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[Land Reforms] Bhoodan, Gramdan, Vinoba Bhave: Achievements,

obstacles, limitations
Posted ByMrunalOn 04/11/2013 @ 1:35 pm In polity | 23 Comments
1. Prologue
2. Bhoodan Movement (Donation of Land)
1. Bhoodan: Mechanism/procedure/features
2. Bhoodan: Positive
3. Bhoodan: Obstacles, Limitations, Problems
3. Gramdan (Donation of the Entire Village)
1. Gramdan: Concept/Principles
2. Gramdan Mechanism
3. Gramdan: Benefits
4. Pardi Satyagraha, Gujarat, 50s
5. Mock Questions

Prologue
So far weve seen: British Tenure system, peasant revolts and three main land reforms after
independence viz. (1) Zamindari Abolition (2) Land ceiling (3) Tenancy protection Acts.
In this article, well check some peoples/NGO/Civil society movements for land reforms in
India. Their achievements/limitations. by the Naxalbari related matter ignored here. Youll find
neat coverage ot it under September competition under internal security folder click me
In the next article well come back to government actions: cooperative farming, consolidation of
land holdings and computerization of records.

Timeline: Civil society / NGO movements for land reforms after Independence

Bhoodan Movement (Donation of Land)

First Bhoodan in village Pochampalli, Nalgonda District, Andhra (the hotbed of Telengana
movement)By local Zamindar V. Ramchandra Reddy to Vinoba Bhave.
1953 Jayaprakash Narayan withdrew from active politics to join the Bhoodan movement
1951

Bhoodan movement had two components:

1. Collect land as gift from zamindars and rich farmers.
2. Redistribute that gifted/donated land among the landless farmers.

Bhoodan: Mechanism/procedure/features
1. (Hierarchy) Vinoba: Sarvodaya Samaj=> Pradesh Bhoodan Committees in each region=> local
committees and individual social workers @grassroot.
2. He and his followers were to do padayatra (walk on foot from village to village). Persuade the
larger landowners to donate at least one-sixth of their lands.
3. Target= 50 million acres. (~1/6 of total cultivable land in India)
4. When a Zamindar/rich farmer gifts/donates a land, the Bhoodan worker would prepare a deed.
5. These Deeds forwarded to Vinoba Bhave @Sevagram for signature.
6. Bhoodan Worker took help of Gram Panchayat, PAtwari (village accountant) to survey the
beneficiaries and land fertility.
7. First preference given to landless agricultural laborers, then to farmers with insufficient land.
8. A date was fixed, entire village gathered and the beneficiary family was given land.
9. Those who receive the donation are asked to sign a printed application requesting for land, after

which they are presented with certificates of having received land.

10. No fees charged from the beneficiary.
11. Beneficiary was expected to cultivate the land for atleast 10 years. He should start within three
years of the receipt of land.
12. These Rules/procedures were relaxed by taking local conditions, cultures in account.
Many state governments made legislation to facilitate donation and distribution of Bhoodan land.
Example: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa,
Punjab, Rajasthan, U.P., Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.
Subsequently, the movement was widened into Gramdan. States again passed special legislation for
management of Gramdan villages.

Bhoodan: Positive
In the initial years the movement achieved a considerable degree of success, especially in North
India- UP, Bihar.
By 1956: receiving over 4 million acres of land as donation.
By 1957: ~4.5 million acres.
The movement was popularised in the belief that land is a gift of nature and it belonged to all.
The donors of land are not given any compensation. This movement helped to reduce the gap in
haves and have-nots in rural areas.
This movement was un-official. The landlords were under no compulsion to donate their land, it
was a voluntary movement. One of the very few attempts after independence to bring about land
reform through a movement
Promoted the Gandhian the idea of trusteeship or that all land belonged to God.
Communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad
the Bhoodan and Gramdan movement stimulated political and other activity by the peasant
masses
has created a favourable atmosphere for political propaganda and agitation
for redistribution of the land
for abolition of private ownership of land
for the development of agricultural producers cooperatives.

Bhoodan: Obstacles, Limitations, Problems

Slow progress

Bribes
Greed
Donating
bogus land

After 56 movement lost its momentum.

