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HomeThePrint ProfileVinoba Bhave, the Walking Saint who ‘talked’ bandits of Madhya Pradesh into...

Vinoba Bhave, the Walking Saint who ‘talked’ bandits of Madhya Pradesh into surrendering

Vinoba Bhave, called the first Satyagrahi of India's freedom movement, envisioned a non-violent and equal social order across India’s landscape.

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New Delhi: In a statement before the Civil Disobedience movement begun, Mahatma Gandhi directed, “The plan is simply this. Direct action will be commenced by Sri Vinoba Bhave… The idea is to make all action as strictly non-violent as is humanly possible… Vinoba is an out-and-out war resister. But he respects equally with his own conscience of those who whilst not being out-and-out resisters, have yet conscientious objection to participation in the present war.”

Born on 11 September 1895 in Gagode, then in the Bombay presidency of Maharashtra, Vinayak Narahari Bhave is remembered as a social reformer. He was widely regarded as Mahatma Gandhi’s most celebrated disciple and his lifestyle choices and methods of effecting change were deeply dictated by Gandhi’s teachings — from walking thousands of miles barefoot for a cause to sleeping outdoors to fasting and not speaking for months.

Lovingly called ‘Acharya’ (Sanskrit for teacher) by his disciples, Bhave slowly and steadily became the torchbearer of Gandhi’s vision for a Sarvodaya social order, according to which, Gandhi aimed at a “stateless society which was devoted to the welfare of all and founded on non-violence, equality and decentralization”. Bhave sought to achieve this Sarvodaya social order one footstep at a time.


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Land gifts to the landless

Bhave was of the staunch belief that “all land belongs to God” and landowners ought to offer land gifts (bhoodan) to the landless. His 1951 movement, which saw its first success in Pochampally in present-day Telangana, was a radical effort to persuade wealthy landowners to part with their land so that the landless could grow crops.

Bhave explained, “My aim is to bring about a threefold revolution… I want to prevent a violent revolution and bring about instead a non-violent revolution. The future peace and prosperity of the country depends upon the peaceful solution of the land problem.” He walked thousands of miles during which he collected “several million acres of land from large and small holders for distribution to the landless”. This is why he is often called the ‘walking saint’.

In fact, Bhave insisted that landowners treat him as their ‘son’ in order for them to give him a share of their holdings. In a book titled From Bhoodan to Gramdan, he wrote, “I stretched out my hand to demand land, as a son would do to the father. The villagers never knew my mind, and were present with garlands to offer to me. I pointed out to them that though the flowers in their hands were beautiful, Earth, the mothership of these flowers, was indeed more beautiful. While flowers were meant for the Lord’s worship, I ask for land only. I am your son, a member of your family. If you have four, give unto me my fifth share.”

Acharya single-handedly acquired more than 1.5 million tillable acres of land, which was then gifted to the poor. However, critics called Bhave’s objectives “too radical for a few thousand villages” so he introduced Sulabh Gramdan, according to which, “three-quarters of the people owning at least half the land must turn over ownership of their land to the village, but they maintain hereditary proprietary rights to most of their land and have only five per cent to the landless”.

Despite the reservations of Bhoodan’s critics, by the end of 1956, more than 4 million acres of land had been collected against a “target of 50 million acres” . 


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Solution to dacoity

In 1960, Bhave ventured into the bandit-infested areas of Madhya Pradesh, to persuade the dreaded dacoits of the region to give up their methods of violence. He constantly reminded them, “If you want to loot the people… loot as I do, with love and affection.”

On 13 May 1960, Bhave addressed a gathering at the banks of Chambal river in Madhya Pradesh, where he said, “I have come to glorious land of the brave. This is the land that has produced brave dacoits. They are noble men. The only difference between them and other men is that their train has got on to the wrong track. I think they are better men than the dakus (dacoits) of Delhi, because they are unsophisticated. A change of heart is easier to achieve among them than among the civilised people of the cities, who have formed a hard crust of personal self-interest over their hearts. I want them to respond to my call and surrender. The solution to dacoity lies in surrender – not in firearms. Only non-violence can enable us to solve the problem of dacoity.”

This campaign didn’t garner the same success as the Bhoodan movement, but he succeeded in persuading 17 bandits to give up arms and the state authorities to improve police protection.

Through the course of his movements and public addresses, Bhave narrated issues in the local context in order to make them approachable for his disciples. His writings and teachings revolutionised sarvodaya social order, one that emphasised on the importance of non-violence, goodwill and equality in society. In 1958, he received the first Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, for his dedication for the “propagation of a new kind of social revolution in India”.

In 1982, Bhave fell extremely ill and stopped taking food and medicines. He died on 15 November 1982. A year after, he was awarded India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1983. The same year, the Government of India also released a postage stamp in his honour. 


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