How India Became the Largest Producer of Milk in the World

by Shankkar Aiyar

Operation Flood has now won accolades globally. What is not sufficiently recognized and needs to be recorded is that in getting government out of dairy development, Kurien virtually inverted the political thinking of the day. This was, after all, the seventies, the era of socialization and nationalization. It was a decade during which Indian politicians believed government had to be in every business. In that raucous clamour for state control, here was a programme that took back a sector from government management, removed price controls from trade and established the suzerainty of economics over politics.

Kurien recognized that the outcry of the few could only be countered by spreading awareness about the benefits possible to the masses. Instead of going the usual PR route, NDDB funded film-maker Shyam Benegal to direct Manthan to bring home to Indians the revolution in the making.

Verghese Kurien was honoured by many institutions with many titles. But nothing compared with the honour of his actual achievement. When he reached Anand, Kurien was barely twenty-eight and India produced barely 17 million tons of milk. In 2011, when he turned ninety, India produced 121 million tons and became the largest producer of milk in the world. All this because of a man who did not drink milk. The father of India’s Milk Revolution ‘did not like the taste’.