Origin of Cooperative Movement in India

          The Indian Cooperative movement, is a child of distress. It has emerged out of direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution. The Revolution led to the decay of cottage industries and growing pressure on land, making agriculture an uneconomic venture. Method of payment of land revenue from kind to cash, thrown the cultivators into the clutches of the money- lenders.
                 Failure of rains and frequent famines increased indebtedness of the farmers by manifold. The government’s initiative to check the growing influence of the Mahajan could not be achieved. The need for providing cheap credit facilities’ to the farmers went on becoming strong and the idea of starting Cooperative credit societies got momentum in 1892.The Madras government sent Sir Federick Nicholson for studying the cooperative movements in European Countries. Nicholson report was received in 1897 in which Nicholson remarked, “Find Raiffeisen”. The Government of India appointed another Committee in 1901 under the chairmanship of Sir Edward law to study the question of starting Cooperative Credit societies in India. This Committee also recommended the establishment Societies on the Raiffeisen model. The Famine Commission of 1901 also recommended the setting-up of mutual credit associations. Accordingly, the Cooperative Societies Act was passed in1904.This Act provided for the establishment of credit societies both in rural and urban areas, for providing credit facilities at cheap rates to small men living in the same locality. Rural societies were to be organized on Raiffeisen model while the Urban Societies were to be established on the Schulze Delitzsch pattern. Provision was also made in the Act for the appointment of registrars in every province. The modern Cooperative movement in India, thus, may be said to have started with the passing of this Act.

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