This is a fascinating personal account of an experiment started in 1975 by The Rural University to promote rural development in Jawaja Block in Ajmer District, Rajasthan. (The Rural University is not a formal institution, but an experiment in educational innovation initiated by Professor R. Matthai at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad). The experiment was based on The Rural University’s philosophy that people must learn to help themselves (self-reliance) and to help others (mutuality).

From modest beginnings involving the raising of plantations within school compounds in the late 1970s, more and more villages had become involved in tree-planting and pasture development and protection by the late 1980s. In 1984, a national voluntary organisation, the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD) provided assistance to promote the development of tree nurseries by individual households, often run by women and children. The author documents some of the processes involved in generating wide-spread local interest in natural resource management as well as some of the problems encountered along the way, including inter-village disputes. Of particular interest, is the author’s opposition to a proposed SPWD project for watershed management, tank irrigation and wasteland development in 18 villages, which was inspired by the success of The Rural University’s experiment. The author argues that the SPWD project would reverse The Rural University’s attempts to develop local initiative and self-reliance in addressing development problems.