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The '''cooperative movement in India''' plays a crucial role in the agricultural sector, banking and housing. Many [[cooperative|cooperative societies]], particularly in rural areas, increase political participation and are used as a stepping stone by aspiring politicians.{{cn|date=March 2021}}

== History ==
{{expand section|date=March 2021}}

== Agriculture ==
{{see also|Agriculture in India}}
The country has networks of cooperatives at the local, regional, state and national levels that assist in agricultural marketing. The commodities that are mostly handled are food grains, jute, cotton, sugar, milk, fruit and nuts.<ref>Vadivelu, A. and Kiran, B.R., 2013. Problems and prospects of agricultural marketing in India: An overview. International journal of agricultural and food science, 3(3), pp.108-118.[https://web.archive.org/web/20180214014449/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cf6d/670ba9286ea36faf8fa4932eedb5b3a87e8d.pdf]</ref> Support by the state government led to more than 25,000 cooperatives being set up by 1990s in Maharashtra.<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |last1=Dahiwale |first1=S. M. |title=Consolidation of Maratha Dominance in Maharashtra |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=February 11, 1995 |volume=30 |issue=6 |pages=340–342 |jstor=4402382}}</ref>

=== Dairy ===
{{further|Dairy in India}}
[[File:Saraswani milk producing co-operative society, which use to gather milk from villagers and sends to Amul- 2014-03-26 07-51.jpg|right|thumb|Saraswani milk producing co-operative society milk collection center in Gujarat. Collected milk is sent to Amul for further processing and distribution.]]
Dairy farming based on the [[Amul|Amul Pattern]], with a single marketing cooperative, is India's largest self-sustaining industry and its largest rural employment provider. Successful implementation of the Amul model has made India the world's largest milk producer.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Scholten|first1=Bruce A. |title=India's white revolution Operation Flood, food aid and development|date=2010|publisher=Tauris Academic Studies|location=London|isbn=9781441676580|page=10|url=https://books.google.com/?id=2DwBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PR5#v=onepage&q=Cooperatives%20india%20milk&f=false}}</ref> Here small, marginal farmers with a couple or so heads of milch cattle queue up twice daily to pour milk from their small containers into the village union collection points. The milk after processing at the district unions is then marketed by the state cooperative federation nationally under the [[Amul]] brand name, India's largest food brand. With the Anand pattern three-fourths of the price paid by the mainly urban consumers goes into the hands of millions of small dairy farmers, who are the owners of the brand and the cooperative. The cooperative hires professionals for their expertise and skills and uses hi-tech research labs and modern processing plants & transport cold-chains, to ensure quality of their produce and value-add to the milk.<ref>Damodaran, H., 2008. Patidars and Marathas. In India's New Capitalists (pp. 216-258). Palgrave Macmillan, London.</ref>

=== Sugar ===
[[File:Sugarcane weighing at sugarmill.jpg|thumb|Sugarcane weighing at a cooperative sugar mill in [[Maharashtra]], India.]]
Most of the [[sugar production]] in India takes place at mills owned by local cooperative societies. The members of the society include all farmers, small and large, supplying [[sugarcane]] to the mill.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://coopsugar.org/history.php |title=National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Limited |publisher=Coopsugar.org |date= |accessdate=27 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205214802/http://coopsugar.org/history.php |archive-date=5 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Over the last fifty years, the local sugar mills have played a crucial part in encouraging political participation and as a stepping stone for aspiring politicians.<ref>{{cite web|last=Patil |first=Anil |url=http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/09sugar.htm |title=Sugar cooperatives on death bed in Maharashtra |publisher=Rediff India |date=9 July 2007 |accessdate=27 December 2011}}</ref> This is particularly true in the state of [[Maharashtra]] where a large number of politicians belonging to the [[Indian National Congress|Congress party]] or [[Nationalist Congress Party|NCP]] had ties to sugar cooperatives from their local area and has created a symbiotic relationship between the sugar factories and local politics.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Baviskar|first1=edited by B.S.|last2=Mathew|first2=George|title=Inclusion and exclusion in local governance : field studies from rural India|date=2008|publisher=SAGE|location=London|isbn=9788178298603|page=319|url=https://books.google.com/?id=PLmGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA317&dq=%22gram+panchayat%22+maharashtra+mali+maratha#v=onepage&q=%22gram%20panchayat%22%20maharashtra%20mali%20maratha&f=false}}</ref> However, the policy of "profits for the company but losses to be borne by the government", has made a number of these operations inefficient.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dahiwale |first1=S. M. |title=Consolidation of Maratha Dominance in Maharashtra |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=February 11, 1995 |volume=30 |issue=6 |pages=340–342 |jstor=4402382 }}</ref>

