Radhanath Swami Making Better Villages

Fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi's Dream

Mahatma Gandhi said that the real India lived in her villages. But how much of India’s intelligentsia is now staying in her villages? With cities spawning innumerable carrier opportunities, recent history has borne witness to a brain drain from the villages to the cities. The intelligentsia's that do visit the village now are the ones hired by the giant corporations to size up the village for exploitation—either by selling fertilizers and inappropriate technologies, or by buying raw materials at very low prices, only to sell the finished products in the same village at a high price. Ironically, all this happens under the banner of modernization. More and more villages are turning destitute and are heaving under the weight of ‘modernization’.

Thumbing through Indian history, the part prior to British rule, one will marvel at the prosperity of Indian Villages. Traditional technologies developed and applied by the local intelligentsia, who knew their ambiance well, played a major role in that prosperity. They, not for exploitation, but to be made more self-sufficient, sized up the villages. Witnessing the wonders of nature first hand, for them God wasn’t merely a Utopian concept—they saw Him in action. It was easy to correlate God’s blessings with prosperity. In this way the villages flourished—materially and spiritually.

Wouldn’t the ‘real’ India prosper, fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi’s dream, if even a fraction of India’s intelligentsia were to become a part of its rural life? Radhanath Swami is making that happen.

At Ramanwadi

Rahul Deshpande, a student of Radhanath Swami, after his post graduation in 1995 was in Mumbai for five years. In the year 2000, inspired by Radhanath Swami and Bhakti Rasamrita Swami (also a disciple of Radhanath Swami), he decided to make his life a part of a remote village in Maharashtra state, Ramanwadi. The development mission there headed by him was named ‘Venu Madhuri’. The mission statement was, “We shall strive with sincerity to promote integrated, sustainable rural development that is based on traditional, time-tested wisdom, which aims towards local self-sufficiency with special emphasis on preservation of indigenous breeds of cattle and which foster the highest human values.”

Venu Madhuri’s work & its background at Ramanwadi

Back Ground of Ramanwadi: Village Ramanwadi (56 houses with 360 heads) falls under the heavy rainfall area's (Average rainfall 3818 mm, with 120 rainy days), and is situated on Sahyadri ranges (Western Ghats). Ramanwadi is located off the road in an isolated forest region where basic amenities like road, health center, secondary education, or a market are still missing. For basic requirements like matchstick or salt, the villagers walk 3 Kms down and up the hill, evel today. Several cases of emergency pregnant ladies being carried through bullock cart got delivered in the cart causing fatalities to both baby and mother. 

The paradox is, Ramanwadi although located in a heavy rainfall area, faced water crises for drinking and for irrigation during the months of March to May. Monsoon based agriculture, by growing paddy and finger millet was a partial source of sustenance. Other than the 4 months of monsoon based agriculture, villagers for livelihood, used to depend on the forests by collecting non-timer forest produce or selling fuel wood and timber for the industries. The family head used to migrate for work as labor on power loom at Ichalkaranji (95 km from Ramanwadi). One of the prominent reasons for the water crises was heavy deforestation of the area. Villagers did illegal forest cutting for earning livelihood and the wood went for industrial and commercial purposes. Forest cover always acts as a sponge for holding water and binding soil together, but this deforestation started removing this cover.

Situation Before & After: In 2005, Venu Madhuri with the villagers decided to work on an irrigation project. The situation of agriculture before that time was very pathetic. Whole Ramanwadi village had 2.5 acre of land under perennial irrigation. Venu Madhuri then completed two irrigation projects. Today Ramanwadi has 40 acres of land under perennial irrigation, which is benefitting around 40+ families. Just for an example, in 2005, the sugarcane production of whole Ramanwadi village was 75 tones and in 2010, the production of sugarcane has grown to 700 tones. Sugarcane cutting labor of worth Rs. 80,000 is generated every year at the village itself. Other than sugarcane, villagers grow oilseeds and vegetables for personal consumption and put the surplus for market sale. Irrigation projects have changed the economy of the region.

In 10 years, this project practically on the shoulders of this one man has attracted international acclaim from agencies like GEN (Global Eco Village Networking). Just to sample out one of its achievements, through traditional watershed management technologies, Venu Madhuri has made the land under irrigation in Ramanwadi have a 16 fold jump up. Venu Madhuri has now extended its activities in four more villages and several more are in the pipeline.

Association for India's Development (AID India) also supports this project:

• VMT Watershed Program
• Biogas-VMT
• Transformation at Ramanwadi - Nitin Paradkar, AID Dallas
• Gobargas Project- By Chetana Kulkarni
• Irrigation Scheme - Rahul Deshpande, Venu Madhuri
• Bringing Smiles, the Biogas Way - By Rahul Deshpande, Venu Madhuri
• Venu Madhuri Story Published in Newsletter
• Recently Approved Projects
• Project Approved by AID-in Dec-2005
• Recently Approved Projects

GENOA (GEN in the Oceania/Asia region) Award for Rahul Deshpande

Sri Lanka, 28th November, 2003: Rahul V. Deshpande of Venu Madhuri receiving an award in Permaculture Design Certificate Course & Cultural Immersion Programme from Lloyd Williams of GENOA, lauded by Max O. Lindegger of GENOA & Nandana Jayasinghe of Sarvodaya. Rahul was fully sponsored for the course from Asia and Australia region.

At Galtare

Around twenty graduates from colleges like IITs and IISc are now a part of the Govardhan Eco-village, an eco-friendly farm project inspired by Radhanath Swami. Apart from working on this project, this intellectual army has prepared a rough out for helping the surrounding villages with rural technologies.

Radhanath Swami speaks on Traditional Technology: