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Dr. V. Kurien: Persona and Contributions

 

Operation Flood and the setting up of IRMA were just two of Dr. Kurien's several contributions, outstanding for their merit and vision.

 

 

With the passing away of Dr. V. Kurien a key phase in the country's history of the Amul-inspired cooperative movement has come to an end. While it is not clear how far an individual can influence the history of any movement, the distinct role of Dr. Kurien in the propagation of the dairy cooperative movement cannot be ignored. Before I go on to highlight some of his specific contributions I would like to briefly expound on certain personal characteristics underpinning his achievements.

 

Diminutive in height Dr. Kurien had a commanding presence, nonetheless. I realised this fact soon after having joined IRMA in 1993. During various talks and lectures and in my subsequent interactions with him I discovered in him a master orator who was instantly able to recall many historical facts and weave a wonderful story around them. His speeches would leave one spell bound. A colleague had remarked once that it was a blunder to make him read a written speech even during a formal occasion. Oration apart, he was a man of conviction and courage. Admittedly, Dr Kurien came to Anand as a reluctant professional. But once he decided to stay on there was no stopping him from his deep involvement with cooperatives and achieving whatever he wanted. What kept him stay put in Anand was the conviction he developed while working with farmers and helping them build their own institutions. This became the single most important mission of his life and career, propelling him towards his innumerable accomplishments. From such strong conviction was born courage that, in turn, helped him surmount the challenges and adversaries he faced in life. No one could trifle with him or the institutions he created, and if he had to ruffle a few feathers in the pursuit of his goals he did so without turning a hair. The portrayal of Dr. Kurien would be incomplete without a mention of his commitment to simplicity, honesty and integrity, values that he pursued in both his personal and professional life. Dr. Kurien ensured that the projects and institutions he headed remained above board when it came to issues like corruption and nepotism.

 

I would now like to expound on some of his specific contributions, especially relating to Operation Flood (OF) and Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), two of his major accomplishments.

 

Operation Flood (OF): OF was aimed at replicating and scaling-up the Anand Pattern Co-operative model (or Amul model) all over India. An exceptional project, it bore the stamp of Dr. Kurien's acumen and execution.

 

Having been a manager himself while running a cooperative (Amul) effectively for nearly two decades, Dr. Kurien knew the ingredients of success needed for OF. Without going into all the details, which are widely known in any case, it is worthwhile recalling a few major strategies bearing the hallmark of the 'Kurien style of management and development'. First and foremost, Dr. Kurien ensured that the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) set up for the purpose remained autonomous - legally and financially - even during the heydays of state and bureaucratic control endemic to all state-led bodies. Dr. Kurien was just not prepared for any kind of top-down bureaucratic system dictating the implementation of a development project. He not only succeeded in convincing the government that NDDB had to be set up away from Delhi, he also managed it highly professionally. Whatever success OF achieved was primarily attributable to this autonomy built very consciously. But Dr Kurien was also fully aware that the autonomy was to be used for the attainment of set goals and not squandered for any narrow gains. He used the autonomy to the hilt. He along with his team evolved many innovative strategies and practices while executing OF. Some

 

distinguishing features of the OF include its financing by converting food aid into a development fund, professional management of programme implementation and the cooperatives that were created through multi-disciplinary teams, and the development of need-based technology. He insisted on making farmers' cooperatives an integral part of OF. As far as Dr. Kurien was concerned, cooperatives were not merely instruments of project implementation but ways of unleashing the broader process of participation, democracy, and development. He went on to become the champion of the cooperative cause.

 

OF relied on small farmer based dairy development as opposed to the large scale mechanised dairy husbandry of western countries. This was a major developmental strategy that he consciously adopted given the conditions of rural India. Socially, it helped broad base the participation of a large number of small and marginal farmers in dairy development while economically it helped tap low cost resources of the farming community. But OF did face challenges and limitations that eluded solutions even for a master strategist like Dr. Kurien. The replication of the Anand Pattern Cooperatives encountered many difficulties at the state level. Non conducive conditions for the promotion and working of co-operatives in an autonomous way constrained the uniform success of OF. Being aware of this Dr. Kurien strongly advocated the promotion of autonomous cooperatives by reforming archaic cooperative legislations. Dairy cooperatives at the village level, like most other sectors, also got trapped in the mire of elitism. Dr. Kurien was well aware of the class/caste tensions but could not explicitly strategise for such eventualities. He did believe, however, that economic development could surmount such contradictions in the long run. To him dairy development was, among other things, a strategy and means of attaining self-reliance for the developing countries. He strongly advocated protectionism against the machinations of developed countries.

 

OF was thus a unique programme that paved the way for combining institutions with professional management to uplift disadvantaged communities in developing countries. Dr Kurien wanted this approach to pervade other sectors of the rural economy. Academically speaking, somewhere along the way, this approach assumed the form of a new discipline called 'rural management' that, in turn, led to the formation of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).

 

Institute of Rural Management Anand: IRMA is another major outcome of the visionary effort of Dr. Kurien. While NDDB was the field for pushing practical boundaries, IRMA became the base for honing conceptual abilities of potential rural managers. IRMA has carved a unique niche for itself in the domain of rural management education bearing a deep imprint of its creator. Having realised the acute need for professionals to help manage farmers' organisations Dr. Kurien was, in a way, compelled to establish IRMA with mainstream management institutions like the IIMs refusing to see his point of view. Having worked with farmers he was very clear on the type of education that needed to be imparted to potential rural managers. In one of his early speeches delivered before IRMA's Board of Governors, Dr. Kurien had argued that, "…the orientation of these new managers will have to be substantially different. They must work under the compulsions of the farmers' interest and therefore there must be a significant variation in their attitudes and character." He had expressed the hope that "the IRMA Board would address itself to these questions right from the inception stage and that these concerns would be reflected in the selection procedures and curricula for the institute as well as all other aspects of its functioning". He had been clear in his mind regarding the expectations from rural managers and the kind of institution that needed to be created for them. His vision has helped IRMA evolve as a unique rural management institution.

 

As was the case with NDDB he realised that IRMA should have an autonomous governance structure. Autonomy was to be ensured in terms of governance and finances and in terms of intellectual reflection. During his tenure as Chairman he tried every possible way of ensuring this. While ensuring autonomy from external forces he also advocated the faculty's need for internal autonomy. A techno-manager to boot, Dr. Kurien sought the help of many renowned educationists and other experts of the country and abroad in shaping IRMA. He invited them to be on the Board of IRMA yet never allowed anyone to divert or hijack IRMA from its original mission.

He was proud of the fact that while there were hundreds of management schools there was only one IRMA. Given the vast needs of the country he was keen to replicate IRMA in different regions of the country which somehow did not materialise during his tenure.

 

To conclude, while history may judge him more comprehensively, Dr Kurien has left an indelible mark on of the institutions he helped create. The challenge before some of these institutions- NDDB or GCMMF or for that matter IRMA, is how to retain and sustain the basic purpose, excellence and integrity which Dr. Kurien tried infusing in them as a committed manager and visionary.