Yogeshwar Krishi: The Community based Indian Agricultural Movement

The concept of Yogeshwar Krishi is one of the institutions of the movement and is only initiated in villages where more than 40 per cent of the population has become Swadhyayi . This is necessary for the sustenance of the operations. The permission to start Yogeshwar Krishi is taken after considering the sustainability of the experiment and the commitment of the local Swadhyayi populace. Under Yogeshwar Krishi , land is not owned. It is either rented or leased. Even where a Swadhyayi wants to donate land for Yogeshwar Krishi , it is not accepted. Payment is made as lease rent or rent as per the prevailing market prices.

The size of an average Yogeshwar Krishi farm is approximately 1.5 to 2 hectares. Every Swadhyayi village has three "elder brothers". They are normally selected by the community on the basis of their experience, commitment and the time they can devote to Swadhyay work. Any form of election is strictly prohibited. It is only selection. The elder brothers are jointly responsible for the management of the farm but all decisions regarding the crops to be sown, the time of harvesting, marketing of the produce and irrigation, among other things, are taken in consultation with the Swadhyay family. It is a form of collective decision-making. The system operates on trust, and paperwork and formalism are kept to a bare minimum. No case has been reported so far of the elder brothers deliberately taking a decision to the detriment of the community or in their own self-interest.

The appointment of labours is made according to the season. The days are fixed for each Swadhyayi willing to undertake Shram Bhakti . The author have visited at least five to six villages practising Yogeshwar Krishi . The author invariably found Swadhyayis working on the field without any supervision and I found them highly motivated. The author observed that Yogeshwar Krishi also acts as a centre of agricultural research and dissemination of sustainable technology. The use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides has been discouraged, and there is increasing reliance on biomanures and indigenous pesticides. Vermiculture compost has been introduced into villages, and has been taken up by the villagers on a very large scale.

Another achievement worth mentioning is the use of groundwater resources and the recharging of wells. About decade ago, depletion of groundwater had led to the ingress of sea water in coastal regions. However, Swadhyayis began recharging the wells by a number of simple techniques. Almost 80,000 wells were recharged in Veeraval itself.

Distribution and sharing of resources has always been a problem. Swadhyay has a simple solution. Two-thirds of the produce is remitted to the Central Trust in Mumbai. The remaining is used by the village community. Yogeshwar Krishi has a bank account in which the sale proceeds are deposited. These can be used for the development of the farm. More commonly, they are used to taking care of the needs of the community.

It is primarily a community movement deriving sustenance from individuals of the community and is self-sustaining. It is something the like of which both governments and ngo s have never known. Perhaps the independence of village economy conceived by Mahatma Gandhi and discussed elaborately in his book Hind Swaraj , is the only comparison.

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A Brief note about what is Swadhyay movement in India. Swadhyay, which literally means study of the self, is a movement that has introduced realistic social change in India's rural communities. The Swadhyay, movement that has already worked miracles unknown to the government. The movement is based on the philosophy of Panduranga Shastri Athwale, popularly known as Dadaji. His teachings focus on spiritual upliftment of the individual. Dadaji believes that this can only come through a strong faith in god, for which the movement uses strong religious symbols. But this does not imply that Swadhyay is limited to any particular religion.

In the Swadhyay approach, poverty is not something born out of exclusively physical factors. It has more to do with mental status. There are stages of poverty, and the first of these is mental poverty, which leads to self-limiting social, economic and religious practices. 

There are about 23 different institutions developed within Swadhyay. Each one of them is comprehensive, yet linked to the main process. Dadaji has used strong symbols and interpretations of traditional religious rites to establish that the devotion of labour is the most powerful form of devotion. Every Swadhyayi is expected to offer two days of labour every month to god, in other words to the society. This is known as Shram Bhakti. 

Swadhyay is a semi-religious fraternity that has been functioning in 80,000 villages of 12 states in India, of which approximately 12,000 to 15,000 villages are fully Swadh-yayi . For want of empirical studies, it is difficult to establish the extent of this movement in any precise terms. The movement's modest beginnings can be traced back to 1958, when only 19 volunteers participated in its first devotional tour. Today, it has more than 70,00,000 followers.

Theoretical framework Swadhyay literally means study of the self, or introspection. It starts with the underlying principle that all people are children of the same god. Swadhyay believes in the universality, equality and brotherhood of humans. Yet, there are barriers, such as religion, caste, ownership of resources, colour, learning, which draw distinction between human beings. Swadhyay does take cognisance of the fact that the human society has become exploitative in character. Perhaps the worst form of denial that a society can practice is that of learning.

Disclaimer: This article i© Copyrighted to Down To Earth 2025; The article is reproduced from the magazine `Down To Earth’, and this special article is authored by  Mr. B K Sinha, who is coordinator at the land reforms unit, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, India;