Vinoba Bhave - the Spiritual heir to Gandhi

 Vinoba Bhave - the Spiritual heir to Gandhi

 

It was on 18 April 1951 the walking-saint Acharya  Vinoba Bhave received his first land gift while he was touring the Telengana region. This, he half jocularly described in a private chat much later, was as surprising as Gandhi’s announcement in 1940 nominating a little-known man like him in those days as ‘the first Individual Satyagrahi’ to  offer nonviolent resistance to  the British Raj and experiment how nonviolence could be used to turn the hearts of the rich to compassion and piety. It is history now how this unassuming but learned and dedicated man after independence skilfully broadened the base of nonviolence in the next four decades by undertaking what is now known as the "Bhoodan" (land gift) Movement, which earned him the name 'walking saint' who collected land for the landless. This ‘living Gandhi’, as he was seen by the whole of India   after the assassination of the Mahatma, rekindled the visions of a new social and political order along Gandhian lines and rose to the position of one of the great spiritual leaders and social reformers of modern India.In his humility he declared, “Iam a seeker,along one path only. The whole business of my life has been the search for nonviolence. Every activity I have started , every task I have taken in  hand, has been and still is a part of that search. The fact is that for a complete experiment in nonviolence one needs to be freed from the body. So long as I remain in the body, it is my disposition to keep my work free as far as possible from entanglement with institutions, with money, even with this body. That is my quest: to find out how nonviolence may be established in the life of society.”

     Vinoba Bhave, whom Indians identified as the spiritual heir to Gandhi, evoked in millions the image of Gandhi himself walking along the dusty Indian roads with his walking sticks. Vinoba also, like his mentor Gandhi, did not put on expensive clothes, rather he too wore only a loin cloth. The revolution he initiated bore astonishing results when he successfully persuaded people to part with their extra land to the landless--a revolution, the kind of which the world had not seen earlier. This walking saint who stood between a bloody communist takeover and Gandhian transition of nonviolent persuasion and social development opened up the immense possibilities of harnessing people's power for social change through adherence to mentor-disciple spirit.

In the true Gandhian passion Vinoba quietly prepared the blueprint of a new Gandhian tradition.He knew that Gandhi wanted the second stage of the freedom movement to begin since he considered what India achieved in 1947 was only political freedom, another freedom movement to achieve economic and social freedom  and justice was necessary.

The Sarvodaya (welfare of all) movement launched under the leadership of Vinoba Bhave was the realization of this Gandhian dream and it achieved commendable success at least in generating a feeling among the people of the immediate need for redistribution of land to the landless.

 That this Gandhi-disciple who  was able to move the hearts of tens of thousands of landlords all over India that they willingly donated over four million acres of land to be distributed to the landless speaks volumes of how nonviolence could work if it is conceived and implemented properly. This is an extraordinary development unprecedented anywhere in the history of the world and it is pointed out now that but for this development which led to a silent but effective revolution of sorts in the distribution of land and the various land reforms the government undertook after Independence, the democratic fabric of India would not have been what it is today. One of the reasons of this phenomenal success of the land gift movement initially is that it was led by a man of prismatic purity, almost a saint, untainted by any self-interest, desire for personal glory or pursuit of material gain.

His saintly approach to problems confronting his fellow human beings was marked with openness towards others' views. He always encouraged dialogue among the various schools of thought to which many of his followers belonged. He was not against scientific advancement in a way that many Gandhians were, but he was against people becoming slaves of technology. While he hailed Karl Marx as a great saint, he criticized the violence and coercive techniques adopted by the followers of Marx. His approach to nonviolence was characterized by a non-confrontational attitude in dealing with the issues.

He was a visionary detached of political approach to help the poor everywhere. The small revolution he preached and helped was not aimed at immediate success but on the conviction that it was right and bound to succeed, provided those involved in that mustered individual courage and conviction. It is pointed out that he was guided by the spirit of ‘detached action' and was not interested in the results but in the performance of selfless service. His nonviolence was characterized by a genuine spirituality. He rose to become a symbol of a religiously disciplined life that demonstrated that an ascetic did not have to reiterate the virtue of living in isolation but could work among the masses to adopt them and guide them to right path of self-discovery. Like Gandhi he tried to spiritualize politics, economics, science and religion. Bertrand Russell described his life as "a true symbol of the role of consciousness in human affairs".

