Damaji Pant: He Opened the Government Granary

What the tradition says happened next.

The account

While Damaji was on the road to Bidar, a man arrived at the capital carrying the money.

He presented himself at the treasury, paid the full value of the grain that had been distributed, took a receipt, and left.

And he gave his name as Vithu, and he said he was a Mahar in Damaji's service.

So that when Damaji reached Bidar and presented himself for punishment, the officials looked at the ledger and told him the account was already settled, and produced the receipt, and he did not recognise the name of the servant who had brought it, because he had no such servant.

The tradition says it was Vitthal.

The detail that is doing the work

Not that a god paid a debt.

That he walked into the Bahmani treasury as a Mahar.

And that is a chosen detail.

The Mahar community in the medieval Deccan held village duties at the lowest rung of the settlement: watching boundaries, carrying messages, removing carcasses, and being subject to the full apparatus of untouchability. Chokhamela, whose entry in this series describes it, was a Mahar of this same town of Mangalvedha, and he died in a wall collapse doing forced labour.

So the story has the deity walk into the imperial treasury, in the identity of the least regarded person in the region, and clear the account of a brahmana officer.

Which is the same move this tradition makes over and over: Vitthal appears as Janabai's fellow servant, as Gora Kumbhar's helper at the wheel, as Sena's substitute at the razor, and here as a Mahar with a bag of money.

A tradition that puts its god in that identity, at that counter, is making an argument, and it is making it in the only register available to it.

Afterwards

The accounts say Damaji was released, that the authorities were satisfied, and that in some versions the court honoured him.

And that he left the service and went to Pandharpur.

Which is the ending the story needs. He does not stay in the job with a clean record and a lesson learned. He resigns.

The honest caution, which has to be said

The story ends with a rescue.

And a real person in that position today does not get one.

This series has drawn this distinction several times and it applies here as sharply as anywhere. A story in which a devotee is saved from the consequences of a right action is a statement about the action, not a guarantee about the consequences.

Damaji, in the story, went to Bidar expecting to be destroyed. He did not open the granary because he was confident of being covered. He opened it because the alternative was watching people die with the keys in his hand, and the rescue is the tradition's comment afterwards, not his calculation beforehand.

Which is the only honest way to hand this story to somebody who is in an equivalent position.

And people are.

The official who knows where the grain went

Diversion of subsidised foodgrain is one of the most persistent forms of corruption in India, and the people who see it are the junior staff.

If you are one of them, here is what actually exists.

One. The Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2014 was passed and has never been properly brought into force, with the rules not notified and amendments pending. You should not rely on it. Saying otherwise would be dishonest.

Two. What does work is the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers mechanism at the Central Vigilance Commission. A complaint made under it can be filed with your identity in a sealed cover, and the Commission is required to protect it. This is the operational route and it is used.

Three. The Right to Information Act 2005 lets anybody, including you, obtain the stock registers, the allocation orders and the distribution records, and an RTI reply is admissible evidence.

Four. And the risk is real. RTI applicants and whistleblowers have been attacked and killed in India, and this entry is not going to pretend they have not.

So the practical advice is not go be a hero.

It is: document quietly and completely before you do anything, use the sealed cover route rather than a public accusation, do not act alone, get free legal advice on 15100 before you file, and understand what you are taking on.

Which is what Damaji did. He kept the ledger.

Because the specific thing Damaji Pant did, opening a store of grain to people who had none, is now a legal entitlement rather than an act of insubordination, and a very large number of people do not know what they can claim.

How it became a right

In 2001, in a case brought before the Supreme Court about famine conditions and full government godowns, the court held that the government's food schemes were not discretionary charity but enforceable entitlements, appointed commissioners to monitor them, and issued a series of orders that turned mid day meals and public distribution into rights.

That case is the reason a child in a government school gets a cooked meal.

The National Food Security Act 2013 then put it in statute.

What you can claim

One. Subsidised or free foodgrain through the ration shop.

