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By:

Parashram Patil

14 January 2026 at 8:49:45 pm

Crops of Conflict

As water and climate become instruments of geopolitical leverage, India has an opportunity to turn agricultural resilience into a new form of South-South diplomacy. Climate change is making an old truth harder to ignore: food security is national security. As water becomes scarcer, harvests more erratic and trade policies more protectionist, agriculture is moving from the margins of geopolitics to its centre. Nowhere is this clearer than in Africa, where fragile food systems intersect with...

Crops of Conflict

As water and climate become instruments of geopolitical leverage, India has an opportunity to turn agricultural resilience into a new form of South-South diplomacy. Climate change is making an old truth harder to ignore: food security is national security. As water becomes scarcer, harvests more erratic and trade policies more protectionist, agriculture is moving from the margins of geopolitics to its centre. Nowhere is this clearer than in Africa, where fragile food systems intersect with contested rivers, conflict and disrupted supply chains. For India, this presents not merely a humanitarian challenge but an opportunity to practise a more strategic form of food diplomacy. Clear Warning The Nile basin offers the clearest warning. Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia depend heavily on the river, directly or indirectly, for agriculture and livelihoods. Egypt obtains roughly 90-95 percent of its water from the Nile, with most of its withdrawals going to agriculture. Wheat, rice, maize and cotton are therefore inseparable from the country's water security. Sudan is similarly dependent on the Main Nile and its Blue and White Nile tributaries for crops including sorghum, wheat, cotton and sugarcane. Ethiopia, by contrast, relies much more heavily on rain-fed agriculture, but the Blue Nile remains crucial to its plans for agricultural and economic expansion. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has transformed this already delicate equation. The Blue Nile supplies roughly 85 percent of the Nile's runoff, giving Ethiopia substantial geographical leverage upstream. Egypt and Sudan, downstream and more dependent on the river, have consequently viewed the dam through the prism of food and water security. The dispute has its roots partly in the 1959 agreement that allocated Nile waters between Egypt and Sudan, but the rise of Ethiopia as a major upstream power has altered the political balance. The stakes are enormous. A disruption to water availability is not simply an environmental problem when millions depend on irrigated agriculture. It can affect food prices, livelihoods, migration and political stability. Across the basin, the consequences potentially extend to hundreds of millions of people. The lesson is straightforward: rivers can become geopolitical infrastructure, and crops can become strategic assets. Critical Role This is where India can play a useful role. Its longstanding diplomatic, commercial and maritime links with Africa give it an established platform. Its experience in producing wheat, rice and millets, meanwhile, gives it something more tangible: the ability to contribute to food-supply resilience. Egypt, for instance, remains heavily dependent on imports and is projected to require around 13 million tonnes of wheat imports to bridge its consumption gap. Sudan’s agricultural crisis is still more acute. Conflict and climate stress have sharply reduced cereal production, leaving output well below recent historical averages. India could therefore build food diplomacy around two complementary tracks. The first is supply. Predictable grain arrangements and strategic food buffers could help vulnerable countries absorb shocks in international markets. The second is technology. India's experience with micro-irrigation, precision farming and water-use efficiency offers tools that may help African farmers produce more with less water. The Per Drop More Crop component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana is one example. Drip irrigation, improved canal management, seepage reduction and precision agriculture cannot resolve a dispute over the Nile, but they can reduce the amount of water required to produce a given crop. For this to become a durable strategy, however, India will need to move beyond individual projects. Bilateral agricultural agreements with African countries could be converted into longer-term trade corridors and grain-supply arrangements. Multilateral platforms, including BRICS, could provide mechanisms for greater transparency in food distribution and market stabilisation. Seed exchanges could focus on drought-tolerant millets, biofortified wheat and heat-resistant maize suited to increasingly volatile climates. Indian private enterprise could be brought into this architecture. Agritech startups and Farmer-Producer Organisations could be encouraged to enter African markets through export-linked grants, incubation programmes and risk-sharing mechanisms. EXIM Bank credit lines and export guarantees could reduce the financial risks of deploying solar cold chains, irrigation systems and agricultural technologies in politically volatile markets. Public-private partnerships could also help Indian firms adapt AI-based crop advisory systems and IoT-enabled water sensors to African soils and farming practices. The larger opportunity is strategic. India’s relationship with Africa need not be confined to trade, infrastructure or diplomatic declarations. Agriculture offers a practical form of South-South cooperation in which food, technology and water efficiency reinforce one another. (The writer is a member of Maharashtra Agriculture Price Commission. Views personal.

