It is quite impossible for an individual farmer to
look after the welfare of his cattle in his own home in a proper and scientific
manner. Amongst other causes lack of collective effort has been a principal
cause of the deterioration of the cow and hence of cattle in general.
The world today is moving towards the ideal of
collective or co-operative effort in every department of life. Much in this line
has been and is being accomplished. It has come into our country also, but in
such a distorted form that our poor have not been able to reap its benefits.
Pari passu with the increase in our population land holdings of the average
farmers are daily decreasing. Moreover, what the individual possesses in often
fragmentary. For such farmers to keep cattle in their homes is a suicidal
policy; and yet this is their condition today. Those who give the first place to
economics and pay scant attention to religious, ethical or humanitarian
considerations proclaim from the house-tops that the farmer is being devoured by
his cattle due to the cost of their feed which is out of all proportion to what
they yield. They say it is folly not to slaughter wholesale all useless animals.
What then should be done by humanitarians is the
question. The answer obviously is to find a way whereby we may not only save the
lives of our cattle but also see that they do not become a burden. I am sure
that co-operative effort can help us in a large measure.
The following comparison may he helpful:
I firmly believe too that we shall not derive the
full benefits of agriculture until we take to co-operative farming. Does it not
stand to reason that it is far better for a hundred families in a village to
cultivate their lands collectively and divide the income therefrom than to
divide the land anyhow into a hundred portions? And what applies to land applies
equally to cattle.
It is quite another matter that it may be
difficult to convert people to adopt this way of life straightaway. The straight
and narrow road is always hard to traverse. Every step in the programme of cow
service is strewn with thorny problems. But only by surmounting difficulties can
we hope to make the path easier. My purpose for the time being is to show the
great superiority of collective cattle-farming over the individual effort. I
hold further that the latter is wrong and the former only is right. In reality
even the individual can only safeguard his independence through co-operation. In
cattle-farming the individual effort has led to selfishness and inhumanity,
whereas the collective effort can abate both the evils, if it does not remove
them altogether.
Harijan, 15-2-'42
The excreta of animals and human beings mixed with refuse can be turned into golden manure, itself a valuable commodity. It increases the productivity of the soil which receives it. Preparation of this manure is itself a village industry. But this, like all village industries cannot give tangible results unless the crores of India co-operated in reviving them and thus making India prosperous.
Delhi Diary, pp.270-71