How Amul Saved India | The Untold Story of White Revolution
This was from Bihar. But this can be seen in every state. If you look up news headlines, you'll see the same thing in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, and almost in every state, at least one such incident.
Why do the farmers waste their tomatoes like this?
The reason is the frustration of the farmers. Friends, tomatoes are perishable. It cannot be stored for long, it'll spoil. The problem is, most farmers do not have cold storage facilities. And when they go to sell their tomatoes in the market, They are blackmailed.
They are quoted a non-negotiable price. They are offered around ₹2-₹3 per kg, sometimes even as little as ₹1 per kg. There have been cases where the farmers were offered only ₹0.25 per kg. This doesn't happen to tomatoes only. We see the same thing happening with onions, garlic, sugarcane, wheat, and corn.
When the farmers get so little for their produce, they get frustrated and decide not to sell. It's better to throw away the crops, to let them go to waste. Friends, this isn't a new problem. In 1945, the dairy farmers in Gujarat were suffering from the same problems. When they went to sell their milk in the market, the milk contractors quoted them a non-negotiable price, they could either take it or leave it.
But there was a twist in our story when these dairy farmers decided to join together and fight against the problem together. They decided to start their organisation. It'd be
"Of the Dairy Farmer, For the Dairy Farmer, By the Dairy Farmer"
An organisation whose turnover last year was ₹610 billion. Friends, this is the story of Amul. *Nostalgic Ad for Amul Butter: The Real Butter* "Amul, a trendsetter in the Dairy industry in India for more than 70 years, is a household name." "Dr Kurien's dream and vision for Indian dairy, has made India one of the largest producers of milk in the world."
Friends, our story begins in the early 1940s. If you went to an Indian household around this time, you wouldn't have found Amul Butter. There was another company whose butter was very popular in India. Polson. Poison batter is popular that people used the words 'butter' and 'Polson' interchangeably. The Polson company was founded by Pestonji Eduiji when he was only 13 years old. In his small shop, he started the business of coffee grinding in 1888. 12 years later, in 1900, he founded his company. Since Eduiji's nickname was Poly, and it was the era of the British Raj, a British twist was added to the name, and it was named Polson. Because most of the customers back then were British or the elite Indians.
Initially, Polson was very famous for its coffee. Their coffee was said to have been blended according to a French recipe. In 1910, someone told Eduiji, that the British army was facing some troubles in their butter supply. That they had very little butter. Eduiji saw an opportunity in this crisis and set up a dairy farm in Gujarat's Kaira district. This place is also known as Kheda. The name Kheda might bring back school memories of when you read about the Kheda Satyagraha. Gandhi and Sardar Patel launched the Kheda Satyagraha in March 1918. Back then Polson made a lot of money by selling Polson Butter, to the British Indian forces, during World War I. But the farmers in Gujarat were facing dire circumstances.
There was a famine and plague, and the British government increased the taxes. People who were unable to pay the taxes, had their property confiscated by the British.
These reasons led Gandhi and Sardar Patel to launch the Satyagraha. It was successful after 3 months of protests. The British suspended the taxes for two years And the confiscated properties were returned. But coming back to Polson's story, as a company, Polson had earned huge profits.
By 1930, they had set up a highly automated dairy in Anand. By then, Polson Butter had become very popular in Indian households. Additionally, during World War II, there was another opportunity to supply to the soldiers abundantly.
By 1945, they had reached record productions. They were producing 3 million pounds of butter each year. By 1945, Bombay's government launched the Bombay Milk Scheme.
Friends, back then the state of Bombay looked like this. Gujarat and Maharastra made the combined Bombay. Bombay State, not the city. According to the Bombay Milk Scheme, the milk had to be transported from Kaira to Bombay, over the distance of 400 km.
The company that would do this was to be selected through bidding. After the bidding, the contract was awarded to Polson. Polson got involved in the business of milk transportation as well. The Polson company started earning more profits.
