the amazing story of amul

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The amazing story of Amul... - September 20th, 2007

Dr Verghese Kurien

This is a story of a dream to which the interacting faith of a great many people finally gavesubstance.

Realisation of the dream began with the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union,

which was then like a small but sturdy plant, full of sap. That plant has grown into a fruitfultree, with spreading roots and branches, but it is still nourished by the soil from which it

sprang. Likewise are the towering concrete structures and landscaped gardens; the array of

computers; the clever, highly skilled technical staff; the busy researchers, eloquent teachers,

and eager students: they all draw their purpose from the `white revolution' that has brought so

much of rural India out of the feudal age.

The white revolution has not been easy to achieve. At one time, the milk lake of Kaira district

was stagnant. A few traders skimmed off fat profits, leaving to the numerous producers only

a sour thin whey of inadequate payment. But the cooperative movement bean to churn that

lake and soon it overflowed, spreading throughout the country. There was some pain for allthose involved in the movement: for the traders, who lost much profit; and for the milk

producers, who had to discipline themselves to responsibility, to a practice of democraticprinciples, and to the acceptance of changes in a lifestyle that had imparted a sense of

security, chiefly because it was traditional; pain, too, for the men who initiated and thenguided the movement with patience and perseverance, learning to accept temporary

frustrations in the long-term interest of their project.

The Churning Begins



Image: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,

Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and others at theinauguration of Amul Dairy.

The cooperative movement in Kaira had an early beginning. A resolution of the Bombay

Presidency Government in 1904 had directed that work should begin on organizing

cooperatives in six districts, including Kaira. A cooperative Societies Act from the same

government in 1912 was more effective. The Congress ministry, which took office in 1937,

showed greater interest in the cooperative movement, recognizing it as an instrument of ruralreconstruction. A report was commissioned by Vaikunthlal Mehta, the Finance Minister, and

M D Bhansali of the ICS (Indian Civil Service), who was registrar of Cooperative Societies.After World War II, the movement progressed greatly in Bombay presidency, despite the

short tenure of the Congress ministry.

Milk production was unsatisfactory particularly because of two deficiencies. One, in order to

produce milk of better quality and larger quantities, milch cattle should have been upgraded

(as European dairy cattle have been), but that was a costly process that was beyond the means

of the average milk producer. (as long as short supply kept the selling price of milk high,

traders could not be expected to bother). Two, to make the most of whatever milk was

available, it should have been distributed efficiently and economically, which was impossible

with primitive chilling facilities and lack of transport routes.

An Unlikely Recruit



Image: Collection of milk at a village society.

It was kindly providence that brought Verghese Kurien to work at dairy engineering in a part

of India that was so different and far from his native Kerala. Kurien was born in Calicut onNovember 26, 1921. His father, Puthenparakkal Kurien, was a civil surgeon serving in

Madras Presidency. In his fifteenth year, Kurien passed the Secondary School Leaving

Certificate Examination. Too young for admission to an engineering college, he took a

Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola College, Madras, graduating in 1940 with the

seventh rank in the presidency. Intelligent, hardworking and ambitious, he was a credit to his

family and community.

Shockingly inadequate living quarters (there was no bathroom until Kurien contrived a

suitable enclosure with corrugated iron sheets), insalubrious surroundings, and enforced

idleness: Kurien might well consider himself to be serving a term of punishment. A natty

dresser, he no longer took trouble over his appearance but grew a beard, wore khaki overalls,

and began to smoke continuously. His brother sent him an old-fashioned cook-bearer namedAnthony, who carried out his duties in full panoply of turban, sash and starched uniform. Thisadded the final touch of absurdity what Kurien could only regard as a farce.

Anand was such a small town that a newcomer was bound to be noticed and talked about. As

a meat-eating bachelor (in a largely vegetarian town), and a Malayali-Christian with a phoren(phoren is the vernacular pronunciation of foreign) degree, he provided ample scope for

speculation in local gossip. The man who was particularly interested in Kurien was the one

who had watched him alight from the train on the thirteenth of May, Maganbhai Patel. He

sought out this engineer who, like himself, had studied at an American University. It was

fortunate that they became acquainted for when Tribhuvandas came to Maganbhai with

another woeful tale of his struggles with the malfunctioning plant, Maganbhai advised him to

talk to Kurien.

