Verghese Kurien is an entirely milky name: the uplifted gazes of the millions of dairy farmers, millions, and that audacity of a man who dared dream of his country being self-sufficient by one drop of white gold at a time. Bearing the title of “the Father of India’s White Revolution,” Kurien is more than just an innovative engineer or astute manager —he is a ground-breaking leader, a social Democrat wearing a black garment, and a man of strong resolve who molded the future for millions and altered the economic base of rural INDIA forever.
Verghese Kurien, in my experience of several Indians through the generations of iconic Amul girl advertisements — urban vernacular for a young female image designed and catchy tagline capturing societal ethos for decades. Iconic mascot and the omnipresent taste that is Amul, somewhere back there is a story; an almost serendipitous chance meeting with the dairy sector through a real man who never gave up and changed the world with a cooperative movement that soon became a global model.
The revolutionary journey that Kurien was part of would be hard to predict from his formative years. Verghese Kurien: Born in Calicut (now Kozhikode) in 1921, he qualified as an Engineer-Mechanical from Loyola College, Madras, and soon thereafter received a degree in engineering metallurgy from the University of Illinois.
A government scholarship later took him to the States where he would become a Master’s degree in metallurgical engineering at Michigan State. It was upon his return to India in 1949, somewhat reluctantly assigned to the Anand Creamery in Gujarat as part of his government service, that his life took an unexpected and transformative turn.
Anand was just a run-of-the-mill small town at that stage. Still, for the stricken Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (KDCMPUL) of the beleaguered farmers in their quest for survival from exploitative private dairies, Anand was home. He found his real calling, among the hot dusty roads and the dogged suffering that were these farmers right there in this place. He was initially not crazy about his assignment back in that first bit of code and even thought of it as a distraction from his engineering dream.
But the real plight of farmers, the farmer’s word repentance, and the exemplary leadership of Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel started to create an impact in him its chairman president KDCMPUL.
Even though he was not technically dairy literate, Kurien was an analytical, problem solver and had a systems view. He identified waste and the inherent unfairness in the structure of dairies around this town. Milk is often sold by farmers at a very low price, leaving them in a weak and bankrupt state. An embryonic cooperative model was the answer to help these farmers: incentivizing them and ensuring that they would own as well control what enables them.
Early and high profile among them was the development of buffalo milk on a vast scale for processing by Kurien. At that time, most of the big dairies were just processing high-atter cow’s milk. However, he saw there was substantial buffalo milk in the surrounding areas and, with technical help from his team, developed processes for profitable dairy production. This seemingly simple innovation was revolutionary, as it opened up a vast untapped resource and directly benefited the local farmers who primarily owned buffaloes.
Their other landmark was a partnership with brilliant dairy engineer H.M. Dalaya to work out the technology of getting skim milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo milk for Kurien.
This was a big breakthrough, as it meant the ripening of milk solids, and with market liberalization, even during slack seasons, the cooperative was able to attend to a more educated clientele. This was a technology that proved vital in ensuring the farmers could have a steady stream of income all year.
The success of Anand Cooperative started getting the limelight and in the early 1960s, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Anand. After the cooperative model and its impact on farmers, brought him to his knees; Kurien was asked by him to replicate this model countrywide. That result was the founding of NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) in 1965 with Kurien as first chairman.
Thanks to Kurien’s far-sighted vision, NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) commenced Operation Flood in 1970 which was to be the foundation stone of the White Revolution of India. Operation Flood was not just a program to increase the milk, but rather a total program to enable dairy farmers and establish a national grid for milk at a fair price. This was a milk development project balled by the bandwagon of the socio-economic revolution.
It changed India into the world’s largest milk producer from a milk-deficient nation by means of three phases of Operation Flood which took 26 long years. It directly linked urban consumers with rural milk producers, thus bypassing the middlemen and making sure the farmers benefit from the price gouging in cities. The Task of a National Milk Grid Came to Life without much doubt with modern transportation and processing facilities making it easier to source milk all over the country.
The heart of Kurien’s genius was not just in what he did as a technical leader and manager, but in understanding the human element at a profound level. He saw the future of the cooperative movement in thousands of farmers participating and taking ownership of what they were doing. He treated the farmers like allies, making sure they were part of the management of their cooperatives.
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One of the great steps in creating the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) which is the marketing body for Amul products, was founded in 1973. Kurien turned Amul into a massive brand that millions of Indians connected with. Cross over in uncompromising quality, accessibility for all and the iconic Amul Girl air campaign brought it into our living rooms. Amul was more than just a dairy product, it represented India’s maturing self-reliance and cooperative success!
Kurien was hard-lined, consistent, had a big iron hand and sometimes he wasn’t always normal. He was a man of his convictions he backed that up to the fence rail, wherever obstacle had to be removed be it bureaucratic dinosaur or entrenched interests. His loyalty was slavish out to the farmers, out to the cooperative league. He used to talk so much about saving the plight of the smallholder farmers and how their labor must be remunerated.
He was a leader who knew the nuts and bolts and could risk it. He inspired his team, promoted creativity, and inspired them to reach the top. He was very much a believer in private management and looked after all the cooperatives were well managed, “seen into”, transparently.
Kurien’s White Revolution legacy goes beyond this and he also influenced a number of other sectors. Kurien, in addition to his work on the white revolution, helped establish the National Tree Growers’ Cooperative Federation and National Cooperative Dairy Federation India — reinforcing the cooperative model across multiple aspects of the rural economy.
This is the legacy of Verghese Kurien which can indeed be multifaceted. Well as a whole he reformed the dairying sector of India and gave a big hand to millions of rural families especially women who play an important role in dairy farming. The cooperative model he championed is a model that has been replicated across different rural areas in India and in developing nations around the world.
An example of how a well-functioned cooperative really can uplift weaker sections and lead to economic development is the Amul movement born in the agony of farmers in Anand and grown with care by Kurien.
It showed the strength of collective work, the need for equitable trade, and the potential that technology holds for working for good.
Kurien’s life is a stark example of how leadership does not end with a title but sacrificing that title for the betterment of others and to create huge positive change. He was one life spent entirely on service to the farmers And his devotion made a difference like nothing else in their lives.
Even when he retired from NDDB in 1998 Kurien kept being a living capitalist in the cooperative movement, a crusader for farmer rights and interests.
He died in 2012, leaving behind a legacy of hundreds of millions who are sustained and energized by what he began to change.
Walking the streets of Anand today still helps you sense the echoes of Kurien’s vision. His unbelievable leadership is only reflected by the health of our thriving dairy cooperatives, empowered farmers, and bastions of success–Amul, which still predominates amongst others.
The Amul Dairy plant is a monument to his ingenuity and dedication to quality. The smiles of dairy farmers are evidence of his social impact.
Verghese Kurien was not only the “Father of White Revolution” in his own words He was a nation builder and an idealistic social reformist visioner all rolled in one. The tale of his life is ultimately an example higher only a human can accomplish once he is given a roadmap with direction and purpose, certainty of outcome, and unyielding determination in the face of overwhelming odds with some deep bedside manner for the souls he dedicated to. The rich creamy milk he revolutionized (ish) will still nourish and enlighten India for eons to come — a symbol that the unchurned genius of such a remarkable man shall live on forever. The one thing that his life teaches us is how deep and at the same time practically silent the most profound revolutions can be when inspired by deep feelings for the welfare of the weakest. And for that alone, he will always be an idol for Verghese Kurien, because everyone knows what empowerment means and the flame is still burning.
