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The need for a new meaning and dynamism for village development

Dr Sudath Ggunasekara

The village in Sri Lanka is often referred to as the focal point of national development. Historically too it had been so. So much so Sri Lanka is called a classic example of a ‘Grama Raj’, a conglomerate of 25,000 villages, whose development and sustainability depend on the proper development of the village as its solid base. According to Mahawansa King Pandukabhaya has demarcated the boundaries of all villages in Lankadeepa in 427 BC. Things like administration, land tenure and the mechanism of revenue collection have changed from time to time. But the prosperity of the village has been the corner stone of the prosperity of the Kingdom through out. In the present context where private ownership of land and property has come to stay, I think, it should be easier to organize and mobilize the villages for national development than in the past where private ownership was limited. As a famous economist has once said ‘private ownership converts even sand in to gold’. Even the little private ownership we had those days was held at the pleasure of the king.

Today the prominence given to the village both through actual physical development programmes like gama neguma and media publicity through discussions like ape gama on Sundays on the SLRC clearly demonstrate the high priority given to village development by the government. But in these programmes I see a negative aspect as they only focus on physical development. No one appears to have thought of the need for an overall attitudinal change of the villagers, which in my opinion is a sine qua non for real village development. Current development programmes also perpetuate continuous dependency on the government for everything. All development activities highlight only what the government does and none of them incorporates any aspect of people’s participation. As such there is no contribution by the villagers for these projects. Therefore people do not get either personally or emotionally identified with these development projects.

Under the existing system of elected governments people have got accustomed to think that everything has to be done by the government. Politicians who form governments also have made voters to think so. Today it has come to stay as the standard political game. Politicians under the present system like it. Because the more people depend on them more votes they can muster by giving promises. So it has come to stay as a vicious circle that promotes dependency on external agents whose motives are different from those of the villagers. This hampers long term sustainable national development.

Since there is a growing tendency to expect the government to do everything the spirit of communal participation in village development, that was once the hall mark of our society, has almost disappeared. What is more is party politics have ruined the harmony that existed in the traditional village. The social hierarchical system that kept the village together is also gone. Actually the village we saw few decades ago is almost dead both in form and spirit. Modern media, particularly the TV has made some serious inroads and caused enormous damage to the village culture. Although many people deliver long and convincing sermons on the village today the village of yesterday is found only in books and in the minds of some old people. This I think is a serious crisis in our society that calls for urgent attention of development planners, sociologists and religious leaders, particularly the Buddhist monks who once formed the bed rock of our civilization, lest it gets completely disintegrated and disappeared.

There is no argument that basic infra-structure like roads, irrigation facilities and services like health, education and marketing facilities etc. have to be provided by the state.. But the need for a development strategy where people are also made active participants in the process at the end of which they could say ‘we did it ourselves’ and ‘it belongs to us-our village’ and ‘therefore maintaining it in good form is also our responsibility’ and attuned to do what they say has to be invented in order to free the people from stupid dependency on external forces. Such a development strategy would also enormously reduce the cost to government. People themselves will then play an important role in maintaining that social system. I have experimented, this method with much success within the Hadabima Project when I was its director in 1990s.

Although current government development programmes have some initial positive impact, in my opinion, they are superficial and therefore it is unlikely that they will leave a long lasting impact on the broader aspect of overall and sustainable village development. They lack in-depth vision or serious planning. Therefore I do not think these programmes have succeeded in getting in to the bottom of the problem of village development in this country. Most of these programmes are apparently well meant. But they lack in depth analysis of the real problem of village development. They don’t have a deeper philosophy or long term perspective on village development either, like some of those Indian movements like Panchayath, Bhudan or RSS. Most development programmes are geared to fire fighting and they do not have a long term perspective.

I think real village development has to be a two pronged approach. That is while the government deploys an aggressive physical development programme like roads, irrigation, health, schools, education and broad based economic development like what it is doing now, it also has to simultaneously deploy a vigorous progamme of attitudinal change among the villagers so that village level development will get a new dynamism and sustain the system after the governments leave the scene and become independent of government intervention thereafter. In other words the villages must be made dynamic and self sustained. This in my opinion is fundamental without which no development programme at the village level can take off and sustain over a period of time. A well thought out overall village development programme that incorporates both physical and human development should be able to generate internal dynamism that will work as the main catalyst of village development. That will minimize external intervention or inducement as modernization theorists like Rostov and Lewis have advocated. People must also be trained to think that all development what they do today is the heritage that they will pass on to their children tomorrow.

Another serious constrain in village development is the outflow of the educated. Most villagers, particularly the educated, migrate to towns firstly as they lack new opportunities in the village and also to get better openings that are not available in the village for their betterment. If there is at least a good transport system, people might prefer to commute daily from their home. Secondly once migrated they also forget the village as they have no deeper understanding on their sacrosanct obligations to their place of birth. In fact although we talk so much about the village we still do not have an educational programme, that train them to think on this aspect. No one has, I think, seriously thought about this aspect either. Perhaps we have taken it for grant that the villagers should know their obligations by their villages.

