Vinoba Bhave,

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Vinoba Bhave, an ardent Gandhian who had launched the Bhoodan movement. His life was a manifestation of Gandhian principles.

Vinoba Bhave

• Vinoba Bhave (1895-1982) was an Indian nationalist and social-reform leader.
• Bhave’s most notable contribution was the creation of the bhoodan (land gift) movement.
• He was born into a high-ranking Chitapavan Brahmin family in Gagode village, south of Bombay.
• He is regarded as the National Teacher of India.
• Bhave took the vow for celibacy and followed it all his life. 
• He dedicated his life to religious work and the freedom struggle.

Role in Freedom Struggle:

• Instead of appearing for an exam in Bombay in 1918, Bhave threw away his books in the fire. This happened after he read an article by Mahatma Gandhi.
• He was an ardent follower of Gandhi.
• In 1940, Bhave was selected as the ‘First Individual Satyagrahi’ against the British Raj by Gandhi in India.
• Bhave played an important role in the Quit India Movement.

Political Efforts

Bhoodan Movement: 

• In 1951, Vinoba Bhave started his land donation movement at Pochampally in Telangana, the Bhoodan Movement.
• He took donated land from land owner Indians and gave it away to the poor and landless, for them to cultivate.

Gramdan:

• Then after 1954, he started to ask for donations of whole villages in a programme he called Gramdan. 
• He got more than 1000 villages by way of donation. Out of these, he obtained 175 donated villages in Tamil Nadu alone.

Sarvodaya Movement: 

• Vinoba observed the life of the average Indian living in a village and tried to find solutions for the problems he faced with a firm spiritual foundation. This formed the core of his Sarvodaya movement. 
• Sarvodaya is Gandhi’s most important social political movement. Like Satyagraha, it too is a combination of two terms, Sarva ­ meaning one and all, and Uday ­ meaning welfare or uplift. The conjunction thus implies Universal uplift or welfare of all as the meaning of Sarvodaya.
• Although Sarvodaya was a social ideology in its fundamental form, India’s immediate post ­independence requirement demanded that it be transformed into an urgent political doctrine.