For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Maize in Perespective of Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net

Maize in Perspective of Mahatma Gandhi

Maize is known in many countries as corn. It is a grain. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable or starch. Beginning about 2500 BCE, the crop spread through much of the America. The region developed a trade network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, explorers and traders carried maize back to Europe and introduced it to other countries. Maize spread to the rest of the world due to its ability to grow in diverse climates. Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are usually grown for human consumption, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed and as chemical feed stocks. Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “People in India would be surprised to learn that a suggestion has been seriously made that the Indians should be compelled to live on meal i.e. (maize) meal, when the present stock of rice in the Colony is exhausted; and, as for other foodstuffs and the materials for dress imported from India, that, of course, is a mere detail. The Maritzburg Town Council has issued a circular addressed to the Indian storekeepers in that borough, informing them that they should begin to reduce their stock as they might, in view of the near approach of the plague, be called upon, each and all of them, to remove to a Location. Steamship companies, even the very best of them, entirely refuse to take Indian passengers for any of the South African ports.”1 Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “As a result of the Durban Corporation’s decision to reduce the rice ration, the indentured Indians employed by them have struck work, and have got ready to go to jail. They did this earlier also. On that occasion, the Magistrate was kind. He observed that, even though it was legal to give them maize instead of rice, it would be cruel to insist on the [letter of the] law. He therefore let the men off and advised the Corporation to give them rice as usual, even if it was dearer. The same situation has arisen today, but the Magistrate is Mr. Beans. He has given judgement strictly according to the law and sentenced many workers to a fine of £1 each. We hope Indian lawyers will look into the matter and do something about it.”2

Many small male flowers make up the male inflorescence, called the tassel. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taino word for the plant. It is known by other names around the world. Outside the U.S., the word corn often refers to maize in culinary contexts. It is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region. National agricultural and industry associations often include the word maize in their name even in English-speaking countries where the local, informal word is something other than maize; for example, the Maize Association of Australia, the Indian Maize Development Association, the Kenya Maize Consortium and Maize Breeders Network, the National Maize Association of Nigeria, the Zimbabwe Seed Maize Association. Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “This scale is drawn up on the basis of what the Kaffir prisoners get, with this difference that the Kaffirs are given pounded maize and fat in the evening, instead of which Indians get rice [for their midday meal]. From the second week onward, along with meal i.e. meal, they get boiled potatoes on two days and vegetables, such as cabbage, pumpkin, on the other two. To those who eat it, meat is also served with vegetables every Sunday from the second week onward.”3

Many forms of maize are used for food, sometimes classified as various subspecies related to the amount of starch each has: Flour corn, Popcorn, Dent corn, Flint corn, Sweet Waxy corn, Amyl maize, Pop corn, striped maize. Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “After this digression, let us return to the main story. As days passed, our work became lighter, as I have pointed out above. The batch which included me was next assigned the task of maintaining cleanliness in the jail garden and looking after its cultivation. Our work was mainly to sow maize seeds, clear the potato bed and dust the potato plants.”4 Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “Among grains, wheat is the best. Man can live on wheat alone. It contains all the nutritive elements in good proportion. Many preparations can be made of it, and it is also easy to digest. Children’s foods available in the market also contain a proportion of wheat. In the same category with wheat are millets and maize, from all of the rotli or roti can be prepared, though these cereals cannot compare with wheat.”5

Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “With the help of many responsible and respectable assistants, I also made minute inquiries into the crops of about 400 villages and found the same thing that, in almost all the villages the anna valuation was below four annas. I also saw that many of the ryots had no money, and that the granaries of many were empty; further that many poor people were importing maize whole-sale from outside in place of grain grown in this district and living on that.”6 Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “British historians say that three crores in India do not get two square meals daily. In Bihar the majority of people subsist on a stuff called sattu which is useless as nourishment. When I saw people swallowing this sattu—maize flour—with water and chillies, my eyes used to blaze with fire. If you were to have such food to eat, how long would you survive? In that land of Ramachandra, in that holy land of King Janaka, people today get no ghee, not even milk. In such conditions, how can you rest in peace? If we do not get an education which makes a Mazzini out of every one of us, our education is of no value. If you cannot eat your food in freedom, you should have the strength to starve to death and remain free.”7

