Rural development has been a very popular theme in the last two decades. A large number of young persons with university degrees went into the villages and set up rural development experiments. Hundreds of books have been written during this period critically examining various approaches, expounding different models and setting numerous standards of evaluation. Self-help and community participation have been the most talked about but rarely achieved goals of rural development experiments.

When Anna Hazare started working in Ralegan Siddhi, he did not have any model before him. The entire course of development in Ralegan was charted out by the people themselves. Local ingenuity, people's grasp and understanding about the roots of the problems, their openness in accepting ideas from all sources, Anna's honesty and hard
taskmaster attitude and above all, the collective response in taking up and implementing various schemes by the people, brought about the overall transformation. The process of transformation in Ralegan therefore cannot be put into the frame of any textbook model of development.

The Gandhian dictum is that change should begin at the individual Ievel. If the individuals change the village will change; and if the villages are changed, the country will be changed. This can be clearly observed in the development approach followed in case of Ralegan Siddhi. Stress on personal morality, abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes and from non-vegetarian foods are essential components of a personal code of conduct imposed in Ralegan.

These are in fact considered the necessary conditions of social development too. Personal morality of course is not restricted to teetotalism. It has been linked to a broader vision of social morality encompassing social equality and egalitarian distribution of the benefits of growth. Divergence from alcoholism was considered to be a basic step towards creating a new sense of social responsibility and for the growth of developmental spirit. The concept of personal morality here has been drawn chiefly from Hindu religion. It is a temple where oath for giving up drinking was taken. It is a temple where all the disputes are settled because people believe that no one would tell a lie sitting in the temple. Moral education in the school includes reading of scriptures and chanting of Bhajans. Religious discourses, quotations from religious saints and playing of bhajans are a regular morning routine in the temple.

Normally, religious personal morality does not go beyond one's personal life. If it does, it takes the form of charity or philanthropy. Therefore, the person can continue to build up his wealth and amass riches by exploiting others and still feel self-righteous by doing some charity. In Ralegan, however, personal morality and social morality have been beautifully inter-linked for laying the foundation of a new social order. Practice of untouchability and discrimination on the basis of caste or wealth have been totally banished from thc social life. In the economic development programmes, socialisation of costs and socialisation of surpluses are two outstanding features. In the implementation of every project utilities, planting of trees or deepening of wells, Shramadaan is always an important component. The Shramadaan phenomenon achieves two purposes. Firstly it socialises the cost of the project and secondly people develop a sense of belonging to the project because of their contribution in creating it and therefore they maintain it well. Shramadaan reduced initial costs and (therefore) also the burden of bank loans to be repaid. Hence the surplus starts accruing much faster The surpluses are also socialised by an egalitarian distribution mechanism wherein 25% of the surplus generated goes towards a village fund from which other community benefit schemes are implemented. The principle followed is that for distribution of benefit the village comes first and then the individual. Therefore almost all the projects implemented in the village are group benefit projects. The village takes care that all the village households are covered by some group benefit schemes as far as possible, so that every one is also directly benefited in addition to receiving indirect benefits from the community projects. Special attention has been paid to the development of the deprived sections of the society, so that the inequality gap is reduced. It is a remarkable example of social morality that better-off farmers were involved in cultivating the harijan lands to help them come out of the debt trap. Hence, in spite of rapid economic development, disparities within Ralegan have decreased instead of getting widened.

Though people of Ralegan deserved the credit duly attributed to them hy Anna Hazare himself, the role of leadership in Ralegan's success should not be understated. Today, Anna has become a charismatic leader. Any scheme he suggests
are generally given full support by the bureaucracy and politicians.  The people of Ralegan however had accepted Anna's
leadership much before he got recognised in outside circles.

What has gone into the making of this leadership and what role has it played in the whole development process ?

Anna did not have any ancestry  or his own past to act as a pedestal to launch into his social life. He did not go to the people with a political ideology like a political activist or with promises of economic benefits like a trade-unionist. He did not mobilise people by distributing personal favours through his influence with people in power. The only term that can charactcrise  Anna's leadership is "moral Ieadership".

Ralegan's example has shown that moral Ieadcrship still works with the people even 40 years after Mahatma Gandhi's death. Sacrifice has always been highly valued in Hindu philosophy. Sacrifice still establishes the moral authority of a person.

Renunciation of worldly desires and aspirations has been considered the only way to achieve moksha in the Hindu scriptures. Anna's giving up ot his self-interest, money, land, property and family attachments raised his stature above everyone else in the village. People's faith that whatever he says or does is in pcople's interest has made him almost a saint. Anna's not getting married also added to his moral appeal and strength. The spending of all his gratuity money for the village temple also laid the foundation of his moral Ieadership. As soon as he could establish that he sacrificed his self interest for the common good, his leadership also got estahlished. His opponents could not stand up to him. Moral leadership also has an advantage that it brings out the best from the ordinary people. The moral leadership of Anna has thus helped in the moral development of Ralegan Siddhi.

Over the years Anna has tried to build a second line of leadership in the village. He has also started training programmes
for young workers from different villages. He insists that as far as possible these workers should remain unmarried (of late he has softened his stand on this condition). To ensure that worker's sustenance should not in any way be linked to the implementation of the project, Anna is arranging that a fixed deposit of around 40,000 to 50,000 rupees would be kept in the name of that selfless worker who would then devote himself fully for the village development work. In this way an effort has been made to have sacrifice and morality built into the leadership role.

The people of Ralegan are no dumb followers of Anna. Every new scheme is thoroughly discussed in village meetings. Pros and cons are considered. Plan of implementation and code of conduct are decided upon. A separate committee is selected by the people to look after the implementation of each program. Involvement of people in every aspect of the program is exemplary. The local Gram Sevak, Talati, school teacher and youths are seen explaining details of various programmes to the visitors.
 
 
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