Under the National Food Security Act, eligible households receive a monthly quota of foodgrain per person, and Antyodaya Anna Yojana households, which are the poorest category, receive a larger fixed quantity per household. The central government has been supplying this grain free of cost to NFSA beneficiaries and has extended that arrangement.

If you do not have a ration card, apply. The application is through the state food and civil supplies department, and it is not difficult.

Two. One Nation One Ration Card.

And this is the single most useful thing in this section for a migrant worker.

Your ration card is portable across India. You can draw your entitlement at a ration shop in the city you have migrated to, on the same card, without transferring anything.

Use the Mera Ration app to find a shop and check your entitlement.

Millions of people leave their grain unclaimed at home because they believe it only works in their own village. It does not.

Three. Cooked meals for children.

Every child in a government or government aided school is entitled to a hot cooked mid day meal under the national school meal programme. If it is not being served, or is being served short, that is a violation and it is complainable.

Four. Anganwadi.

Supplementary nutrition through the anganwadi centre for children under six, and for pregnant and nursing women, along with growth monitoring and immunisation. Register the pregnancy at the anganwadi and at the sub centre.

Five. Work.

Under the rural employment guarantee, a household is entitled to a hundred days of unskilled wage work in a financial year on demand, and to an unemployment allowance if work is not provided within fifteen days of the demand. Demand it in writing and keep the receipt, because the fifteen day clock starts from a written demand.

If the ration shop is cheating you

And this is the Damaji situation from the other side.

• The shop must display the stock, the rates and the entitlement. Look at the board.
• You are entitled to a receipt. Ask for it.
• Short weight, refusal to serve, and demanding extra money are all offences, not the shopkeeper's discretion
• Complain on the national food grievance line 1967, or on your state's food department helpline
• File an RTI for that shop's stock and distribution register, which will show what came in and what was recorded as issued
• The Vigilance Committee attached to every fair price shop is supposed to include beneficiaries, and you can ask who is on it

If somebody in front of you has not eaten

• Community kitchens and langar, which exist in most large towns and ask nothing
• Temple annadanam, at most major temples, daily
• The anganwadi for a small child
• Childline 1098 for a child who is alone or hungry
• Elderline 14567 for an older person who is not being fed
• Police 112 if somebody is being deliberately deprived of food, including inside a household, which is an offence

And the devotional point

Annadana, the giving of food, is the least ambiguous instruction in the entire Hindu tradition.

There is no text that argues against it, no sect that exempts itself from it, and no sant in this series who did not do it.

And Damaji Pant's version of it is the sharpest, because he did not give his own food.

He gave food he was responsible for guarding, to people who had no claim on it, in violation of an order, and then he wrote it in the book and went to face the consequence.

Where to go

• Mangalvedha, near Pandharpur, which is Damaji Pant's town and also Chokhamela's
• Pandharpur, where he went after resigning
• The wari, in Ashadh, where the annadana is continuous along the entire route and is done by ordinary households

A daily practice from this entry

• Vitthal Vitthal, and the Haripath
• The plate rule, which is the oldest form of this: a portion set aside before you eat, for somebody who has not
• And the Damaji question, for anybody who holds keys to anything: what am I guarding, and who needs it

Who: Damaji Pant of Mangalvedha, near Pandharpur, of the fifteenth century, a revenue and granary officer in the service of the Bahmani administration, and one of the Varkari sants. He held charge of the state grain store, which meant physical custody of revenue collected in kind, held in government godowns, accounted for and moved on to the capital. He had the keys and the ledger, and the grain was not his.

What happened: the rains failed and the district starved. People came to Mangalvedha from the surrounding villages because there was a government store there, arriving in the condition people arrive in during a famine, and dying in the town, while the grain sat locked in a building with an officer in front of it who had the authority to open the door and no permission to. He opened it. Not partially, not with an application to Bidar for sanction that would have taken weeks and been refused, and not with a scheme to account for it afterwards. He distributed the grain and then wrote it down, because he was an accounts officer and recorded what he had done rather than concealing it. Word reached the capital and he was summoned to Bidar to answer for the loss of state revenue, which in the fifteenth century meant a debt he could not pay and imprisonment or worse, and he set out expecting it.

