IE: The unsung hero who pioneered Green Revolution in Mexico: November 20, 2008

THE MEXICAN Embassy usually keeps to itself but on Tuesday evening they came to the India Habitat Centre in large numbers to celebrate the life and times of Pandurang Khankhoje, a man they called their own. “The search for truth is the expression of freedom and that is what drives a true revolutionary. Khankhoje’s life was defined by that search,” said Rogelio Granguillhome, the Mexican Ambassador who along with politicians Vasant Sathe, A B Bardhan, historian Mridula Mukherjee and journalist Dilip Padgaonkar celebrated the re lease of I Shall Never Ask for Pardon (Penguin, Rs 399), a memoir of Khankhoje written by his daughter Savitri Sawhney.Nearly a century ago, Khankhoje, a revolutionary from Maharashtra decided that the only way to battle the colonial rule was an armed rebellion. Blacklisted by the British government, Khankhoje had no option but to flee the country. He became a founder-member of the Ghadar party in America, but he was always on the run till he found safety in Mexico in 1924, with the government there welcoming him with open arms.

Sawhney, a Delhi-based pediatrician by profession, was born to Khankhoje and his Belgian wife Jeanne. She decided to write the book in a bid to keep her father’s dream alive. “My father feared that history will forget the Ghadar movement and began writing this story as a series of articles that were published in the Kesari,” said Sawhney, who renounced her own practice for the past few years to revisit the life of an extraordinary man she called her father.

With his post-graduate degree in agricultural sciences from the State University of Oregon, Khankhoje immediately related to the farmers in Mexico. Soon, he was appointed a professor in the National School of Agriculture in Chapingo, near Mexico City. He researched on corn, wheat, pulses and rubber, developing rust, frost and drought-resistant varieties and pioneered the Green Revolution in Mexico. Renowned artist Diego Rivera painted murals that featured Khankhoje and his enormous contribution to the agricultural sciences in the museum at Mexico City.

In India, a short stretch of an asphalt road in Nagpur is named after him. “I’ve known him and he has truly inspired all of us who were involved with the trade union movement in Nagpur. But there is not a single agricultural college that has been named after him. We must do something about it. One of India’s truly international heroes still remains unsung,” said Bardhan.

The book is only the beginning.

URL: http://epaper.indianexpress.com/IE/IEH/2008/11/20/index.shtml