In this process the need to educate and enlighten the villagers on their sacred obligations and responsibilities towards their places of birth is very important. Villagers are the prime stake holders of this whole exercise without whose empowerment and education and commitment, village development is impossible. If the villagers of any particular village are not actively committed to and if they don’t get involved in village development no one would be able to move the mountain. Of cause the state must ensure the socio-economic environment needed to keep the people in the village. The state should provide the required infrastructure facilities and services required for enhanced socio-economic development in order to arrest rural-urban migration and encourage people in the towns also to come back to the village. Villagers should be able to lead a better life in the country side than in the town. They should at least have equal opportunities in the village as well. Then only they get motivated and attracted to return and live in the village. In fact many industrialized countries have now realized the folly of industrialization at the expense of the village and the environment and steps are been taken now to get back to the villages. This trend is seen even in countries like China and South Korea.

A new approach and a new meaning

I do not propose to discuss all these aspects at length in this article for brevity. I will only attempt to outline a new approach here to bring about the much needed psychological and attitudinal change to be generated and induced to create the internal dynamism required for village development that could sustain over a long period of time.

This is a new idea I have conceived few years back when I was trying to inaugurate a village awakening movement called ‘Sinhalaye Avadigama Sabha Vyaparaya’ in the Kandy district. Years of my experience in divisional and district administration also have been useful in formulating this idea. The most important prerequisite to make this movement a success is the proper understanding of ones obligations to his, own village without which it is well-nigh impossible to think of any kind of village development. Most people today are alienated from their villages. In order to give a deeper ethical and philosophical touch to this concept I preface my outline with the following three noble quotations.

1.‘Ananda, Even the wind that blows from Kapilawattu brings me pleasure’

Gautama the Buddha 6th century BC.

2.‘Janani Janma Bhumischa- Swargadapi gariiyashi’

(The Mother and the place of your birth are even more precious than the heaven)

An ancient saying

3‘God gave all earth to all men to live

But since mans heart is small

Ordained for each, one spot shall prove

Beloved over all

Each to his choice and I rejoice

The lot has fallen to me

In a fair ground, in a fair ground

Yea, Sussex by the sea.

Rudyard Kipling (1885-1936)

So rejoiced and exclaimed even these great men of the yore when they spoke on their love to their places of birth. It was not only a mundane poet, a product of the Victorian romanticism in mediaeval England but even the All Enlightened One, Gautama the Buddha, who had attained Buddha-hood after discarding all worldly things as mean, vulgar, base and mundane, also made such endearing reference to the nostalgic fragrance that comes from his place of birth.

It is this nostalgia and the eternal attachment and the bondage, which has been common to all human beings down the ages, both mundane and supra-mundane and the natural love towards ones own native village that has to be injected to ones mind to get himself to think afresh on his own village. It is said that even on the day of the Great Renunciation Prince Siddharta turned back and had a last look at Kapilavattu as he watched the city gradually disappearing behind him and made the above comment to Ananda. Such are the dimensions and the depth of human bondage attached to ones place of birth that transcends even the boundaries of the highest spiritual attainments.

All these statements superficially depict some kind of emotional expression. But one must not forget that there is a much deeper meaning enshrined in between these lines which is both philosophical and metaphysical. The following few paragraphs, I think will help you to get a glimpse of what these great men would have implied perhaps in their rather emotional and sentimental expressions.

As for me I see ten strong bondages and ten debts every man and woman develops naturally towards his or her village. I call this ‘The Tenfold Bondages and the Ten fold Debts of man’ to his village. These are not written obligations enforceable under legal penalty. But they are ethically and morally much more binding and penetrating.

They are,

1 Pranavayu Bandhanaya and Debt (the Bondage of first breathing and the debt arising there from).

The first cry of the baby is the indication that he has life. The first cry also means that he/she has started the first independent breathing outside the mother’s womb. With this breathing he begins to inhale the air around his environment. In other words it is the air in his village or his country and that is his life giving air. This first breathing provides the motive force that keeps him alive through out his life time. With this first breathing he establishes the first Bondage to his village and through that bondage his first debt also begins.

2 Maukiri Bandhanaya and Debt (Bondage through mother’s milk and the debt arising there from)

The second Bondage and the debt inaugurates through the mothers milk. We know that a child feeds entirely on mother’s milk until he change over to solid food. It is the food that she consumes from which she gets the nourishment necessary for her milk. This way, through the mother’s milk he establishes the second Bondage and the debt to his village.

3 Jala Bandhanaya (Bondage through water) and the debt arising there from

The third Bondage and the debt are established through water. The water that any person drinks and uses for bathing, washing and watering his paddy fields and plants and animals is also obtained from the village stream, well, spout or the tank That water belongs to the village. The third Obligation and the debt are thus established.

