Bhoodan Day

  Remembering  the beginning of a great nonviolent Revolution 

 It was on April 18, 1951 the beginning of a great nonviolent revolution that took place in a remote village viz. Pochampilli village in Nalgonda district of Telangana which  ensured social justice for landless people. It was at that time part of Andhra Pradesh.   This day marked the turning point in the life of poor and landless people, who were at the mercy of extremist forces who believed in the violence for ensuring justice for the poor and downtrodden. Acharya  Vinoba Bhave was  on a tour to   Shivrampalli village on the outskirts of  Hyderabad to participate in the third annual conference of All India Sarvodaya Mandal  from  13 to  15 April. This trip helped him understand  the ground reality and plight of landless people  and he was to intervene  and undertake a padayatra. On April 18 Vinoba went to Pochampilli village and interacted  with   Harijan families without having  any piece of land.   There were forty such families who were in distress.  In the evening prayer meeting, Vinoba placed the issue before the people and   asked if anyone was ready to give two acres each to these landless people for their sustenance.

Ramachandra Reddy, a Zamindar of the village came forward and agreed to give 100 acres. Thus this man became the driving force for the beginning of a great movement called Bhoodan.   This noble gesture gave Vinoba an idea for all India padayatra to remove the pain and agony of the poor people of the country. He went on moving from one village to another asking for the people to donate land and in 1952 it evolved into Gramdan aiming at Gandhian vision of GramSwaraj.  The movement ultimately resulted in the collection of 47 lakh acres of land creating a new history in the annals of nonviolent revolution.

 Now the issue of landless people became more rampant with land acquisition for creation of infrastructure and industrial purposes. Therefore there is a greater need for a nonviolent   movement based on a Gandhian principle of trusteeship.

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Bhoodan  Movement carried forward the idea of Trusteeship

Urgent Need for Bhoodan like Movement

 Siby K. Joseph 

Gandhi advocated Trusteeship to avoid a bloody revolution in India and Vinoba’s path was Bhoodan. There is an urgent need for a new Bhoodan movement or ideal of trusteeship in the face of emerging challenges in India.

To read the article click the link

https://mediaswaraj.com/bhoodan-movement-vinoba-bhave/