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HARBRINGER OF MODERN AGRICULTURE
By: SA'AD A. SAIDULLAH
Convinced that India could only progress by modernizing agriculture, Sam Higginbottom, a
young American teacher, raised funds in the United States to found the Allahabad
Agricultural Institute in 1911.
In seven and a half decades the institute has done pioneering work for the advancement of
agriculture,including introducing pest-resistant high yielding-seeds,improved farm implements
and extension programs for farmers.
More than 80 years ago, a young American in his late 20s stood on the southern banks of
the Yamuna near the holy Triveni confluence at Allahabad, contemplating a patch of obdurate
badly eroded soil, which had not been tilled for centuries. He looked at the
neighbouring
farms' poor crops and famished livestock. As he surveyed the scene he was convinced that
the only way India could progress was through modernization of agriculture.
He resolved to do
something about it.
The young man was Sam Higginbottom, a teacher whose 28th death anniversary this month
recalls a life dedicated to that resolve.
The son of a petty English businessman, Sam Higginbottom began life as an intermittent
butcher's assistant, gambler, milk vendor and cab driver. The chance gift of a Christian Bible
sparked in him the desire to seek education at Mount Hermon in the United States, the
country that he adopted. Completing High School at age 24, Higginbottom worked his way
through Amherst and Princeton University for a career of helping others. A set of fortuitous
events led this former cattle-puncher to accept an offer by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, New York, to teach economics at the Christian College in Allahabad.
However, soon after his arrival in 1903, Higginbottom discovered to his dismay that the
economics that he had learned and now was to teach had no relevance and provided no clues
that could relate to the Indian agarian economy. Undeterred, he found and ingenious solution
to his predicament: What better way could there be to relate the pedalogical concepts of
economics to concrete reality than to take his students to nearby villages? he asked himself.
The visits to villages were revelations. The farmers used centuries-old implements and their
yields, in spite of the naturally rich and fertile soil, were among the lowest in the world. The
visits also defined his future -- to devote his life to teaching the Indian farmer progressive
methods of agriculture.
He was now in his mid-30's, had no education in agriculture and owed responsibility to his
wife and a growing family. But his wife, Ethelind, gave him her full support and persuaded him to go to the United States to study agriculture.
Taking leave, Higginbottom returned to the United States in March 1909 and enrolled at the
Ohio State College of Agriculture in Columbus, Ohio. During the next two years, he
assimilated as much knowledge of scientific agriculture and animal husbandry as he possibly
could.
But even more than the degree that he earned, he needed financial backing for his mission.
He met friends and strangers, lectured to various groups, making impassioned pleas for
donations. At one meeting, he told his gathering, "It is only the abundance of America's good
will, of her resources and her conspious ability to help that justify her in giving this assistance
to India." He finished his lecture and waited. A young domestic servant in her teens came
forward with some trepidation and handed him a $ 5 note. At another meeting, a shabbily
dressed worker passed him a soiled $10 note saying, "Take this and use it for me over
there."
He collected $30,000 (most of it coming from donations of under $10), persuaded two
American agricultural experts to join him and returned to Allahabad in 1911.
He bought the same patch of dismal land-some 125 hectares - where he stood eight years
earlier, to show that there was no land in India so bad that it could not be put under the plow.
The land was reclaimed with the help of about a dozen American hillside plows. A small brick dam was constructed and soon a lush, green demonstration farm stood where nothing had
grown before. The farm, which was used for giving practical training to students, excited
the curiosity of neighbouring farmers, providing them their first introduction to modern
farming practices. Thus was born the Allahabad Agricultural Institute (AAI), the result entirely
of one man's passion and compassion. The front veranda of his residence served as a
classroom-cum-lab and the back veranda as a dining-room-cum-dairy.
The Higginbottoms regularly made fund-raising trips to the United States, and with each new
donation the institute grew, both in size and in the number of disciplines taught. In 1914 the
government accorded recognition to his institute and sanctioned an annual grant of Rupees 20,000.
