How high-yielding seeds became symbols of modernity during Green Revolution

World War II witnessed hunger- or famine-related deaths matching or outnumbering fatalities during military operations. It is estimated that 25 million people outside Europe died of hunger or hunger-related ailments. Blockades and prioritisation of military over civilians for allocation food resulted in several millions suffering, particularly in occupied regions and colonies.  

Even after accounting for all the ecological, political and economic criticisms against the green revolution, the role of the movement in dramatically increasing food production in India cannot be contested. The State achieved this by relying on modern agricultural practices and weaving into it development narratives, institutional structures and public participation, says science historian Abhinav Tyagi.

“During the green revolution, the State positioned itself as the custodian and distributor of scientific progress,” says Tyagi, a former research fellow at NCBS Archives, during his talk on “Revisiting the Green Revolution: Statecraft of cultivating modernity,” where he spoke about the role of statecraft in shaping the agricultural landscape of the country.

World War II witnessed hunger- or famine-related deaths matching or outnumbering fatalities during military operations. It is estimated that 25 million people outside Europe died of hunger or hunger-related ailments. Blockades and prioritisation of military over civilians for allocation food resulted in several millions suffering, particularly in occupied regions and colonies.  

‘“Grow more food’ campaign was sort of an international movement launched in various parts of the world as a response to this global food crisis,” says Tyagi.

“In Britain the campaign tried to blend the nationalist and agrarian image together, a different version of ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan.’ The mass campaign urged civilians to create kitchen gardens in whatever spaces available to them or make the playgrounds into vegetable plots.” 

In India the crisis was exacerbated by Japanese occupation of Burma which cut off rice supplies and natural disasters such as the cyclone in 1942 which emerged from the Bay of Bengal and hit the West Bengal-Odisha border causing around 61,000 casualties. The Bengal famine was one of the most devastating with the death toll estimated around 2-3 million casualties.

“Starvation was the main reason for the death. Malaria and lack of health support were identified as other reasons,” Tyagi notes.