Page:Sharad Joshi - Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage.pdf/188

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

their united struggle and this had created for the first time a feeling that a much better life was possible. That mood was palpable in the Satana Convention. At the training camp in Wardha, Joshi had mentioned, ‘Our struggle is a new one and it has to be properly explained to the younger generation. Because only out of them, we shall get our new warriors. In history, we see that whenever a struggle is launched, the old stalwarts don’t participate and prefer to stay out. When Bajirao the First started building his empire he had to develop new Chiefs like Shinde and Holkar. Even Shivaji Maharaj was not assisted by earlier strongmen; he had to develop his own new Chiefs. It is going to be the same for us. For our new kind of struggle, we shall have to build new Chiefs from scratch.’ It was clear that he did not wish to take help from other key figures of his time but build a new team around him. This explains why in its earlier struggles SS never joined hands with any other existing organization; though many who were active earlier with different organizations and feeling frustrated did join Joshi in their individual capacity. One of his colleagues who joined him during the Nipani struggle, Sureshchandra Mhatre, a professor of mathematics who gave up his career to work for SS, suggested repeatedly that since they did have the tape recordings of Wardha and Ambajogai training camps they should complete the transcript of them and bring it out in a book form. Joshi, who had earlier not shown much enthusiasm for such a book, could now see the merit of having it “to build new Chiefs from scratch”. In February 1982, he handed over those tapes to Mhatre and within a short time Shetkari Sanghatana – vichar ani karypaddhati was published. As the title suggested it outlined the thinking behind Shetkari Sanghatana and its methodology. The cover did not mention any name of the writer but basically it was a When White Gold Turned Red

Q

175