But these profits did not trickle down to the dairy farmers. The farmers had to sell milk to the contractors at a fixed price. And this price would often be nominal.
The frustration among the farmers in Gujarat was increasing. This is where our hero enters this story. Tribhuvandas Patel. Tribhuvandas Patel was a leader inspired by Gandhi, he had been to jail in 1930 for the Salt Satyagraha as well. He had participated in numerous movements launched by Gandhi. Civil Disobedience, Rural Development, Drive against Untouchability.
Under his guidance, the farmers in Gujarat went to meet Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1945. The farmers explained their problems to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. After understanding their problems, Sardar Patel said, "Farmers of Kaira district, Unite!" Basically, he told them to unite and fight the system. He gave them the idea to start a Farmers' Co-operative. Whereby, the farmers would be able to sell the milk themselves. And that the co-operative can have its own Pasteurisation Plant. But the question was, would the incumbent British government buy milk directly from the Farmers' Co-operative? If the government refused to buy milk from the cooperative, what would the farmers do then? Sardar Patel suggested that the farmers should go on a strike in that case. Stop selling milk.
By doing so, they would have to incur losses for some time, But if everyone came together and stopped selling milk to the milk contractors, what could anyone do? Sardar Patel's suggestion was very convincing. He sent his trusted deputy, Moraji Bhai Desai to the Kaira district and told him to help the farmers incorporate this cooperative. And to go on a Milk Strike if needed.
Friends, this is how the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited was founded. This cooperative was for the farmers of the Kaira District only. They went to the British-India government and put across their demand. That milk should be bought directly from them.
As expected, the government refused this offer. And then the farmers go on a milk strike. They stop selling milk to the milk merchants. As a result, the Bombay Milk Scheme collapses. Not a drop of milk could reach Bombay. 15 days later, the Milk Commissioner of Bombay, a British national, went to Kaira and accepted the demand of the farmers.
But friends, at this point, the farmers saw the first glimpse of success. Tribhuvandas Patel ensured that their cooperative would be open to all milk producers in the village. Their religion, their caste, would be irrelevant.
The second thing he ensured was that the cooperative would have a One Person, One Vote scheme. The economic status or the social status of the farmers associated with the cooperative would make no difference. Everyone would be able to vote equally. He developed a 3-tier structure of the cooperative. He took a bottom-up approach. Gandhi's socialism philosophy was based on Self Sufficient Rural Economy. This idea centred around Gandhi's socialist idea. At the bottom tier would be the Village Cooperative Societies, On the second tier would be the Member Unions. And at the top tier, would be a state-level federation of the member unions. Today, if you take the example of Amul, there are 18,600 village cooperative societies at the bottom tier. More than 3.64 million farmers are associated with these cooperatives. On top of it, there are 18 member unions, at the district level. And then there's a federation of these member unions at the top. But these took some time.
Initially, when Tribhuvandas Patel launched it, there were only 2 village cooperative societies. Back in June 1946. Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited was formally registered six months later in December 1946. After this, on 15th August 1947, the country won its political independence. And the dairy farmers in Kaira got their economic independence. The farmers weren't the only ones to benefit. This saved a lot of money for the Bombay Milk Scheme as well. Because the milk they bought from the farmers, was at a fraction of the price compared to what Polson was charging.
With time, the cooperative kept on growing. In June 1948, they began the pasteurisation of milk as well. Pasteurisation means heating any food item to less than 100°C so that any microorganisms or diseases in it would be killed off. This increases the shelf life. By the end of 1948, about 432 farmers had become a part of the village cooperative societies, and the quantity of milk being supplied had increased to 5,000 litres per day. Actually, a major reason for Amul's success, later on, was that they constantly kept upgrading themselves with time. They adopted new technologies.
Even during the recent Covid-19 pandemic, their digitisation strategy proved successful. Even through such circumstances, they maintained their growth.
