Bhoodan Movement: Role Of Vinoba Bhave, Evolution, Aftermath | UPSC Notes

The Bhoodan movement, or the Land Donation movement, was a land reform campaign in India. It was established in 1951 in the village of Pochampally by Gandhian Vinoba Bhave. The Bhoodan movement tried to convince wealthy landowners to voluntarily donate a portion of their property to others without land. Bhave's philosophy was influenced by the Gram Swarajya and Sarvodaya movements.

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The Bhoodan Movement is essential for UPSC Mains GS Paper I under Modern Indian History (Post-Independence consolidation and reorganization within the country), also relevant for GS Paper II (issues of land reforms) and UPSC History Optional. It highlights Gandhian philosophy, land reforms, rural development, and social justice through non-violence. Join the UPSC coaching today and boost your preparation.

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What Is Bhoodan movement?

The Bhoodan Movement (Land Gift Movement) was a voluntary land reform movement launched by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1951 in India.

• It began when poor landless villagers in Telangana requested land from Bhave during his visit. Inspired by Gandhian ideals, he appealed to wealthy landowners to donate some of their land to the landless.
• The first such donation was made in Pochampally village (Andhra Pradesh, now in Telangana), which marked the start of the movement.
• The idea soon spread across India, with thousands of acres being donated.

Later, it expanded into the Gramdan Movement, where entire villages pledged land and resources for collective ownership.

The Bhoodan Movement aimed to reduce inequality, achieve rural self-sufficiency, and promote non-violent social transformation. Still, its impact remained limited due to poor implementation and a lack of legal enforcement.

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Shri Vinoba Bhave and Bhoodan movement

Shri Vinoba Bhave, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, launched the Bhoodan Movement in 1951 at Pochampally (Telangana), urging landlords to donate land to the landless voluntarily. It later evolved into the Gramdan Movement, promoting Gandhian ideals of non-violence, trusteeship, and social justice.

Vinoba Bhave

Vinoba Bhave was brought up by his parents, Narahari Rao and Rukmini Devi, with a strong sense of spirituality.

• Although having outstanding academics, he was drawn to spiritualism and asceticism due to his early study of the Bhagavad Gita. He perused the scriptures and also studied Sanskrit and a few local tongues. After reading Gandhi's article, he set fire to his diplomas while travelling to Bombay to take his intermediate exam. 
• He was extremely touched by a newspaper item about Mahatma Gandhi's presentation at the recently founded BHU.
• Vinoba Bhave was designated as Mahatma Gandhi's spiritual heir. As one of the most prominent Satyagrahis, he also took part in Satyagraha. He was a supporter of Gandhi's gram swarajya philosophy. Bhave took over the legacy after Gandhiji's martyrdom. He embarked on a padayatra to disseminate his message across the nation.
• Vinobha Bhave led the voluntary land reform campaign known as the Bhoodan Movement, commonly called the "Bloodless Revolution," in post-independent India. Bhave was a proponent of nonviolence and a human rights campaigner. He perceived this as a way for nonviolence to spread through society. 
• On April 18, 1951, Bhave travelled to Pochampally, Telangana's Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district. 
• The underprivileged and landless peasants travelled to Bhave with their issues. Bhave asked the locals if they could take action to address their land-related matters.
• A landowner declared his willingness to give the villagers 100 acres of his property. Hence, the Bhoodan Movement was started.

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The Bhoodan Movement (Land Gift Movement)

• • Origin: The movement began in April 1951 at Pochampally (now in Telangana) when landless villagers requested land from Vinoba Bhave. Moved by their plight, he appealed to local landlords, and 100 acres were donated voluntarily.
  • Philosophy: Bhave believed that land should not be treated merely as private property but as a trust from God, to be shared with those in need.
  • Method: He walked across villages (called the "Bhoodan Yatra"), persuading landlords to donate a portion of their land for redistribution to the landless.

• Expansion:

• • The idea expanded into the Gramdan Movement, where entire villages pledged their land for collective ownership and community benefit.
  • By the 1960s, the movement had spread across many states, with millions of acres pledged, though much remained undistributed due to legal and social hurdles.

Legacy

• Though its practical success was limited, the Bhoodan Movement is remembered as a remarkable moral and ethical campaign for social justice.
• Vinoba Bhave is revered as the "Acharya" (teacher) who carried forward Gandhi's vision of a just, non-violent, and self-reliant rural India.
• He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1958) and the Bharat Ratna (1983, posthumously).

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Evolution of the Bhoodan Movement

Acharya Vinoba Bhave started the Bhoodan "land gift" movement in April 1951. This movement aimed to persuade the landowner classes to give their extra land to the underprivileged. However, the movement utilised a very different approach to achieve this goal than it did to abolish Zamindari. 

