Who was Vinoba Bhave ?

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Vinayak Bhave, renamed with the affectionate diminutive "Vinoba" by Mahatma Gandhi, was born on Sept. 11, 1895, into a high-ranking Chitapavan Brahmin family in Gagode village, south of Bombay. His father, a textile technologist, worked for the princely state of Baroda. Bhave credited his grandfather and his mother for his strong religious orientation.

Vinoba Bhave, byname of Vinayak Narahari Bhave, (born September 11, 1895, Gagode, Bombay Presidency [now in Maharashtra], India—died November 15, 1982, Wardha, Maharashtra), one of India’s best-known social reformers and a widely venerated disciple of Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi. Bhave was the founder of the Bhoodan Yajna (“Land-Gift Movement”).

Bhave's education was concentrated in modern subjects, and he excelled in mathematics. He nonetheless left college in 1916 and started his spiritual quest. He began studying Sanskrit in Benares but within three months joined Gandhi's independence movement.

Born of a high-caste Brahman family, he abandoned his high school studies in 1916 to join Gandhi’s ashram (ascetic community) at Sabarmati, near Ahmadabad.

Constructive work and social reform were vital parts of the nationalist movement. Bhave excelled in confronting basic social and economic problems, and he made mass contact with the Indian people, especially with workers in the home industries, cloth spinning, and sanitation. In 1924 he led a temple-entry movement for "untouchables" in southern India and consistently worked on their behalf.

Gandhi’s teachings led Bhave to a life of austerity dedicated to improving Indian village life. Bhave was imprisoned several times during the 1920s and ’30s and served a five-year prison sentence in the ’40s for leading nonviolent resistance to British rule

Bhave participated in the nationwide civil disobedience periodically conducted against the British, and was imprisoned with other nationalists. Despite these many activities, he was not well known to the public. He gained national prominence when Gandhi chose him as the first participant in a new nonviolent campaign in 1940.

Following India's independence in 1947 and Gandhi's assassination in 1948, Bhave focused his efforts on sarvodaya, meaning "welfare for all." At first Bhave was a reluctant leader and efforts were poorly organized, but the sarvodaya adherents were imbued with deep dedication and offered selfless service. Bhave revitalized the movement in 1951 while on a walking tour of Telangana.

Bhave’s idea of the land-gift movement was conceived in 1951, while he was touring villages in the province of Andhra Pradesh, when a landholder offered him an acreage in response to his appeal on behalf of a group of landless Dalits (members of the lowest castes, formerly called “untouchables” and now officially named Scheduled Castes).

A communist-led peasant rebellion marked this area of Andhra Pradesh as India's major trouble spot. In one village, landless peasants stated that they needed 100 acres of land. Bhave asked the landowners to contribute the 100 acres and met with success. Thus, the bhoodan movement was born, and the sarvodaya movement again had a true leader.

He then walked from village to village, appealing for gifts of land to be distributed among the landless and relating the act of giving to the principle of ahimsa (nonviolence), which had been adopted by Gandhi.

Thereafter, over 5,000,000 acres of land were donated, and other dan (gift) movements developed. These included money, animals, implements, wells, and, the ultimate gift, the dedication of one's life to welfare activities.

The eventual goal of the bhoodan movement was 50,000,000 acres, but there was not enough support to make it happen. However, material considerations aside, Bhave had rekindled the Gandhian emphasis on changing people's hearts, on nonviolence, and on self-help. In 1982, after suffering a heart attack, Bhave decided to end his life by fasting until his death.

According to Bhave, land reform should be secured by a change of heart and not by enforced government action.

Acharya Vinoba Bhave was a nonviolence activist, freedom activist, social reformer and spiritual teacher. An avid follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba upheld his doctrines of non-violence and equality. He dedicated his life to serve the poor and the downtrodden, and stood up for their rights.

Throughout 1975 Bhave took a vow of silence over the issue of the involvement of his followers in political agitation. As a result of a fast in 1979, he secured the government’s promise to enforce the law prohibiting the killing of cows (animals sacred to Hinduism) throughout India.

Most of his adult life he led an ascetic style of existence centered on spiritual beliefs of right and wrong. He is best known for his 'Bhoodan Movement' (Gift of the Land).

Vinoba once said, "All revolutions are spiritual at the source. All my activities have the sole purpose of achieving a union of hearts."

Bhave’s original project and his philosophy of life are explained in a series of articles collected and published as Bhoodan Yajna (1953, reprinted 1957).

Vinoba was the first recipient of the international Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1958. He was also conferred with the Bharat Ratna (India's highest civilian awards) posthumously in 1983.

Born Vinayak Narahari Bhave, at Gagode in Kolaba district, Maharashtra on 11 September, 1895, he was the eldest son of Narahari Shambhu Rao and Rukmini Devi. He had four other siblings, three brothers and one sister.

His mother Rukmini Devi was a very religious person and instilled in Vinoba a deep sense of spiritualism. As a student Vinoba was quite fond of mathematics.

He also developed a spiritual conscience quite early having studied the Bhagavad Gita under the tutelage of his grandfather.

Although a good student, traditional education never really appealed to Vinoba. He considered renouncing social life and head out to the Himalayas. On other days, he considered joining the Indian independence struggle.