Even before Anna started his work in Ralegan Siddhi in 1975, the village had earned a name in the neighbouring areas. It was well known as a source of illicit liquor. It was also known for goondaism and vandalism.

The old people recollect that Ralegan was not bad all through history. In fact, according to them the decline in the social and economic life of Ralegan came in their own lifetime. They also relate stories of Ralegan's glory. During the latter half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, Ralegan was famous for its religious and God-fearing people. In 1950 a religious saint known as Sant Yadav Baba Kurhade came and settled down in this village. During Yadav Baba's lifetime, it is said that people from far away places used to come seeking an audience with him and to listen to his discourses.

Even after Yadav Baba's death, for many years Ralegan was like any other Indian village with simple people living in harmony with nature and lots of trees around. The people were not very rich but it is said that, there was enough to satisfy everyone's needs. Very old people of Ralegan do remember stories of forest and wild animals on the hills around the village. In due course the forests were destroyed and the village was caught in a cycle of recurring droughts. An uncertainty gripped agriculture and repeated crop failures made people diffident and fatalistic. Impoverishment of the villagers by recurrent droughts, goondaism of the vested interests and alcoholism had vitiated the social life to such an extent that no one from the neighbouring villages would marry one's daughter to an eligible bachelor from Ralegan.

Gradually, neglect of villages and destruction of nature to meet the growing needs of the urban population also took their toll on Ralegan Siddhi. Soil erosion, depleting water table and erratic rainfall dragged Ralegan into a perpetual drought cycle. Recurring droughts and degraded agriculture set into people's lives. It led to impoverishment of the people and degeneration of social life. One "enterprising" person from the village who found it difficult to support his family with the income from his land went to a neighbouring village and mastered the technique of distilling liquor.

His success attracted many others to this business. In due course, there were about 40 illicit distilling stills in the village. The clientele also grew from Ralegan as well as from the neighbouring villages. A large number of people from Ralegan got into habitual drinking. The worst sufferers of alcoholism in a village society are the women and children. In a male dominated society if the father is an alcoholic, the family gets disrupted and women and children have to pay the costs since all the decisions are still taken by the alcoholic male. Women in Ralegan used to get beaten by their alcoholic husbands for trivial reasons. The youth also started drinking and uncontrolled vandalism increased to the level that no young woman could dare to step out on the village streets after sunset. In the evening the village streets used to be full of drunkards roaming around. Gang fights were also quite frequent. The police had a 'happy' relation with a village of this kind. They could collect regular pay-offs from the liquor business as well as from those who were involved in the fights.

Except for the 35-40 families who were engaged in the business of illicit liquor, most other families were living in a state of absolute poverty. Persistent drought conditions and alcoholism had driven most of the people into heavy debts. Scarcity of fodder also made it difficult for the people to support milch and draught cattle. Large number of people used to go to work as daily wage labourers on drought relief works. Poor agricultural production and pressure of private money lenders to repay their debts had forced many people to migrate to other places in search of work.

Most of the people who went to the cities of Bombay, Pune or Ahmednagar in the 60's or early 70's were from the poorest families. They mostly worked as unskilled labourers or as coolies. At least one person from each Harijan family was working in a city in 1975. Some old villagers remember that for about two-thirds of the village households, the income from agriculture was not sufficient even to feed the family and at least a third of the households missed a meal almost every other day.

There was shortage of water in the village. However, the village sustained itself by meeting its minimum water requirements from one or two wells. Living under these conditions of insufficient food, alcoholic males and shortage of drinking water, it is not difficult to imagine the health status of the people.

Beside other diseases, people also remember that incidence of guinea-worm infection was very common. The nearest medical service available was at Shirur or Parner, both about 14 kms away from the village. Infant anf child mortality were so high that there was a separate cremation ground for them.

School education was totally neglected by the people of Ralegan. Till 1965 there was only one classroom for a primary school. In I 965 one more classroom was added and the school was later extended upto the 7th standard.There were hardly any girls studying beyond the 4th standard. Very few boys went to Shirur or Parner to pursue their studies beyond the 7th standard. There was only one state transport bus for going to Shirur or Parner schools. Thus transport also became an inhibiting factor for students to pursue their studies, in addition to the family and social life in the village which was far from congenial for children to study properly.

The social life ot the village was also plagued by the practice of untouchability and caste discrimination. There was no separate well for the harijans, and the upper castes would not allow the harijans to draw water directly from the common well. They had to wait tor someone from the upper castes to draw water and pour it into their vessels from a distance. Harijans had to sit in a separate row in every community lunch and they were served food the last.

Harijans had heen given about 60 acres of land during the British rule. They did not have resources to develop and cultivate these lands. In 1973, seventeen harijan families came together and took a loan of Rs. 22,500/- from the Ahmednagar District Co-operative Bank for digging a common well to irrigate their fields. The well was dug but it yielded insufficient water. Distribution of water and repayment of loans could not be managed properly and as a result these households sank deeper into debt; the bank threatened to recover the dues by auctioning their lands.

There was no co-operative spirit in the village and no community feeling. The village Panchayat leadership had no role except to appropriate every Government scheme for personal benefit. The ration shop was owned by one such leader, and the supplies were often sold in the black market. At every village function, whether it was a marriage ceremony or a religious function, celebrations were invariably marred hy hooliganism. Almost every week there was a police case filed from the village on account of thefts of the harvested crops from the house, fights over loans, lands or on eve-teasing. Even the relations among Marathas (land holding caste) were far from harmonious. There was competition and ego clashes used to occur on issues like who spent more on his son's or daughter's wedding or during the village feasts during the festivals.

Once a year the village jatra is held at Padmavati temple in the village. Goats were offered to the deity and sacrificed at the temple. This was followed by feasts where mutton and liquor were served. Fights over petty reasons were very common on such occasions. Even on the Bail Pola day there used to be clashes on the question of which bullocks entered the village first to head the procession of decorated bullocks. Thus non-issues were made into prestige matters by the powerful people just to satisfy their egos. But, these village leaders never bothered to do anything that would benefit the people.

In 1972, when severe drought struck most parts of Maharashtra, various Tata Trusts and Tata Companies formed  the  "Tata Relief Committee". This committee started working in six villages of Parner Taluka. The Tata Relief Committee undertook the work of reaching drinking water to the villages by tankers and also took up the construction of check-dams under "food for work" program in Ralegan Siddhi and in other villages. This progam was supported by food grains from the Catholic Relief Society. After the drought, the Rural Welfare Board of Dorabji Tata Trust continued with various programmes like provision of medical relief and deepening of wells in addition to construction of check-dams for water conservation.

Thus, when Anna Hazare entered the scene in 1975, he was presented with a totally hopeless social and economic situation and irresponsible village leadership. The only soothing factor was the relief work started by Mr. Ashok Bedarkar, a young and enthusiastic social scientist, who was the Project Officer of the Dorabji Tata Trust.
 

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