• The Sarvodya Samaj of Vinoba Bhave adopted the Gandhian philosophy. They relied on a non-violent social revolution in the Bhoodan movement. Vinoba Bhave and his supporters walked across the villages asking the wealthy landowners to give up a sixth of their property as bhoodan to be distributed to the landless. 
• Despite the movement's claims to independence, it had the Congress Party's backing. The Congressmen had been persuaded to support the movement by the All India Congress Committee.
• The Bhoodan Movement included several initiatives that involved giving away land to individuals and beneficial programmes like Sampattidan (Wealth-gift) and Shramdan (Labour-gift). The movement was extensively covered in Britain, and the nation's policies and programmes adopted many of its concepts.
• In the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, in the village of Pochampali, Vinoba Bhave began his Bhoodan experiment. Telangana was chosen, which was noteworthy because the Communist Party of India-led armed peasant insurrection was still being felt today. 
• After experiencing significant success in Andhra, the movement turned its attention to the nation's north. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh experimented with Bhoodan in the north. This movement was very successful in its early years at receiving and distributing gifts of land. 
• At first, V. Ramachandra Reddy volunteered to donate 100 acres of his 3,500 acres of land. Eventually, he gave out an extra 800 acres. He embraced social change. His sons assisted the Bhoodan trust movement, which continued the land gift effort after him. The Bhoodan movement also received 14,000 acres of private land from Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad.
• The Bhoodan effort received 102,001 acres from other landowners, including Raja Bahadur Giriwar Narayan Singh and Raja of Ranka, making it the most significant donation in Indian history.
• Kamakhya Maharaj Narain Singh Bahadur of Ramgarh Raj made the largest donation of any kind, with a donation of 200,000 acres of land.

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Bhoodan Gramdan Movement And Aftermath

Vinoba Bhave's experiment evolved into gram-dan in 1955. Gandhi believed God owned the entire earth, where the idea first emerged. Mangroth in the Uttar Pradesh district of Hamirpur was the first hamlet to be placed under gramdan. 

• In Orissa in 1955, the second and third grandmas were held. The movement claimed that all the gramdan villages' lands were owned jointly or equitably. In Orissa, the movement had great success. Later, it was introduced in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra. In tribal regions of the nation where class distinction had not yet materialised and where there was no ownership pattern disparity, the campaign was remarkably successful.
• The development of the Sarvodaya society and the growth of all social, economic, and political orders, both in India and overseas, were significantly influenced by this movement. The Indian Zamindari abolition legislation was primarily the result of the Bhoodan movement. But by the 1960s, this initiative had lost steam, and the idea of a Sarvodaya society failed to inspire widespread protest and quicken socioeconomic change. 
• Even though it was unsuccessful, this movement significantly influenced how affluent landowners were treated, improved the lives of landless farmers, and raised their morale. Also, this contributed to the Harijans' (regarded as untouchables) place in society being raised.

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Current Scenario of the Gramdan Act

The Gramdan movement, initiated as part of Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan campaign, aimed to promote collective land ownership and community-driven development. Today, the legal framework under various Gramdan Acts continues to exist but has diminished in relevance due to weak implementation and rising land-related challenges.

Gramdan Act in Different States

Currently, seven states in India have about 3,660 Gramdan villages, with the highest concentration in Odisha (1,309 villages). Other states include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

In September 2022, the Assam government repealed the Assam Gramdan Act, 1961, and Assam Bhoodan Act, 1965 through the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The repeal aimed to counter land encroachment issues. Until then, Assam had 312 Gramdan villages.

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Standard Features of the Gramdan Act

• At least 75% of landowners must surrender ownership to the village community, covering 60% of the total village land.
• 5% of the surrendered land is allotted to the landless for cultivation.
• Such land cannot be transferred without community permission.
• Donors and their descendants may cultivate the rest, but cannot sell it outside the village or to non-participants of Gramdan.
• All Gramdan cultivators must contribute 2.5% of their income to the community fund.

Concerns and Challenges

• The relevance of the Act has declined due to ineffective implementation.
• In many Gramdan villages, descendants of land donors express dissatisfaction, as restrictions on sale are seen as anti-development and limiting economic opportunities.
• Issues like encroachment, unclear land titles, and weak community governance undermine its original spirit of equitable land distribution and rural empowerment.

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Criticism

Both Bhoodan and Gramdan had ended by the 1960s. Bhoodan and gram-dan movements have received a lot of criticism for being utopian. Another criticism of the movement is that it restrained the peasants' capacity for revolution and repressed the class consciousness of the landless and destitute. An accurate evaluation of the Bhoodan and Gramdan movements is still pending.

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Conclusion

The unique aspect of this movement was that it sought to ensure an equitable allocation of land through a movement involving concerned citizens rather than through governmental law. And it did it by appealing to powerful landowners' common sense instead of using force or coercive methods. In addition to the significant success this movement experienced, it was also successful in generating enough propaganda and agitation for land redistribution.

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