Friends, our next hero enters our story now, Dr Verghese Kurien. Known as the Father of the White Revolution. This is a heavy title. But in 1949, he was a 28-year-old man. At this age, he had completed his graduation in Physics studied Mechanical Engineering and joined the Tata Steel Technical Institute in Jamshedpur. He gave an interview for a government scholarship. There he was asked what pasteurisation was. He answered that it had something to do with heating milk. They told him that he was selected for the scholarship for dairy engineering. That was the only scholarship available. With this, he completed specialised training at the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in Bangalore. Then he went to America to study at Michigan State University.
Even though he had the scholarship to study dairy engineering, in his own words, he had cheated a bit and started studying metallurgy and nuclear physics. He was actually interested in nuclear physics. When he returned to India, the Union government told him to repay the government scholarship by helping the government.
Since there was a government bond, he had to obey it. The government made him the Officer of the Dairy Division in May 1949. He was sent to a butter-making facility run by the government in Anand. With a salary of ₹350. His situation at the time was the same as Abhishek's in the web series Panchayat.
"Frankly speaking, I don't actually hate this job. Being paid ₹20,000 in salary, a posting in a village, and the village is named Phullera. Dude, this is the age, you got this opportunity to go on an adventure. I want a simple life, dude. I don't want to go on an adventure. I don't want to explore rural India."
Back then, his only aim was to satisfy the bond and leave. But by chance, the government building he was working in, was a shared building being used by Kaira Cooperative Union as well. And by chance, he met Tribhuvandas Patel one day. He was working passionately to build up his cooperative. To fight Polson company. Dr Verghese Kurien was very impressed by his passion. Tribhuvandas Patel often asked for his help whenever any equipment broke down.
Once, when Dr Kurien was tired of repairing old equipment he asked them to buy a new plant. Tribhuvandas Patel said that it was a great idea. He decided to buy a new plant from Larsen & Toubro. When the equipment was due to arrive, Dr Kurien found out that the required government service had ended.
He was released from government service and if he wanted, he could go to Bombay and join any job he wanted. When Tribhuvandas got to know this, he became quite emotional. He didn't want to lose a precious friend and a brilliant mind. And like a film's plot, Dr Kurien decided to stay. The next year, in 1950, he was made the Executive Head of the Cooperative. This might seem like Mohan Bharghav's story from the film Swadesh. The level of patriotism. Such outstanding moral character which made him stay back.
But in reality, as Dr Kurien tells us in his autobiography, "I too had a dream." He gives us an interesting point of view regarding this. He said that he didn't stay back due to a noble intention, he didn't want to change the world. He stayed back because he enjoyed the work. He had realized that making money wasn't the only source of satisfaction.
You get satisfaction in your life by doing something you love. Where your passion and interest lie. While looking for this satisfaction in his work, he ended up changing the country. By 1953, so much milk was being produced that the Bombay Milk Scheme couldn't absorb all the milk.
What could they do with the extra milk?
There was only one solution. Using the extra milk to produce other milk products. They decided to produce milk powder but the problem was that buffalo milk cannot be easily spray dried to make milk powder. This required technological innovation. This innovation was brought about by Dr Kurien's friend, Dr Harichand Megha Dalay. He was a tech wizard with whose help, The world's first buffalo milk spray drier was invented. 31st October 1955, Sardar Patel's birthday was chosen to be the day when Kaira's first milk powder plant would be inaugurated.
Asia's largest plant back then. With the capacity to process 100,000-litre milk per day. The first plant to produce milk powder from buffalo milk. Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was invited as the Guest of Honour. The inauguration went off smoothly.
This is a famous picture from the day of the opening ceremony. You can spot Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi here. When it was decided that they would produce dairy products as well, they needed a brand name.
If the cooperative wanted to sell its own milk powder and butter They would need a brand name, and a label, under which it could be sold. In 1957, a chemist working in the lab suggested the name Amul. You'd wonder why he chose Amul. The word Amul is derived from the word Amulya. A Sanskrit word meaning Priceless. But not only this, if you abbreviate Anand Milk Union Limited, It becomes AMUL.