=== Marketing ===
As with sugar, cooperatives play a significant part in the overall marketing of fruit and vegetables in India. Since the 1980s, the amount of produce handled by Cooperative societies has increased exponentially. Common fruit and vegetables marketed by the societies include bananas, mangoes, grapes, onions and many others.<ref name="SubrahmanyamGajanana2000">{{cite book|author1=K. V. Subrahmanyam|author2=T. M. Gajanana|title=Cooperative Marketing of Fruits and Vegetables in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRX2XYcJn7gC&pg=PA5|year=2000|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-7022-820-2|pages=45–60}}</ref> [[Changthangi]][[Pashmina]] which remained as the monopoly of few traders is also moving towards fairness in production and supply chains with source region Ladakh’s cooperative [[Looms of Ladakh]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elle.in/article/looms-of-ladakh/|title=The farm-to-fashion collective empowering women weavers in Ladakh|website=Elle India}}</ref>

==Banking and rural credit==
{{see also|Banking in India}}
Cooperatives also play a great part in banking. Cooperative banks in India serve both the rural and urban societies. Just like the sugar companies, these institutions serve as the power base for local politicians.<ref name="auto1"/>

==Housing societies==
{{see also|Housing society}}
{{expand section|Housing Societies=These are widely known as Cooperative housing societies. these kinds of cooperative societies are established to help people with limited income to construct houses at reasonable costs.|date=August 2019}}

Widely known as Cooperative Housing Societies, these housing alternatives are established to help people with limited income to construct houses at reasonable costs.

The function of housing cooperatives varies based on geographical and cultural context. Compared to Western and European understandings of housing cooperatives, that primarily views cooperatives as equating to [[collective ownership]], India differs from these conceptions about how cooperative housing societies operate.

[[Mumbai]] and [[Chennai]] are two areas that set the present for cooperative movements in India, influencing development in other major cities such as [[New Delhi]], [[Thiruvananthapuram]], and [[Kolkata]].<ref>Ganapati, Sukumar. 2008. "A Century of Differential Evolution of Housing Co-operatives in Mumbai and Chennai." Housing Studies 23(3):407-8</ref> Despite the cooperative success and influence of these cities' in other regions, Mumbai and Chennai differ from the cities of [[Maharashtra]] and [[Tamil Nadu]], known as areas in India that demonstrate a long history of cooperative efforts.<ref>Ganapati, Sukumar. 2008. "A Century of Differential Evolution of Housing Co-operatives in Mumbai and Chennai." Housing Studies 23(3):408</ref>

=== Types of cooperative housing ===
There are three distinct types of housing cooperatives in India approved by each state, through the Cooperative Societies Act, based on the co-op housing objectives and functionality.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/1914?view_type=browse&sam_handle=123456789/1362 |title=Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 |publisher=India Code |date= |accessdate=2021-03-04}}</ref> The categories of cooperative housing are tenure, finance, and building co-operatives.<ref name="auto">Ganapati, Sukumar. 2008. "A Century of Differential Evolution of Housing Co-operatives in Mumbai and Chennai." Housing Studies 23(3):406</ref> The classifications of these cooperatives vary across states, and its approval is not exclusive to each state.<ref>Ganapati, Sukumar. 2008. "A Century of Differential Evolution of Housing Co-Operatives in Mumbai and Chennai." Housing Studies 23(3):405</ref>

Ganapati (2008) defines these categories as the following:

"In Tenure co-operatives, members collectively own and manage housing, similar to co-operative housing in the Western countries. Finance co-operatives provide loans for new construction or housing repairs to members. Building co-operatives construct housing for their members, but they may also be involved in land development" <ref name="auto"/>

== See also ==
* [[List of cooperatives#India|List of cooperatives in India]]
* [[List of co-operative federations#India|List of co-operative federations]]
* [[Institute of Rural Management Anand]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Cooperative movement|India]]
[[Category:Cooperatives in India|*]]
[[Category:Economic history of India|Cooperativec]]

Cooperative movement in India - Revision history

>GreenC bot at 14:57, 30 April 2021