Fakira in Translation: Preserving a Revolutionary Legacy

Writer: Dr. Kailash Atkare
Dr. Kailash Atkare
Jul 18
3 min read

The sublime ideology of translation is aptly expressed by R. Parthasarathy, who describes translation as the oxygen of language, and by Walter Benjamin, who states that translation is not merely a matter of words but of making culture intelligible.


This philosophy is exemplified by the eminent translator, distinguished academician, administrator, and humanist Prof. Dr. Baliram Gaikwad through his artistic English translation of Fakira, the groundbreaking Marathi novel by Sahitya Ratna Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe.


India has a rich tradition of translation, deeply rooted in its multilingual and multicultural fabric. Mulk Raj Anand explored this tradition in his essay The Importance of English, presenting a perspective free from colonialism. This view aptly justifies the translation of Fakira.


Annabhau Sathe was a great social revolutionary, writer, reformer, and people's activist, educated in the school of experience. Fakira, his magnum opus, portrays both an individual and a symbol of resistance against systemic oppression. The narrative traces Fakira's transformation from a victim of caste-based exploitation into a rebel challenging the feudal and colonial order, echoing the spirit of social justice movements inspired by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.


Deeply rooted in the lived realities of marginalised communities, particularly the Dalit experience in colonial India, Fakira stands as a groundbreaking work. It narrates the class and caste struggle of a hero committed to the welfare of ordinary people while unfolding a saga of social, political, economic, and spiritual awakening through a humanitarian approach.


The novel reflects Dr. Ambedkar's philosophy, his struggle against slavery and untouchability, and the spirit of rebellion. Through Fakira, Sathe upholds moral integrity, a strong code of ethics, respect for women, social values, justice, courageous leadership, and the pursuit of freedom.


One memorable episode illustrates these ideals. During a raid to seize hoarded wealth, a frightened woman pleads, "Take whatever wealth you want, but please do not dishonour my daughter." Fakira replies, "I am not that kind of man. We are not here to touch anyone's honour. We only take what is unjustly hoarded. Your daughter is like our own sister."


Translation is a challenging undertaking, and Dr. Baliram Gaikwad has done full justice to Fakira. By crossing linguistic and regional boundaries, he has made this remarkable work accessible to readers worldwide without diluting its cultural specificity. Translating a work so deeply rooted in regional idiom, folklore, and socio-political context is no easy task.


The translator successfully retains the earthy texture of Sathe's prose. Artistic creation, translational finesse, and aesthetic values—the pillars of translation—are reflected throughout his work, enabling readers to experience the emotional intensity and narrative vigour of the original. The rustic dialogues are translated with sensitivity, preserving both authenticity and clarity.


The novel stands as a counter-narrative to mainstream literary traditions that have historically marginalised voices from the lower strata of society. Fakira is not merely a character but a collective consciousness representing the aspirations and struggles of an oppressed community. By exposing caste discrimination, poverty, and injustice, the novel challenges romanticised notions of rural life and may be regarded as a precursor to the assertive voice of Dalit literature in modern Indian writing.


Although certain nuances of Marathi—its rhythm, cultural connotations, and oral storytelling tradition—are inevitably difficult to reproduce, Dr. Gaikwad addresses these challenges through careful lexical choices and contextual framing.


Fakira explores resistance, dignity, and identity, moving far beyond the Robin Hood archetype. The protagonist wages a multilayered struggle against British rule, feudalism, caste oppression, and poverty. Despite enduring caste discrimination, economic exploitation, and humiliation, Fakira and his community fight with dignity, courage, and exceptional nationalist fervour. This layered portrayal elevates the novel from a socio-political document to a profound literary work, while its straightforward narrative effectively sustains dramatic tension and emotional engagement.


Dr Gaikwad's balanced use of language, rustic idioms, folk expressions, and region-specific dialect creates a simple, lucid, and accessible English style, making the translation ofFakira a successful bridge between regional literature and global readership. As Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak observed, a translator must surrender to the text. Dr. Gaikwad has fulfilled this responsibility with sincerity, making a valuable contribution to Indian literature in translation.


Fakira is a manifestation of India's rural revolution. The protagonist joins the freedom movement and contributes to the larger struggle for social change.


(The writer is an assistant professor of English literature. Views personal.)

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