The Pioneer
Life & Times of Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil Founder of the Co-op. movement in Indian Sugar Industry
Arun Sadhu
Famines, natural calamities, brutal exploitation by traders, moneylenders, and private factories had all conspired to nearly destroy the peasntry in the Deccan area of Maharashtra in early decades of the 20th Century. The co-operative sugar factory of small farmers that Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil (1897-1984) built against all odds at a remote village of Loni set a trend and rescued the small farmers from this calamity. Vitthalrao was the authentic and creative proponent of peasants power. A quintessential farmer with native wisdom, Vitthalrao employed innovative systems to use a small share of the accumulated wealth created by co-operative factory for public activities including education. The book narrates the exciting story of this extraordinary Indian peasant’s long fight with rural elite and vested interests to build the co-operative, of his frustrations, perseverance and his never-say-die spirit.
