Irrigation in Perspective of Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No- 09404955338, 09415777229

[e-mail], [e-mail]

 

Irrigation in Perspective of Mahatma Gandhi

 

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of crops, maintenance of lands and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Additionally, irrigation also has a few other uses in crop production, which include protecting plants against frost, suppressing weed growing in grain fields and helping in preventing soil consolidation. Mahatma Gandhi knew the problems of India and South Africa. He knew it very well that without proper irrigation farmers cannot grow crops. So he wanted improvement in irrigation systems and awareness in farmers about it. Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “A special bank will be started with a view to promoting agriculture and providing irrigation. This bank will lend money to farmers.”1 Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation “Let me give you the pleasant news that after all the boring has been successful » 80,000 gallons in 24 hours! In reply to the note I sent to the Irrigation Department, the Engineer whom you have met, came down.”2

In surface irrigation systems, water moves over and across the land by simple gravity flow in order to wet it and to infiltrate into the soil. Surface irrigation can be subdivided into furrow, border strip or basin irrigation. It is often called flood irrigation when the irrigation results in flooding or near flooding of the cultivated land. Historically, this has been the most common method of irrigating agricultural land. Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “I cannot weary the public with the tragedy in the Matar Taluqa. In certain villages of the Taluqa which are affected; by the irrigation canals, they have a double grievance: (1) the ordinary failure of crops by reason of the excessive rainfall, and (2) the total destruction of crops by reason of over flooding. In the second case, they are entitled to full remission. So far as I am aware, in many cases it has not been granted.”3

At the global scale, 2,788,000 km² of agricultural land was equipped with irrigation infrastructure around the year 2000. About 68% of the area equipped for irrigation is located in Asia, 17% in America, 9% in Europe, 5% in Africa and 1% in Oceania. The largest contiguous areas of high irrigation density are found in North India and Pakistan along the rivers Ganges and Indus. Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “I know about irrigation and relief works. These works are largely a fraud. But if my wise counsellors will devote themselves to introducing the wheel in every home, I promise that the wheel will be an almost complete protection against famine.”4 Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “No scheme of irrigation or other agricultural improvement that human ingenuity can conceive can deal with the vastly scattered population of India or provide work for masses of mankind who are constantly thrown out of employment. Imagine a nation working only five hours per day on an average, and this not by choice but by force of circumstances, and you have a realistic picture of India.”5

In the middle of the 20th century, the advent of diesel and electric motors led for the first time to systems that could pump ground water out of major aquifers faster than it was recharged. This can lead to permanent loss of aquifer capacity; decreased water quality, ground subsidence, and other problems Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “What is true of Cutch is almost equally true of Kathiawar. This land of immense possibilities is cut up into small States, each possessing sovereign powers with more or less limitations. There is little or no co-ordination between them. The people, therefore, in this little compact peninsula, though having everything else in common, are governed by different heads under different laws. The conservation of forests, systematic plantation of trees, irrigation and many other things cannot be properly done without a common policy.”6

Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “And a government that is admittedly based on exploitation of the governed will not and cannot, even if it will, undertake the proposed changes with the dispatch necessary to create an immediate impression. It can undertake irrigation schemes costing crores; it will not undertake sinking wells costing lakhs. What therefore Professor Vakil wants first is a summary programme of swaraj and having been chiefly instrumental in getting it, he can command the appointment of commissioner of banishment of poverty department.  Then, although British people have spent millions in completing some irrigation works, we claim that their progress in that work has not been as quick as it might have been. The military railways, which have done some good, no doubt, in transporting goods from one place to another, have done nothing of what irrigation would have done. These irrigation schemes were and are really too expensive to cover the whole of India. We have, however, our own ancient method of irrigation: deep-well irrigation in some parts, in other parts well irrigation that is not deep well. I must confess my ignorance of this, but an Englishman, who is trying experiments in intensive agriculture, and who is now here, was telling me that he had been working in the poet Tagore’s village. It was Mr. Elmhurst who really gave life to that village experiment, and owing to if they were opening canal irrigation. The works which did not require any skill other than that produced in those villages. He tells me they have compelled the Government to recognize the superiority of this method. I am simply giving you the evidence that this man gave to me about this canal irrigation, but I do know that there are ancient methods of irrigation compatible with the capacity of the people.

Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, now a few words about the therapeutics of hot water. An intelligent use of hot water gives relief in many cases. Application of iodine is a very popular remedy for all sorts of injuries and the like. Application of hot water will prove equally effective in most of these cases. Tincture of iodine is applied on swollen and bruised areas. Hot water fomentations are likely to give equal relief, if not more. Again, iodine drops are used in cases of earache. Irrigation of the ear with warm water is likely to relieve the pain in most of these cases. The use of iodine is attended with certain risks. The patient may have allergy towards the drug. Iodine mistaken for something else and taken internally might prove disastrous. But there is no risk whatever in using hot water. Boiling water is as good a disinfectant as tincture of iodine. I do not mean to belittle the usefulness of iodine or suggest that hot water can replace it in all cases. Iodine is one of the few drugs which I regard most useful and necessary, but it is an expensive thing. The poor cannot afford to buy it and moreover its use cannot be safely entrusted to everybody. But water is available everywhere. We may not despise its therapeutic value because it is obtained so easily. Knowledge of common household remedies often proves a godsend in many a crisis.”7

Around 90% of wastewater produced globally remains untreated, causing widespread water pollution, especially in low-income countries. Increasingly, agriculture is using untreated wastewater as a source of irrigation water. Cities provide lucrative markets for fresh produce, so are attractive to farmers. However, because agriculture has to compete for increasingly scarce water resources with industry and municipal users (see Water scarcity below), there is often no alternative for farmers but to use water polluted with urban waste, including sewage, directly to water their crops. There can be significant health hazards related to using water loaded with pathogens in this way, especially if people eat raw vegetables that have been irrigated with the polluted water. Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “I have not discounted your irrigation scheme. I have only suggested an addition to it so as to bring almost immediate individual relief to the crores of villagers by occupying their admitted leisure hours. In your written note you seem to be in entire accord with my proposition. Where then is the difficulty in the Government of Bengal sponsoring the scheme and at once creating a hopeful situation so far as the shortage of cloth is concerned? I have never suggested that attainment of happiness is possible without the control of physical surroundings. But I have no desire to enter into any argument. If you have immediate regard for home-spinning and weaving and other village crafts, I have suggested a way out. That each cultivator should grow his own cotton is not a sine qua non of my scheme and certainly no cultivator should be compelled or even advised to grow cotton to the detriment of any staple crop. The question is one of utilizing waste labour, as under your scheme it is one of utilizing waste water.”8

Various types of irrigation techniques differ in how the water obtained from the source is distributed within the field. In general, the goal is not to supply the entire field uniformly with water, so that each plant has the amount of water it needs, too much nor too little. The modern methods are efficient enough to achieve this goal. Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation, “Deep wells should be sunk by the Government wherever possible and required, whether for irrigation or for drinking purposes.”9

Mahatma Gandhi said about irrigation,  “But to come to the main point: Whilst I hold that these power engines are at present being put to wrong use, it would be some compensation if the engines, in addition to their present use, were also used to pump water out of rivers, tanks and wells for irrigation. My correspondent suggests Government aid for this. Must this be necessary? Will not the owners of their own free will turn their engines towards this useful and necessary work? Or have we been reduced to such a paralytic state that without Government compulsion we are unprepared to do anything? Be that as it may, it is my firm opinion that all necessary measures should be taken at once to utilize existing power in order to save the people from the terrible fate confronting them.”10 Fifty years ago, the common perception was that water was an infinite resource. At that time, there was fewer than half the current number of people on the planet. People were not as wealthy as today, consumed fewer calories and ate less meat, so less water was needed to produce their food. They required a third of the volume of water we presently take from rivers. Today, the competition for water resources is much more intense. This is because there are now more than seven billion people on the planet, their consumption of water-thirsty meat and vegetables is rising, and there is increasing competition for water from bio fuel crops.

 

 

References:

 

1. VOL. 7 : 15 JUNE, 1907 - 12 DECEMBER, 1907 13
2. LETTER TO HERMANN KALLENBACH; August 20, 1911
3. VOL.17 : 26 APRIL, 1918 - APRIL, 1919 18
4. Young India 16-2-1921
5. Young India, 3-11-1921
6. Young India, 19-11-1925
7. Young India, 1-11-1928
8. LETTER TO R. G. CASEY; December 12, 1945
9. Harijan, 24-2-1946
10. Harijan, 10-3-1946