Gandhi's assassination in 1948 marked the end of the Gandhian era in Indian politics. India had achieved political freedom amidst the agony and tragic developments following the vivisection of the country into India and Pakistan. The two-way migration of several millions of people inflicted deep wounds, which Gandhi tried to heal with partial success. The finest moment of the success of the Mahatma was when he was able to put an end to the communal flare up in the Bengal region with his historic visit and stay in the trouble-torn areas and persuaded people to behave like human beings. As the departing Governor General, Lord Mountbatten said what several hundred thousand British or Indian soldiers could not achieve, Gandhi-the "one-man boundry force" could achieve with his presence.

Delhi which was burning with communal passion became calm when Gandhi undertook a fast. Martyrdom on the very grounds where he used to pray was his final contribution to peace and harmony between people and it is history how over the blood of the Mahatma the Indians composed their differences of opinion.

The Bhoodan Yagna (land gift), which Vinoba started is one of the revolutionary steps undertaken to persuade several thousand land owners to willingly part with their land and give them to the landless and was a unique move till then unheard of in human history. That too, by a man who never wielded any power except his moral influence over the people. For more than thirteen years this saint traveled on foot throughout the length and breadth of the country spreading the message of love and compassion. He covered a distance of over 58,400 kilometers and collected 4.4 million acres of land as gifts for the landless, He also received 1.6 lakh villages as gramdan (village gift). In a land of grinding poverty and where millions do not have an inch of land of their own to pitch a roof over their heads, Vinoba's achievement was nothing short of a miracle.

Vinoba Bhave's work among the dreaded Chambal dacoits and the final surrender of arms by the dacoits is also of great significance in contemporary India. The significance of his mission of love and compassion which is eventually forced the dreaded dacoits who have been challenging the might of the State for decades was probably only partially understood by his countrymen. It was a victory of the highest order and which can probably be compared only to the victories of the Mahatma. It was similar to the victory Gandhi achieved in Noakhali.

 The Acharya, as he was respectfully addressed by his followers, besides practising Gandhian ideas provided a strong theoretical basis to them. He offered a new philosophical interpretation to both Gandhian nonviolence and Satyagraha. Bhoodan (land gift) Movement, Shanti Sena (Peace Army), Acharya Kul (family of teachers), Lok Shakti (people's power), Stree Shakti (women power), self-dependent khadi, efforts to synthesize science and spirituality, jeeven dan (dedication of life in service of others), Jai Jagat (worl4 outlook), emphasis on Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (global human family) are some of the outstanding initiatives where Vinoba Bhave made significant contributions.

 He was an ardent interpreter of Gandhian vision of a nonviolent society through daring readjustment in humanity's outlook as well as willingness to share our excess wealth with those less privileged and hapless brethren.Gandhi and Vinoba complemented each other in the sense that the numerous activities Gandhi understood were described to be experiments with truth and nonviolence. Vinoba after Gandhi through his three-decades-long crisis-crossing of the country, appealed to his countrymen to part with excess land for the landless and he was in true Gandhian spirit extending the frontiers of nonviolence and was trying to bring nonviolence into both the lives of the giver of land and the prospective recipient.

The idea for setting up an Army of Peace-loving citizens (Shanti Sena) who will replace army and police someday was a Gandhian dream and he had spelt out the details of the proposed "Shanti Sena", but he could not put them into practice because of the tragic and unexpected developments following the partition of the country. The last two years of Gandhi marked a period of hectic and highly motivated activities to promote peace and goodwill among the warring sections of the Indian community. His daring journey to Noakhali - at that time described to be a veritable 'jaws of death', cauldron of communal venom, scene of brutality and murder on a large scale - that too barefooted defying all threats to life was an act of great courage and the message of harmony and confidence. What the Indian Army consisting of hundreds of thousands of soldiers failed to achieve, Gandhi was able to do. This almost miraculous achievement of Gandhi was described by the then Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, "One Man Boundary Force". The Shanti Sena of Gandhi's conception was in action through Gandhi himself, demonstrating the infinite possibilities of this revolutionary idea. Vinoba Bhave gave concrete shape to the Gandhian ideal and integrated it with the land-gift movement-another nonviolent revolution. Who can ignore the contemporary relevance of what Vinoba said, “Air and water belong to all...Land should be shared in common as well”?  Vinoba demonstrated human capacity to  involve the masses through innovative socially beneficial programmes. He demonstrated convingly how each one can be a partner in the  great yajna of nation-building along Gandhian lines.He undoubtedly led a unique and revolutionary movement.It might be too early to assess the reasons of its perceived failure.To put the blame on Vinoba will also expose our inability to assess history.