November 26 - National Milk Day in India

Posted on November 26, 2020

Today is the birthday of “the father of the White Revolution.”

“White Revolution”?

Dr. Verghese Kurien is also called the Milkman of India, and Wikipedia gives his occupation as a “social entrepreneur.”

Key Points

Kurien, who was born on this date in 1921, needed a scholarship to attend university, and apparently the only government scholarship left was one to study dairy engineering. But Kurien ended up “cheating” on the scholarship and – once he’d reached Michigan State University – studied metallurgical engineering and nuclear engineering! (Not necessarily the sort of “cheating” that means less work!)

Kurien returned to India with master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

But the government still had Kurien pegged as a dairy guy, and he was sent to a run-down creamery. Dairy farmers in India, at that time, had a problem with having too much milk in some seasons and not enough milk in others, and the nation didn’t have enough cows to meet its own dairy needs. Kurien started tinkering with primitive dairy equipment and ended up – with colleagues – pioneering a dairy co-op. With the collaboration Kurien helped build, the invention of making powdered milk, cheese, and condensed milk from buffalos’ milk, rather than from cows’ milk, was a game changer – because buffalo were plentiful!

When I say “buffalo” were plentiful,
don’t think of American bison!
This is a photo of the buffalo commonly
used by dairy farmers in India.

Because of Kurien’s work – along with all the other scientists and dairy workers – India went from being milk-deficient to being the world’s largest dairy milk provider! In just 30 years, the milk output was multiplied by four!

More than that, Kurien also fought against multinational corporations like Nestle – and won! – and helped make India self-sufficient in edible oils because the “oil king” corporations used horrible and sometimes violent methods to maintain profits and market domination.