Many great persons have cherished the dream of a strong nation after and even prior to India's Independence. In the pre-Independence period Swami Vivekananda devoted his entire life to the cause of building a new India. All his efforts were towards strengthening the nation and its religion. However he never defined religion in the narrow terms of Hindu
, Muslim, Sikh or Jain but  "Humanism" was the true religion for him. According to him the religion started from one's next door neighbour and unless one shared the grief and happiness of one's neighbour any religion would have no meaning. If a religion does not accord primary importance to compassion viz. giving food to a starving person or wiping the tears of widows then that is not a true religion according to Swami Vivekananda.

India gained freedom and after Independence great persons like Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave dreamt of a strong self sufficient country. They repeatedly stressed that if you want to build a strong nation, India's villages will have to be transformed since India is a country spread over villages. Hence to build a new India we will have to undertake the task of changing India's villages. Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi and Vinoba realized that without developing its villages the dream of building a new India cannot be attained; that is why they devoted every moment and everything of their life towards building this new society. They knew that unless there are more and more persons with social commitment, villages cannot be developed. Therefore they concentrated on creating new human heings by developing social commitment among the people. True democracy cannot be brought about by making laws or by government action. For that you need to bring about change at the societal Ievel as well as in the minds of its people. "To see God in every living being and to serve humanity is true religion" has always been told to us by our saints and seers. They also taught us to maintain purity and morality in our thought and actions as well as to drive vices away.

With these ideals in view, the work of rural development in the village Ralegan Siddhi was started in 1975. For the development of all the villages in India there should be at least one such village where development has touched every aspect of life. If such a village is created, then the people, social workers and the youth in many more villages will get inspiration as well as direction to start on the development path. Today a large number of villagers are facing the question as to what, precisely, they should do if they want to develop their villages. Many young men and women are also asking this question that they want to do something in their life but what should they do? They are searching for a proper direction. Many people in our villages believe that village development means a good building of the Gram Panchayat, a double storied building for the village credit society, surfacing of village roads and piped water supply in the village. But all this is not real development. Ultimately, the human beings for whom we construct these buildings in the village should undergo change. Their thoughts and actions have to be brought onto the right track. Until a human being realizes that besides living for oneself, one has a duty towards one's neighbour, one's village, one's society, and one's country, no real development can take place of the village people, or of the village or the country.

An effort for such real development has been made collectively by the people of Ralegan Siddhi. Programmes like ban on consumption of alcohol, eradication of untouchability, tree-plantation, family-planning, water harvesting and water conservation. community gobar-gas plant, agricultural development, irrigation by sprinklers, drip bi-valve irrigation, solar lights, solar heaters, solar pumps, windmill, community marriages, co-operative well irrigation schemes, construction of a building worth Rs. 15-20 lakh by Shramadaan, Grain Bank, improved horticulture, and many other schemes have been successfully implemented in this village.

Dr. Antia of the Foundation For Research in Community Health, Bombay, came to know of this development taking place in Ralegan Siddhi. He, along with Dr. Ramesh Awasthi and Dr. M.W. Uplekar, visited this village many a time. On behalf of their Foundation they had deputed two of their women health workers in Ralegan for one year with a view of providing health care training. Dr. Antia, with a deep feeling for the country, felt the need to undertake a proper economic study of Ralegan's development. He discussed about it many times with me and through his efforts this  study was undertaken. How more and more people can be inspired to start the work on the lines of Ralegan, has been the desire of Dr. Antia. Through my frequent meetings with him I have noticed a deep social commitment in him. This study was carried out in 45 months. Shri Dashrath Panmand has put in a lot of hard work. They have put the results of the study in a book form so that it can be useful to others.

I am certain that the information presented here will be very helpful to the people and active workers of every village. These days, when ignorance, poverty, blind faith, caste and communal tensions, disparities and many other such difficulties are tormenting our country,  creating awareness among the village people is the need of the hour. To quote
Sant Tukdoji Maharaj,

In this direction I firmly believe that this book will turn out to be a very important contribution. I would therefore request all the people to read and understand this book and make efforts in their own life to develop their own villages.

KANYAKUMARI                                                                                                                                                                ANNA HAZARE

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