Maize stems superficially resemble bamboo canes and it is commonly be 7 inches. Maize has a distinct growth form, with the lower leaves being like broad flags, generally 50–100 centimeters long and 5–10 centimeters wide, the stems are erect, conventionally 2–3 metres in height, with many nodes, casting off flag-leaves at every node. Under these leaves and close to the stem grow the ears. They grow about 3 millimeters a day. Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “The chief industry of South Africa is agriculture and for this it is pre-eminently fitted. Some parts of it are delightful and fertile. The principal grain is maize, which is grown without much labour and forms the staple food of the Negro inhabitants of South Africa.”8 Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “The staple food of the Negroes is maize, and meat when available. Fortunately, they know nothing about spices or condiments. If they find spices in their food, or even if it is coloured by turmeric, they turn up their noses at it, and those among them who are looked upon as quite uncivilized will not so much as touch it. It is not uncommon thing for a Zulu to take at a time one pound of boiled maize with a little salt. He is quite content to live upon porridge made from crushed mealiest boiled in water. Whenever he can get meat, he eats it raw or cooked, boiled or roasted, with only salt. He does not mind taking the flesh of any animal.”9

The apex of the stem ends in the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers. When the tassel is mature and conditions are suitably warm and dry, anthers on the tassel dehisce and release pollen. Maize pollen is anemophilous, and because of its large settling velocity, most pollen falls within a few meters of the tassel. Each silk may become pollinated to produce one kernel of maize. Young ears can be consumed raw, with the cob and silk, but as the plant matures, the cob becomes tougher and the silk dries to inedibility. Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “I should be unable to stand an arrangement by which wheat is given to political and maize to ordinary prisoners. Wheat bread must be issued to a prisoner who is unable to digest maize even if he is a murderer. And a political prisoner who has splendid digestion must give up wheat and ask for maize, and thus protect his fellow-prisoners. But these are only my views upon which I must not insist from where I am. Let each follow the dictates of his own conscience.”10

This system has been replaced over the last 60 years by multivariable classifications based on ever more data. Agronomic data were supplemented by botanical traits for a robust initial classification, then genetic, cytological, protein and DNA evidence was added. Now, the categories are forms, races, racial complexes, and recently branches. Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “If maize doesn’t grow on our farms, can we not buy it? If that is what you require to increase your weight, the matter is very simple. Here in jail they do say that maize gruel helps easy evacuation and increases one’s weight. Prisoners always get maize gruel in the morning. They add salt to it. Bran does not have to be removed from maize flour. It is worthwhile to make this experiment for a few days for its own sake and feel one with the prisoners.”11 Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “During our morning and evening walks, Khan Saheb Abdul Ghaffar Khan and I often talk on matters of common interest. Having travelled in the Frontier territories as far as Kabul and beyond and knowing the Frontier tribes well, he often describes to me the habits and customs of these simple folk. He tells me that these tribesmen who are untouched by the so-called civilization live principally on maize and barley, bread and lentils supplemented at times by buttermilk. They get meat but rarely. The only way I could account for their well-known hardiness was their open-air life and invigorating climate.”12

Mahatma Gandhi described about maize, “I shall therefore say that control on maize, barley and millet should also be lifted because those who are used to millet will continue to eat millet. They will not be able to digest wheat. Similarly there are many whose staple diet is maize. I thus see no reason why control on these articles should continue.”13 Maize breeding in prehistory resulted in large plants producing large ears. Modern breeding began with individuals who selected highly productive varieties in their fields and then sold seed to other farmers. James L. Reid was one of the earliest and most successful developing Reid's Yellow Dent in the 1860s. These early efforts were based on mass selection. Later breeding efforts included ear to row selection, hybrids made from selected inbred lines and the highly successful double cross hybrids using 4 inbred lines. University supported breeding programs were especially important in developing and introducing modern hybrids. It is unknown what precipitated its domestication, because the edible portion of the wild variety is too small and hard to obtain to be eaten directly, as each kernel is enclosed in a very hard bivalve shell. However, George Beadle demonstrated that the kernels of teosinte are readily "popped" for human consumption, like modern popcorn. Some have argued it would have taken too many generations of selective breeding to produce large, compressed ears for efficient cultivation. However, studies of the hybrids readily made by intercrossing teosinte and modern maize suggest this objection is not well founded.

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