From then on there was no looking back. In 1926, the AAI severed its ties with the Christian
College and became an independant entity. The same year it started a two year diploma
course in dairy farming. In 1932 it was formally affiliated with the University of Allahabad.
About the same time the institute was recognized by the government for a Bachelor of
Science degree in Agriculture. In 1936, perceiving the important role Indian rural women play
in the house, the AAI started an intermediate course in home economics, which was later
upgraded to a degree course. Another landmark came in 1942 when AAI introduced
agricultural engineering - the only such course offered by an Indian university then.
When Higginbottom started the institute it had just 70 students and the staff were all
attached to the Allahabad Christian College. During his tenure, student strength tripled, the
number of teachers rose to 40, the institute's land area increased to 240 hectares and more
buildings came up. AAI developed productive breeds of livestock and innovative agricultural
technology; improved pest resistant seeds; and experimented with potent fertilizers and high
yielding crops-all largely financed by Higginbottom's trips or, as he put it to visitors, "by the
sweat of my tongue."
Sam Higginbottom and AAI were soon recognized as pioneers in the development of
agriculture. Speaking of the institute, Mathma Gandhi once said, "The agricultural school
under Sam Higginbottom meets my ideals in vocational education." The two had first met in
Banaras in 1916. Higginbottom was there to speak on agricultural development at the
inauguration of the Banaras Hindu University. Mathma Gandhi had just returned from South
Africa. Both took an instant liking to each other. Higginbottom, who found Gandhi "irrestible
in his personal charm," said, "I heard what he had to say about non-violence and he heard
what I had to say about feeding the hungry..and as I was impressed with him so was he with
me." When the two met again in Allahabad, the Mathma told Higginbottom, "So far as I am
concerned it was a case of love at first sight."
Although his commitment to the institute was total, Higginbottom and his wife found time to
administer a leprosy colony at nearby Naini. They collected funds to build brick houses, a
50-bed hospital, a well equiped dispensary and a seperate home where the inmates' disease
-free children were given vocational training.
For her selfless service, "Battam Mem Sahib" - as Ethelind Higginbottom was called -
received the most eloquent tribute when, during a visit to the colony, Mathma Gandhi turned
to her and said, "I have been watching the faces of these poor inmates. Everyone of them
lighted up at your approach. I would give anything if people loved me the way these lepers love you."
The Higginbottoms completely identified themselves with India. Having completed his
mission, Higginbottom retired in 1944, at the age of 70, and returned to the United States in
1945, two years before India got its independence, a cause which was very dear to him. "I
am anxious," he once said, "to see the day when India shall take her proper place as one of
the great self-governing peoples of the world .... India's future can be richer than India's past.
"I am always brooding over ways and means of avoiding this fearful waste of human life, of
transforming it into a positive asset to enrich the world."
Even when Higginbottom was living a retired life in the United States, his interest in India
remained undiminished. He was delighted when the Indian Government gave top priority to
the agricultural development in the First Five-Year Plan. That, he thought, was the greatest
tribute to him and his work.
A.T. Mosher, who was the principal of the institute soon after Higginbottom's retirement, was
able to realize many of the founder's dreams, with help from the Ford Foundation, the
Rockfellar Foundation, the Harvard-Yenching Trustee and the donations that Higginbottom
continue to collect even while in retirement in the United States.
In recent years, the AAI has seen some hard times, brought on partly by a lack of continuaty
in adminstation - there have been seven principals in the last six years. However, the AAI
continues to grow. There are 750 students, 90 teachers and a range of diploma, degree, post
graduate and doctoral programes. The students include agrobusinessmen, research
scientists, farmers, farm managers and the staff of various national and international
development agencies. Says Director M.J. John, "The struggle is to get back and once again
obtain a record of excellence." As inspiration, the AAI has its hallowed past and the legend
of Sam Higginbottom, his dream and his mission.
_____________________________________________________________________________
About the Author: Sa'ad A. Saidullah is presently organizing a cooperative farming enterprise in Allahabad.
Sent By:~Abel Immaraj~
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Monday, January 17, 2000
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