developing in his mind had an important personal angle. In the past one and a half year, at every step he had to bend before petty officials, had to stand in queues for hours for some small permission. Buying of home and farm, getting new gas and electricity connection, getting old electricity meter transferred to his name, getting admission for his daughters in a school and several such instances when he had to swallow his self-respect, he could never forget. Whenever he went to the Market at Chakan to sell his produce every employee, every merchant, even the porters had pricked his self-respect. The mere thought that some petty official sitting across the table was going to decide the value of his labour and he had no choice but to accept that, hurt. For a person like him who had spent ten years at the prestigious Indian Civil Service that was a heavy cross to carry. The existing social reality of India was reflected in his concept of India versus Bharat; but even his personal agony was reflected in it. It was not born just out of intellectual understanding; it had emotional intensity of experience. No wonder his normal sleep, which was always at his command, had deserted him. The storm of India versus Bharat had replaced it. Q
96
Q
Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
