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Freedom Lecture

The Second SAMANVAYA Freedom Lecture

"People Who Have Lost Their Freedom In a Free Country" (in Tamil)

by Sri. P. Gomathinayagam, Organic Farmer, Puliyangudi - A Brief Summary

“If the Farmer in the field withdraws his labour, even those who have renounced the world (saints) will lose their serenity and concentration” – Thirukkural

Right to left - Sri. M.V. Murugappan, Chariman, A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Foundation; Sri.Gomathinayagam, organic farmer, Puliyangudi; Ram, Chief, SAMANVAYA

The second SAMANVAYA Freedom Lecture took place on 14^th August 2004. We had invited Sri. Gomathinayagam, an organic farmer from Puliyangudi village in Thirunelveli district to come and share his ideas on 'freedom'. He chose to talk on the topic, "People who have lost their freedom in Independent India" in Tamil. Gomathinayagam, 71, once a teacher, has been doing farming for 3 decades. He and his friends have started a farmer's sangam in his native village. The sangam members meet every evening and discuss various issues. Through the sangam they subscribe to over 20 journals and magazines which they read to understand the world. He expresses his opinions and views on social events and issues regularly and sends it to several people by post card. A Tamil newspaper publishes this once in a while.

His entire family, consisting of wife, 2 sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, is involved in farming activity. He said that he decided to stop his sons' formal education with 10th standard as he felt that "they don't need more 'education' ."

Having travelled all the way from Puliyangudi, he and his neighbour Anthonysami, also an organic farmer, both impressed a gathering of around 150 people with their clarity of thought, expression, knowledge of national and international affairs, their concern for people and their complete 'freedom'. They have recently laid road for about 14 kms. without any government intervention, "governments are the worst slaves of western dominance in this country, don't depend on them, what can a Manmohan Singh or Chidambaram do?", Sri. Gomathinayagam asked the audience and said, "we decided to start with ourselves and not to let even a single paisa leave our village community and see that the village wealth remains within us'.

A Section of the Auidence at the Lecture in Khadi Bhavan, Chennai

"What do they know anyway?" he continued, "many of our politicians don't know much about what is WTO or what is involved in it.

They have the power to abide by the views and wishes of the western nations, not to express any dissent". Claiming that the policies enacted by such a government and such bureaucrats will no wonder be detrimental to the public, he went on to question, "When 2 buildings are destroyed and hardly 4000 people are killed, America goes to war; almost 20 years and after loosing 15,000 people with more than 2 lakh suffering even now, we haven't been able to capture an Anderson for Bhopal even today. What is the power of this country's government?" "How can we call a country free, when she cannot kick out a foreign company that takes water out of your own house and sells it to you for Rs. 15/-? The people of Plachimada in Kerala have been trying to kick out the Coca Cola company for extracting more water than what they were granted permission for and the government cannot do anything'.

"When Pakistan or China occupies a square inch of Indian soil our government spends so much money to re-capture and maintain barren land which is of no use to anyone, while millions of hectares are going barren every year because of the wanton neglect of the agricultural sector and the continued encouragement to poison the soil through the ingestion of chemical fertilisers and pesticides; is there a meaning behind the government action?". "The government after much protesting has banned Endosulphon a deadly chemical pesticide after it was proven to cause diseases, but, only in Kerala. The same is freely available in Tamilnadu and every other state in the country."

Sri. Gomathinayagam, organic farmer, Puliyangudi

Talking of agriculture and agricultural policy, he said, "why should the country go on giving farmers, loans? Do you think a farmer likes loans? You want him to be indebted for your own greediness, because you want to grow more than what nature has provided for you, so, you provide him with fancy seeds which can grow only if other inputs are given to the soil, so it un-naturally produces the kind of yield that you require. And the farmer who cannot afford all these inputs and your fancy seeds has to be indebted so that scientists can be happy of their achievements." "Name a single hybrid variety seed that has seen 2 decades, there is none, I have tried them too when they were introduced, but, the traditional samba seeds go on for centuries whereas these scientist-made seeds cannot last even a few years. So they introduce yet another variety."

"Not merely seeds, but in the name of introducing high yielding cattle, they have made the local cattle sterile and made the chicken not lay eggs. This is their doing; we can excuse an ignorant politician, but, never excuse an anti-people scientist." He answered many questions on techniques of organic farming by farmers who had come from nearby districts of Kancheepuram, Chengelpettu and Thiruvallur.

When some one in the audience spoke of the raising costs of living, Sri. Gomathinayagam pointed out, "I agree, most of us spend enormous money on providing higher education to our children, tell me, where has this lead us? Why should children be educated so much that they start to look down upon the mainstay employment of this country? Today, only those who do not fit into the mainstream or are not 'good enough' are supposedly attracted to farming. Who have created and sustained this view? The educated public. And what do they know? They have neither the independence of economy nor of culture. In both, they are slaves."

Claiming that even today, "agriculture is the only profession that can be truly free in this country", he concluded that though we need another freedom, a freedom from our own slavery; we cannot be wasting time waiting for a Gandhi. Instead, we should try to find a little Gandhi in each one of us, work towards total self-sufficiency and self-governance, "and, when you want to say anything, write a post-card, express what you want to say, to some one, anyone, it is important to not remain silent, our 'dharma koochal'* may not make a impact in the din, but, it cannot go silent!"
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i>Koochal is the Tamil word for noise/ hue and cry

Sri. Gomathinayagam has been practicing Traditional Organic farming for over 2 decades in his native village of Puliyangudi, in Thirunelveli District, Tamilnadu. As a founder - member of the Vivasaya Seva Sangam, he has been active in promotion of traditional form of agriculture and innovations based on it. He has been a constant voice of the farmer, expressing his opinion on agricultural policy and the impact of globalisation and the entry of multi-nationals on Indian agriculture, through his speeches and writings in various platforms.