Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel (22 October 1903 - 3 June 1994) was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and politician. A follower of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

, he is regarded as the father of the cooperative movement in India, most notably in the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union in 1946, and the Anand Co-operative movement.

Early life and activism

Born on 22 October 1903, in

Anand, Gujarat Anand is a city and the administrative centre of Anand District in the state of Gujarat, India. It is administered by Anand Municipal Corporation. It is part of the region known as Charotar, consisting of Anand and Kheda district, Kheda district ...

, to Kishibhai Patel, Tribhuvandas became a follower of

and

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ''Vallabhbhāī Jhāverbhāī Paṭel''; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was an Indian independence activist and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime ...

during the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

, and especially the

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active and professed refusal of a citizenship, citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders, or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be cal ...

movements, which led to his repeated imprisonment in 1930, 1935 and 1942.

Cooperative movement

By the late 1940s, he started working with farmers in

Kheda district Kheda District, known as Kaira District during British rule, is one of the thirty-three districts of Gujarat state in western India. It is part of the region known as Charotar, consisting of Kheda and Anand districts. Kheda was an administrativ ...

, under the guidance of

, and after setting up the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producer's Union in 1946 under his chairmanship, he hired

Verghese Kurien Verghese Kurien (26 November 1921 – 9 September 2012) was an Indian dairy engineer and social entrepreneur. He led initiatives that contributed to the extensive increase in milk production in India termed as the White Revolution. Kurien gra ...

in 1950, who was instrumental in developing the technical and marketing strategies of the Union which was eventually called Amul.

remained the general manager of

Amul The Anand Milk Union Limited commonly known as Amul is an Indian dairy brand owned by the cooperative society, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), based in Anand, Gujarat. GCMMF is controlled by 3.6 million milk producers. ...

till 2005. Under Tribhuvandas Patel's leadership and guidance and together with

, many organizations were started in Anand including the

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation The Anand Milk Union Limited commonly known as Amul is an Indian dairy brand owned by the cooperative society, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), based in Anand, Gujarat. GCMMF is controlled by 3.6 million milk producers. ...

National Dairy Development Board The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is a statutory body set up by an Act of the Parliament of India and an Institution of National Importance. It is under administrative control of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairyin ...

and

Institute of Rural Management Anand An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

. Tribhuvandas Patel was awarded the 1963

Ramon Magsaysay Award The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino language, Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, ...

for ' Community Leadership', together with

Dara Nusserwanji Khurody Dara Nusserwanji Khurody (2 January 1906 – 1 January 1983) was an Indian entrepreneur known for his contributions to the dairy industry of India. He worked in various private and government organization at the start of his career and also held ...

, and

.,Biography of ''Tribhuvandas K. Patel''
'' Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation'' Official website. and the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

from the

Govt. of India The Government of India (ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of 36 states and union territo ...

in 1964. He remained Secretary/President of the

Pradesh Congress Committee A Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) is the state-level unit of the Indian National Congress. It is responsible for the organization and management of the party's activities in a particular state of India. The PCC is made up of a president and s ...

(PCC),

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

( Congress I), and also a member of

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

twice, 1967–1968 and 1968 -1974 from the party. Under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel, in August 1973,

celebrated its 25th anniversary with

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian politician and Indian independence activist, independence activist who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading th ...

Maniben Patel Maniben Patel (24 April 1904 — 26 March 1990) was an Indian independence movement activist and a Member of the Indian parliament. She was the daughter of freedom fighter and post-Independence Indian leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Educated in ...

and

. When he voluntarily retired from the Chairmanship of AMUL, in the early 1970s, he was presented with a purse of six hundred thousand rupees, by the grateful members of the village cooperatives — one rupee per member being the contribution. He used this fund to start a charitable trust and

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, named the

Tribhuvandas Foundation 'Tribhuvandas Foundation'' is a public Charitable trust working with the AMUL milk cooperatives in and around Kheda district of Gujarat. Its mission is to work for betterment of health in rural communities of Central Gujarat. History The Tribhuv ...

, to work on women and child health in the

Kheda Kheda is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of Gujarat. Kheda was known as Kaira during the British Raj. It was the former administrative capital of Kheda district. The city is known for tobacco farming. The nearest railway statio ...

district of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. He was the first Chairman of

. He handed over the chairmanship to

, when the organization started to grow quickly, after receiving funds from foreign grant s. The former chairperson of the National Dairy Development Board,

Amrita Patel Amrita Patel (born 1943) is an Indian businessperson associated with cooperative dairy sector as well as an environmentalist. She headed the National Dairy Development Board from 1998 to 2014 which led the world's biggest dairy development pro ...

remarked in her opening address at an event at the

about the

saying " ribhuvandas Foundationworks in over 600 villages in the state of

in the field of maternal and infant care. What is unique about the programme of the Foundation is that it rides on the back of milk. It is the village milk co-operative that appoints a village health worker and pays an honorarium to the village health worker to undertake the work. So it is milk paying for health." Patel was active until his death, working to set up cooperative organizations for farming commodities such as oil. In the days before his death on June 3, 1994, thousands of farmers from all over Kaira visited him, assuring him that the movement started in 1946 would be continued. In these last days, he frequently asked about Kurien who, despite the urgency conveyed to him, never visited him before his death. More incidents and details about Patel's life have not been reported in English, partly due to the lack of translation from the native Gujarati language. On finding out about the financial struggle and shelving faced by the production of a film on his mentor

titled

Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar (, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royal family, royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other Aristocracy (class), aristocrats. It ha ...

, Patel made the financial contributions necessary to have the film completed and released. It is not known if he watched the film.

Awards and honours

* 1963:

for ' Community Leadership' * 1964:

Personal life

He was married to Shrimati Mani Laxmi, and had one daughter and six sons. He had several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

References

External links