import policy and other issues will also be discussed.
"We will discuss the stance to be taken on the need for GM crops and marketing reforms," said Panse, adding that the new chief of the Shetkari Sanghatana would also be chosen.
"The nucleus of our work is freedom for farmers... (Farmers and agriculture) need to be freed from clutches of government babus," noted Kashikar.
An Indian Postal Service official, Joshi left his career at the Universal Postal Union in Switzerland and came to India to farm and understand the problems in agriculture. The former lecturer in economics purchased 23.5 acres of rain-fed land at Chakan near Pune and began farming in 1977. He launched himself in the farmers' movement when prices of onions in the Chakan market plunged during the Janata Party regime and soon led farmers seeking remunerative pricing for sugarcane, tobacco, milk, rice, onions and cotton. The Sanghatana was formed in 1979. Joshi combined his agitations with easy interpretation of complex economic theories for activists. He and his associates were among the first to support the Dunkel draft and GATT due to its economic freedoms and pitched himself as the political-ideological successor of the right-of-centre 'Swantantra Party' led by C. Rajgopalachari and Minoo Masani.
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