First, the starting point of the development process is transformation of society through moral awakening of the individual. That a temple can only be built by people who do not drink liquor, became a powerful tool for awakening, for giving up the addiction consequently struck at the very root of the devilish treatment meted out to innocent women and children under the influence of liquor; and finally mobilising the community in common endeavour. The tool succeeded because it drew strength from the cultural strengths of the community.

Second, once the society was stirred to self-responsibility, projects, schemes and programmes came in quick succession and were completed more speedily and economically and in a satisfactory manner. More importantly, they were adopted and absorbed in a manner that did not creat dependency. The key therefore is that the community must first think, plan and execute what it can, and take external help only for that which is necessary but beyond its means. Alas, the Government run rural development programmes continue to remain insulated from such sterling sensitivity.

Third, economic success was not allowed to obliterate the concern for equity. The community came to the rescue of a beleagured borrower from a poor household who stood in the danger of losing his land to a credit agency. They helped in cultivation, raising higher yields and saved his assets as well as dignity. In contrast, the Government keeps lauding itself for distributing land to the landless but takes little interest in whether people have the wherewithal to make the land deliver livelihood. Thus in a large number of cases, the ownership of land in the hands of the landless is a short lived ecstacy, but the consequential increased indebtedness is a lifelong agony.

Fourth, India abounds in Anna Hazare's. He returned to his village after a stint in the army, saw the abysmal conditions and the apathy, but did not rush to the Government with a petition; instead he set forth on his own, poured his hard-earned savings for the local cause. In the process, knowingly or unknowingly, he has lit the sky over a land which was hitherto gripped by the desert and despair.

For these and similar reasons, the light of Ralegan Siddhi is shining beyond the circumfrence of that illustrous village. Our admiration for it will be the more abiding if the country at large was set ablaze with the same spirit and substance.