The Farming Community

The Complete News Series : I

Agriculture is still the largest contributor to GDP in most countries around the world. Despite the incredible growth in industrialization, food expenditure continues to comprise between 25% - 45% of the average income of households. This is certainly indicative of the significance of the farming community in our societies.

 

To work the land, toil under the sun and to commune with nature is indeed a life of rare pleasures. The farmer is the salt of the earth and unlike city folk brings a realistic though conservative view of life. Their role in societal decision making is often a backseat driver. In India the farmers, as the Thevar caste, initiated temple worship and brought great strides to the understanding of man and the divine forces of nature.

 

The American political balance is influenced primarily by the mid-west community. In Europe and the UK, agricultural issues sway political decision making and government subsidies.  The world may indeed be an empire of farmers today the way farmer kings took to the practice of royalty and law making in years past.

 

We are at times brought to a comparison of the farming and urbanized communities. Education, since the period of the renaissance  has brought a bounty of knowledge about the nature of man. Disciplines like the humanities, science, political thought, economics, sociology and organization of management has greatly increased the efficacy of thought and encouraged a greater acceptance for the organization of societies in an environment of law and order.

 

Rural communities, by the accentuation of the nature of personal relationships and their view of the sacrificial nature of life, raise a different approach to living. The Indic term, karmayogam, used to describe the attitude of rural communities, refers to someone in obstetrics who develops a selfless nature and lives merely for the well being of the community.

 

A person who balances both qualities comes to realize that they are a little like the head on a body. Passionate sermoning on issues meets up with research studies on the road and like two flaming peacocks dance with each other to flaunt their talents. In the Asian experience, the vedic age of farmers gave way to the vedantic studies of the theosophist. Perhaps today, as we realize the relation between the two we may coin a new name. Such a name must surely engage the phrase ' a common aim.'