All Kurien could think of was the Bombay, city of luxuries, where he enjoyed his monthly

trips, might also offer a market for his milk powder. He asked to be sent on an official visit so

that his taxi fares in Bombay could be reimbursed. Desai responded indignantly. There was

no provision for such expenditure in his budget, and he was not willing to be pestered with

official inquiries about it. If Kurien went, it must be privately, but if he did not go, Desai

would not authorize manufacture of milk powder any more.



So determined was Kurien to keep himself usefully occupied that he undertook a privateexpedition to Bombay to sell the milk powder. With the help of his friends he made a list of

likely customers, then tried them one by one. At the end of two days when he was almost atthe end of his list, he found a buyer. A biscuit factory was prepared to take all five tones of

the milk powder. Tried but pleased, Kurien returned to Anand in a fatefully altered state of

affairs.

A Leap of Faith

Image: Amul Dairy, Anand

The year 1953 marked an important milestone, in Kurien's personal life as much as in the

history of Kaira Cooperative. On his return from New Zealand in April 1953, Kurien

disembarked at Bombay, where he spent a few days. One ngiht, he attended a dinner given by

the YMCA to honour his maternal uncle, DR Thomas Yakhub.

At the dinner he met a prominent businessman and social worker, K M Philip, of the wealthy

family that owned Malayala Manorama, Kerala's most widely read and influential daily.

Philip's wife had a younger sister, Susan Peter, fair, comely with unusual grey eyes and light

brown hair. Her father and Kurien's had been friends, although Molly (as she in known to

most of her acquaintances) and Kurien had never met. Kurien's mother had been trying for

some time to get her son suitably married. He finally accepted his mother's suggestion that he

go to Trichur and meet Molly Peter. They met for the first time on May 28, 1953, were

married on June 15, at ten in the morning, and caught the four o'clock train to Bombay

enroute to Anand. Molly Kurien learned very early that her husband's life revolved around his

work in Anand.

But to return to the history of Amul, in 1953 a proposal came from Unicef to the Government

of Bombay. For years Unicef had been distributing free milk powder in underdevelopednations, but it aw no advantage to the recipients in continued dependence on this aid unless it

helped the nation to develop some industry of its own. Unicef offered a donation to theBombay government, which would include milk drying equipment worth eight lakh rupees,

in return for which the government would bind itself to distribute, through the BMS andKaira Cooperative, 12 lakh rupees worth of free milk to undernourished, children of Kaira.



Taking on the Giants

Image: Various Amul products

During the winter of 1957-58, Amul Dairy frequently worked beyond capacity, sometimes

for days on end, making butter and milk powder in a dogged attempt to utilize the surplusmilk refused by the BMS. For 49 days, the latter only accepted between 3700 and 7500 kl of

milk daily, against the contracted minimum of 26,000 kl. Sales of Amul butter helped easethe resultant financial strain. Amul butter also compensated consumers for the shortage

arising from the government's policy of severely restricting imports. By filling the gap, Amulbecame one of the leaders in import substitution, saved foreign exchange, and kept market

prices of butter in check.

In 1958-59 the decidedly unhappy relationship between Kaira Cooperative and the BMS took

a turn for the better when the latter increased its offtake by 30 per cent over the quantity

accepted in 1957-58. Meanwhile, Amul yielded to persuasion by the Indian government and

began to manufacture sweetened considered milk.

The government had two reasons for urging Amul to make condensed milk. While the armed

forces required large amounts of it, need to conserve foreign exchange necessitated its

removal from the list of imports. In 1954-55, condensed milk worth close on 1,500,000

dollars had been imported, of which 60 per cent was taken by the armed forces.

the amazing story of amul

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