The 1963 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

BIOGRAPHY of Tribhuvandas K. Patel

Born on October 22, 1903 in Anand, Bombay State (now Gujarat), TRIBHUVANDAS K. PATEL was reared in the Gandhian tradition of combining politics with social work. As a young man he followed the lead of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Vallabhai Patel, participating in a number of civil disobedience movements which led to terms of imprisonment in 1930, 1935 and 1942.

Under the guidance of the late Vallabhai Patel, his work with the villagers of Anand has been his major lifetime concern. An enlightened Hindu, he was one of the prominent organizers of the Harijan Sevak Sangh, an organization concerned with sending the children of former Untouchables to school, providing them with books and clothing, and breaking the social barriers between Harijans and higher castes. He was also one of the organizers of the Anand Taluka Purchase and Sale Union, a consumer society which purchases cloth and other commodities from factories for sale in the Kaira District.

For his family's livelihood and to provide for the college education of his six sons and one daughter he has run the Deshbandhoo Printing Press with his left hand, meanwhile giving his right hand and his heart to ventures for community benefit.

He presently heads seven community betterment efforts: the Kaira District Tobacco Market Committee, the Purchase and Sale Union and the Anand Taluka Agricultural Produce Market Committee in Anand; the Lokbandhu Sahakari Prakashan in Nadiad; the Kaira District Cooperative Land Mortgage Bank, the Anand-Borsad Shramjivi Sahakari Society and the Gujarat State Cooperative Marketing Society. As a member of the management boards he serves the Kaira District Central Cooperative Bank and the Kaira District Purchase and Sale Union in Nadiad, the Gujarat State Cooperative Bank in Ahmedabad and the Bombay State Cooperative Land Mortgage Bank in Bombay.

Perhaps his most important contribution has been founding the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union which processes milk purchased from local village producers for distribution to Bombay, and now also sells other dairy products under the trade name AMUL throughout India. He began this Union in 1947 with the blessing of Vallabhai Patel and the inspiration of former Union Finance Minister Morarji Desai. He became its first president and has been successively reelected despite repeated appeals to be allowed to retire.

His skill in organizational work and his capacity for positive compromise led the Congress Party to elect him in 1962 to presidency of the state party organization. Although the Kaira Union's AMUL Dairy is an asset to the Congress Party because of TRIBHUVANDAS PATEL's dual role, he has shown courage and a high sense of integrity in fending off political and other pressures to give the technical staff of the dairy complete freedom to run an operation which has been highly profitable for the people of the district. Among his political colleagues he has instilled a sense of mission reminiscent of the Gandhian era. Concerned with the humanitarian aspect of providing safe and cheap milk, he has encouraged them to find ways of financing more free milk for school children. His promotion of the well-being of all classes and castes within the district has endeared him to the villagers. Thus he has with tact, diplomacy, and hard work led in bringing together the gradually-increasing participation of villagers, the social-mindedness of the local Congress workers, and the technical skills of the dairy staff for the benefit of the Kaira Milk Producers' Union and the district as a whole.

August 1963
Manila