4 Ahara Bandhanaya and debt (Bondage through food and the debt arising there from)

The food that one eats comes from the environment where he lives. The cereals, vegetables, fruits, yams, leaves and the milk, eggs and meat are produced in the village. Through them he establishes the fourth Bondage and the fourth debt.

5 Bhesajja Bandhanaya and Debt (Bondage through medicine and the debt arising there from)

Usually in a village it is the village vedamahattaya who treats you from birth to death, before you go to a hospital, in case you go, and the Village vedamahattaya gets all his medicinal stuff from village surroundings. The plants, creepers and all other items are procured from the village. So the sixth Bondage and the debt is established through medicine

6 Nivasa Bandhanaya and Debt (Bondage through shelter and the debt arising there from)

People procure all material such as rubble, sand, bricks, timber and thatching materials for house building from the environment where they live. In other words they also come from the village. Thus protection from rain and sun is provided by the local materials that belong to the village. Through this he establishes the fifth Bondage and the fifth debt

7 Artika Bandhanaya and Debt (Bondage through means of living and the debt arising there from)

Agriculture forms the main economic activity of those who live in a village. Even those who leave the village for employment grow up in the village. For the food they eat and the money they earn through agriculture they owe their indebtedness to the resources of the village like soil, water and sun shine. So through this they establish the seventh Bondage and the debt to the village of their birth

8 Gnana Bahndhanaya and Debt (Bondage through knowledge and the debt arising there from)

Every one gets his basic education at home. Then the next step they get it from the village temple and the school. Besides this he also acquires the wealth of traditional knowledge that has evolved in the village environment over the centuries. The knowledge on rites and rituals, customs and good and bad etc he learns from the village elders. He may widen his horizons later from knowledge acquired from external sources. But the village is the foundation of all his knowledge base. Thus he establishes his eighth Bondage and the eighth debt to his village through education.

9 Sadachara Bandhanaya and Debt ( Bondage through values and the debt arising there from)

Every one gets his basic knowledge on values, customs and rituals and religion from home, temple and the village society. He makes use of traditional knowledge, values, customs and manners that have evolved over the generations to mold his life. External knowledge also plays an important role in this. But the foundation of the totality is formed by the knowledge base that originated in the village and its environment. Therefore the basic foundation on which rests the framework of life is provided by the village in which he is born. Few people may temporally live in towns, but every one has some kind of inseparable generation bondage to his or her village. No one can escape this bondage. Through this he establishes his/her 9th bondage and the debt to this village.

10 Bhumi Bandhanaya and Debt (Bondage through the good earth and the debt arising there from)

Finally when a man is dead he is buried under the very earth on which he was born and lived. The good earth receives your mortal remains generously with both hands without asking for any payment in return. Such is the generosity and the love your village extends towards you through out your life from birth to death and even after death. Through this last ritual you establish the tenth and the final Bondage and the debt to you place of birth.

I hope now you see how you are bonded and indebted in ten ways to your place of birth. Although some people live out side the village for reasons of employment etc, mentally they also live in their villages of birth. Every man and woman in this long pilgrimage of life passes through all stages outlined above within that broader framework. No one can refute or disprove this eternal fact of life at any time.

It has been said that one cannot fully repay the debt to your mother for the milk he has sucked from her even he strives for the whole of sansara. Similarly you also cannot fully repay the debt that you owe to your place of birth for all what you have received from it like the first breath, the mother’s milk, water, food, clothing, medicine, housing and beauty you enjoyed through out your life. In fact your debt to your village in this context appears to be even greater than the debt you owe to your mother.

The bondage and the love that exist between a child and mother cannot be compared to the bondage and love with any other person. Similarly no other place on earth can claim the naturally born love and bondage you have established with your own village. Is it not the same eternal reality that is exhibited from the quotations I gave at the beginning of this note?

My friends don’t you feel that therefore you owe the same kind of debt that you owe to your mother who has nursed and brought you up, to your village as well, which has nursed and kept you fed and protected you through out your life. Don’t you feel that your village is your second mother? Don’t you also realize that it is the good earth on which you were born and bred that finally embraces both you and your mother when you are dead? Therefore don’t you feel that you are also indebted to your village in the same way as you are indebted to your mother and that you want be able to repay that debt even if you continue to pay back through out your entire journey in sansara? Therefore don’t you think that you should start to honour and worship your village in the same manner you respect and worship your mother? Don’t you think that you should therefore build up a new inspiration and a new tradition of worshipping your village, the place of your birth and build up a new concept of mathrugama vandana?

Even Lord Buddha paid his respect to an inanimate Bodhi tree as a mark of gratitude that gave him shelter to attain Buddhahood, by standing and gazing at it with motionless eyes for seven long days. Therefore I appeal to you to begin a mathrugama vandana tradition as from today.

If you do not honour and pay your respect to the village of your birth, which gave you life, food, shelter, education, culture and finally that receives your mortal remains as well, without making any demand, won’t you become a betrayer of your village and also a betrayer of your mother and motherland as well? Therefore at least from today begin to respect and honour your village as your second mother.

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