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Unity, diversity, integrity and dvpt: Sustaining Sardar’s legacy

There has been a lot of controversy on the Statue of Unity and tribal rights. I want to put forward proposals which can use the statue’s appeal to attract tourists to expand opportunities for tribal development in an unprecedented manner. Whether state and civil society will work together with local tribal communities to make this dream come true or not, time will tell. But let me still propose these ways of pursuing ideals for which Sardar Patel was always known for.  Sustaining Sardar’s legacy will require a bias for urgent action.

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There has been a lot of controversy on the Statue of Unity and tribal rights. I want to put forward proposals which can use the statue’s appeal to attract tourists to expand opportunities for tribal development in an unprecedented manner. Whether state and civil society will work together with local tribal communities to make this dream come true or not, time will tell. But let me still propose these ways of pursuing ideals for which Sardar Patel was always known for.  Sustaining Sardar’s legacy will require a bias for urgent action.

The first time when he was elected to the sanitation committee of Ahmedabad municipality, Sardar would joke about the Gandhian approach and its ability to bring about change in the governance of India. But after champaran satyagraha, Sardar was deeply influenced by the bias of Gandhi for action and resolute action.

When Kheda faced a crisis of disease and other stresses, Patel led the movement to bring order and succour.  He as highly respected by civil service for the way in which he wanted them to work for the development of India with integrity, unity and maintaining diversity.

Can we bring about the same bias for action in dealing the opportunities generated by the Statue of Unity? It was reported recently that on  weekend, more than 27,000 people visited the statue to pay their homage to the great son of India.


Can  these visitors create opportunities for the tribal by just spending their  money judiciously and government facilitating the process? Amul dairy is owned by farmers but run so ably by the dedicated managers with great integrity and service orientation.

 Can we ask Amul to organize the tribals around the statue in say 100-200 villages, to begin with, and later to 1000 villages at least? All the vending, services, food joints, craft goods, organic food, forest produce, value-added products based on minor forest products etc., will be owned by tribals and only tribals.

There will also be stay homes and trekking routes for those who wish to stay longer, understand local socio-ecological and cultural systems and contribute thus to their own learning but also to the local economy.  Cooperatives of tribal will own the structures, shops, services, and entire system fo management. Amul will guide them, build their capacity and other NGOs like GIAN, Gandhi Ashram, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, SEVA etc., will work together with Gujarat government, tribal, tourism, culture, forest, food, agriculture, Industry and other related departments to create an agro-industrial revolution in the region. The goal is to remove complete poverty in five years through mobilization of tourism and other related interventions around the Statue of Unity.

Can we transform the region and its destiny through this statue?  Will we be forgiven if we did not do it? Will we fail in respecting the spirit of Sardar who united the whole country, gave us the civil service structure and practised extreme frugality. His children or grandchildren did not benefit from anything he did. Can we rise to the occasion and the speed with which we built the magnificent statue, we can build the road to prosperity for lakhs of tribals in the region.

Anil Gupta, The author is founder of Honey Bee Network & visiting faculty at IIM-A, anilgb@gmail.com

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