What the story has already done before the miracle: the tradition, telling this about one of its saints, has him breaking the law. Not defying an unjust priest, not refusing a caste rule, but breaking the revenue law of the state, misappropriating public property and knowing exactly what he was doing. And it approves. There is no passage warning him he should have found a lawful route and no suggestion the correct course was to write to Bidar and let the district die on schedule. That is a substantial ethical claim, stated by a devotional tradition about a government servant.

The rescue: while he was on the road, a man arrived at the capital carrying the money, presented himself at the treasury, paid the full value of the distributed grain, took a receipt and left, giving his name as Vithu and saying he was a Mahar in Damaji's service. When Damaji reached Bidar and presented himself for punishment, the officials produced the receipt and told him the account was settled, and he did not recognise the servant's name because he had no such servant. The chosen detail is not that a god paid a debt but that he walked into the Bahmani treasury as a Mahar, a community that in the medieval Deccan held village duties at the lowest rung and was subject to the full apparatus of untouchability, and Chokhamela was a Mahar of this same town. It is the move this tradition makes repeatedly: Vitthal as Janabai's fellow servant, as Gora Kumbhar's helper at the wheel, as Sena's substitute at the razor, and here as a Mahar with a bag of money. Damaji was released, in some versions honoured, and he left the service and went to Pandharpur, which is the ending the story needs, since he does not stay in the job with a clean record.

The honest caution: the story ends with a rescue and a real person today does not get one. A story in which a devotee is saved from the consequences of a right action is a statement about the action, not a guarantee about the consequences. Damaji went to Bidar expecting to be destroyed; he did not open the granary because he was confident of being covered but because the alternative was watching people die with the keys in his hand, and the rescue is the tradition's comment afterwards, not his calculation beforehand. For an official who sees diversion of subsidised foodgrain today: the Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2014 was passed and has never been properly brought into force, with rules unnotified, and you should not rely on it; what does work is the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers mechanism at the Central Vigilance Commission, where a complaint can be filed with your identity in a sealed cover; the Right to Information Act 2005 lets you obtain stock registers, allocation orders and distribution records, and an RTI reply is admissible evidence; and the risk is real, since RTI applicants and whistleblowers have been attacked and killed in India. So: document quietly and completely first, use the sealed cover route rather than a public accusation, do not act alone, get free legal advice on 15100 before filing, and understand what you are taking on. Which is what Damaji did, since he kept the ledger.

Hunger now: in 2001 the Supreme Court held in a case about famine conditions and full government godowns that food schemes were enforceable entitlements rather than discretionary charity, appointed commissioners and issued orders that turned mid day meals and public distribution into rights, and the National Food Security Act 2013 put it in statute. You can claim: subsidised or free foodgrain through the ration shop, with a monthly per person quota for eligible households and a larger fixed household quantity under Antyodaya Anna Yojana, currently supplied free to NFSA beneficiaries; One Nation One Ration Card, which makes your card portable across India so a migrant can draw the entitlement in the city they moved to using the Mera Ration app, which millions do not know; a hot cooked mid day meal for every child in a government or aided school; supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring and immunisation at the anganwadi for children under six and for pregnant and nursing women; and a hundred days of guaranteed rural wage work on written demand, with an unemployment allowance if work is not provided within fifteen days. If the ration shop cheats you: the stock, rates and entitlement must be displayed, you are entitled to a receipt, short weight and refusal and demands for extra money are offences, complain on 1967, file an RTI for the shop's stock and distribution register, and ask who is on the Vigilance Committee. If somebody in front of you has not eaten: community kitchens and langar, temple annadanam, the anganwadi for a small child, Childline 1098, Elderline 14567, and police 112 if somebody is being deliberately deprived of food, including inside a household.