Milkman who transformed millions of lives

Indias White Revolution owes its genesis to a garage in Anand,from where Indias Milkman Verghese Kurien began piecing together one of the worlds largest dairy cooperative federations that is today known the world over by its brand name,Amul

Indias White Revolution owes its genesis to a garage in Anand,from where Indias Milkman Verghese Kurien began piecing together one of the worlds largest dairy cooperative federations that is today known the world over by its brand name,Amul.

Born into a Syrian Christian family on November 26,1921,in Kozhikode,Kerala,Kurien was the third of the four siblings. He was a mechanical engineer from the University of Madras,and did postgraduation in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University. He had undergone a specialised training in dairying from the National Dairy Research Institute,Bangalore,before setting up Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation on the advice of the then prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Having spent 33 years in building milk cooperatives in Gujarat,Kurien leaves behind a Rs 10,000-crore establishment.

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Kurien began his journey in Anand in 1949 and had been instrumental in transforming the lives of over 15 million farmer families. He built a series of institutions like IRMA,NDDB,National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India,Anandalaya School and state dairy cooperative federations. In the process,he transformed India into the worlds largest milk producer,created the worlds largest food marketing business,and the countrys largest food brand. All this could not have been possible had he not been stopped from going back to Bombay by Tribhuvandas Patel,who,as the then chairman of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union,asked Kurien to help him procure dairy instruments.

Many found it strange that for so many years a Keralite Christian had been regularly and unanimously elected chairman of the GCCMF. There was a time when I was also the chairman of Gujarat State Electricity Board. Another time I was vice-chancellor of Gujarat Agriculture University. I doubt if in my own state of Kerala,a Gujarati would ever have been given these important positions of power. Yet I am aware that none of this would have been possible without Tribhuvandas Patel, he writes in his autobiography,I Too Had a Dream,in which he also wrote that he wanted to be cremated in Anand.

In Kozhikode,his friend Abdul Azeez recalls how Kurien wanted to visit the house where his family stayed. Azeez says he located the house and took Kurien there during the latters visit in 2008. However,on reaching near the house,Kurien suddenly changed his mind and we returned, he says,adding that Kuriens last visit to Kozhikode was in 2010.