So the name fits in both senses. Amul starts producing butter as well. But compared to Polson Butter, Amul butter turned out to be a flop. Milk was turned into cream on the same day, because of which it was white in colour. On the other hand, Polson butter was made of stale cream. Milk was kept without refrigeration for 10 days so that it would sour a bit. And the bacteria and lactic acid could start working. Polson heavily salted their butter to have a longer shelf life.
So that it could be stored for longer. Another difference was that Polson butter was made from cow's milk. This gave it a yellow colour. The special taste of the Polson butter, a bit salty, and the yellowish colour, people were very used to it.
On the other hand, Amul's butter was neither salty nor did it look white. People didn't accept it as butter. Unfortunately, to compete, Amul had to add salt to their butter. Add colouring agents to bring the yellow colour, Dr Kurien wasn't happy to do so, he was an idealist person.
But over time, he realised that consumer satisfaction was very important. Without it, the company would not survive. This strategy proved successful, and with time, Amul Butter started performing better than Polson Butter.
It started selling more. Here, our special marketing strategies began. Everyone knows the Amul girl. She was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records to be the World's Longest Running Outdoor Advertising Campaign. 
She was created in 1966, by Sylvester daCunha. This was in response to Polson's Butter Girl. Similar to Amul's Butter Girl, for marketing, Polson had a butter girl too. After the success of Kaira Union and their brand Amul, Similar unions started being incorporated in Gujarat's other districts.
Such as in Baroda and Surat. To avoid having several small unions competing with each other, These district unions combined and came together, to form the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation in 1973. And Kaira Union agreed to give their brand name Amul to the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation too.
After its success, Pandit Nehru took some important protectionist measures to protect the milk cooperatives from the bigger companies. After him, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri continued his vision.
As for Polson, the company had already weakened while competing with Amul. Because Amul's policies were better. But this company had to shut down their dairy business when the government announced that the dairy sector would be reserved for cooperatives. The company hasn't disappeared.
Today, the company makes natural tanning materials and eco-friendly leather chemicals.
In 1964, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Anand and asked Dr Kurien if the Amul model could be replicated all over the country. This was the foundation of the National Dairy Development Board in Anand.
After this, the Operation Flood program was launched in 1969-70. World's largest dairy development program. As a result, India, which was a milk deficit country in the 1950s, when we had to import 55,000-tonne milk powder from other countries, by the 1970s, India became self-sufficient in milk production.
By 1998, India surpassed the USA, And India became the world's largest milk-producing country. The story of Amul's success isn't limited to only one company. It is the success story of the country. This one cooperative made us a milk surplus country. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were uplifted from poverty.
This is India's largest self-sustainable rural employment program as well. Dr Kurien protected Amul from government bureaucrats and other corporates. The company, the cooperative is still not listed on stock exchanges.
It means that the owners of this cooperative are the farmers. 80% of the revenue goes to them. The managing committees of the village cooperative societies are democratically elected.
Amul's saga has been wonderfully showcased in the film Manthan. "Your morning milk will be paid off in the evening, and the evening milk will be paid off the next morning.
People from all castes can be a member, and everyone will have an equal right." This was an outstanding film of its time. With actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri.
It had won 2 National Awards as well. When this was made in 1976, It was India's official entry to the Oscars. The budget to make this film, ₹1 million, was crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers.
Each farmer had paid ₹2 to make this film. The success story shown in this film was so inspirational that it was later screened at the United Nations Development Programme.
And screened in African and Latin American countries.
Today, you can watch this film for free on Amul's YouTube channel.
The only unfortunate thing is that today, the cooperatives in India have not been able to spread out to other sectors. At least not as successfully. That's why we get the news of tomatoes being thrown away on the roads, onions being dumped, I hope someone from you will be inspired by this story And maybe, you'd be the next Dr Kurien or the next Tribhuvandas Patel.
