An agricultural university has made way for the Nano mother plant in Sanad, located on the western fringes of Ahmedabad. The entire land acquisition process for the additional land was completed within six hours, with farmers accepting the package at a substantially lower price. Some of the farmers invoked a grant of 1000 rupees made by Jamshedji Tata during the great famine of 1900 for the cattle of this area. They said that this was their way of repaying a debt.

This is indicative of several processes at work in Gujarat. One, there is a large consensus among the farmers of central Gujarat that subsistence farming is not an economically viable proposition. This awareness is not of recent origin. The invocation of the great famine of 1900 was significant. It was during this famine that the Patidar community, the largest land-owning peasant community of central Gujarat took a decision to reduce their dependence on land. The great wave of Gujarati migration was one outcome of this. The gains from Kheda Satyagraha in terms of unifying the community became the basis of the white revolution of the Anand model of dairy cooperatives, which not only enabled the peasant farmers to reduce their dependence on agriculture but also eased them into a monetised economy. These combined processes led to the ascendancy of the Patidar community in the political-economy of Gujarat.

Two, since the 1860s Gujarat has been at the forefront of two processes necessary for modern economy — the absorption of technology and creation of speculative financial markets. The iconic figures of Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, who established the first textile mill in Ahmedabad in 1861 and Premchand Raichand, a Jain from Surat who pioneered the share market in the Dalal Street of the 1860s are part of Gujarat’s modern folklore. The mercantile capitalism that developed in Gujarat was deeply influenced by the Mahajan tradition, which emerged during the Mughal period that regulated the functioning of trade and the institution of Panch that organised the artisan community. The Mahajan-Panch system regulated competition, arbitrated disputes and created social institutions. The mercantile ethos that developed as a consequence, laid emphasis on avoidance of conflict within a framework of competition and placed social responsibility on the wealthy. The Ahmedabad mill strike of 1918 led by Gandhi and Anasuya Sarabhai further cemented the way of arbitration as a way of resolving industrial conflict. The industrial peace that Gujarat has witnessed in the post-independence period is in large measure due to this ethos.

... contd.