Journal of NEICSSR, Vol.-21, No. 2, pp. 16-21, 1997. 1 COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT A STUDY ON TRIPURA STATE COOPERATIVE BANK Purusottam Nayak INTRODUCTION A cooperative is basically an organisation for the establishment of a self- supporting community. It is owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services. The first consumer cooperative started in Great Britain in 1844 with the establishment of Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. The cooperative movement spread rapidly in the latter of the 19 th century in the industrial and mining areas of northern Britain and Scotland. Subsequently it became popular amongst the urban working classes in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and Netherlands. In the United States most of the cooperatives started in rural areas at the beginning of the 19 th century and spread to urban areas during the late 20 th century. In U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe marketing cooperatives started to function as part of the centrally controlled purchasing network for farm produce. Since World War II marketing and credit cooperatives have been very important in many African countries. The idea of cooperative took a concrete shape in India in 1904 when the Cooperative Credit Societies Act was passed with the objective of combating rural indebtedness and for providing registration to credit societies. Later in 1912, the Act made provisions for registration of non-credit societies and federations of cooperatives. Since then the cooperative have made noticeable progress, especially in the field of agricultural credit, marketing and processing of agricultural produce, supply of farm inputs and distribution of consumer goods. There are as many as 3.5 lakh cooperative societies of all types in the country with total membership of about 15 crore and a total working capital of Rs.48,000 crore as on 30 th June 1988 (Table 1). The distinguishing feature of cooperatives in India is that it is largely village based. Government’s emphasis on institutionalization of distribution of inputs to farmers and marketing of their agricultural produce through cooperatives have helped a great deal in strengthening the cooperative sector in rural areas. The overall