While nearly 4.5 million acres of Bhoodan land was available- barely 6.5 lakh
acres was actually distributed among 200,000 families (1957)
In some cases the donors took back their land from the Bhoodan workers for
certain reasons.
This created doubts in the minds of some people about the continuity of the
movement.
village leaders, or allotting authorities, demanded money from the poor for
recommending their names for allotment. As a result, many underserving villagers
also got land e.g those already having land/ those involved in trade-commerce.
Bhoodan movement created land hunger among landless.Some of them applied
multiple times in the name of wives, children etc. to get more and more free land.
big landlords donated those land which were unfit for cultivation (or under court
litigation). Such donations served no real purpose.

Disputed land

Sometimes Bhoodan workers would even accept disputed land as gift. Without
verification.
Later the Matter would be stuck in court litigations and beneficiary would get
nothing.

Politicization

In the later phase, Bhoodan workers got associated with one or another political
parties. Some of them tried to use the Bhoodan organization as a means to
gain political clout and dividends at the time of election.
Thus as the years passed, Bhoodan workers lost credibility and respect among
villagers=>land gifts declined.

Bribes

Since Bhoodan workers became political agents, Some landlords / ExZamindars donated land as bribe to Bhoodan workers- with hope of getting
favourable returns e.g. ticket in local election, road-contracts, building
contracts etc.
And if they (landlords) were not given such favours- theyd forcibly take back
the Bhoodan land from the beneficiary later on.

Support

Mere allotment of land=insufficient. Because landless farmer also needed

seeds, fertilizer, irrigation etc.
Often the beneficiary couldnt arrange loans for these inputs.

bureaucratic
apathy

District officials were slow and inefficient in finishing the formalities of

Bhoodan land transfers.
donated land remained idle for a number of years and the revenue for it had to
be paid by the donor.

Fragmentation

1. The average size of land given to beneficiary=0.5 to 3 acres.

2. Result: land fragmentation + diseconomies of scale + disguised
unemployment without any noticeable rise in agro-production.

Marxist
Criticism

3. Bhoodans main purpose was to serve as a brake on the revolutionary struggle

of the peasants
4. Thus idea of Bhoodan= reactionary, class collaborationist.

Missed the
bigger picture

5. Bhoodan based on Gandhian idea of trusteeship. Some Socialists wanted this

movement to realize the potential of trusteeship and launch mass civil
disobedience against injustice.
6. The Sarvodaya Samaj, however, on the whole failed to make this transition: to
build an active large-scale mass movement that would generate irresistible
pressure for social transformation in large parts of the country.

All these loopholes, slowly and steadily, made the movement dysfunctional.
1999: Bihar government dissolved the State Bhoodan Committee for its inability to distribute
even half the Bhoodan land available over the past thirty-eight years.

Thus, Vinobas lofty ideal remained more as a philosophy and was never realized fully.

Gramdan (Donation of the Entire Village)

First Gramdan 1952: by the village of Mongroth in U.P.1955: Orissa, Koratpur district.
At a later phase, this progamme was extended to other states in Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Gramdan: Concept/Principles
1. Gramdan may be defined as an experiment in collective village living.
2. Original idea comes from Gandhis reply to Jamnalal Bajaj: it is far better for a hundred
families in a village to cultivate their land collectively and divide the income therefrom than
to divide the land any how into a hundred portions.
3. Vinoba Bhave popularized ^this concept of Gandhi.

Gramdan Mechanism
The villagers have to sign a declaration saying, We are vesting the ownership of all our land to the
Gram Sabha of the village.
1. This Gram Sabha/ Village council will unanimously nominate ten to fifteen persons who will
form an executive Committee.
2. This executive Committee will be responsible for the day-to-day administration of the village.
3. The decisions of the Committee will be ratified by the Council.
In other words, Gramdan=A Gram Sabha like institution collectively owned and managed entire
land/farms of the villagers.

Gramdan: Benefits
1. In an ideal gramdan village, there will be no landowners, and no absentee landlords.
2. The labourers will give all their earnings to the village community, which will then distribute it
according to needs.
3. Thus, gramdan acts as the ideal unit for putting the principles in the practice, From each
according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
By 1960
Orissa
MH
Kerala
Andhra
Madras

Approx.Gramdan Villages
1900+
600
550
480+
250

Gramdan movement was considered superior to the Bhoodan movement because:

BHOODAN
land fragmentation, inefficient cultivation, distribution of
poverty, decline in marketable surplus , donation of
uncultivable land, legal and other difficulties of
redistribution, etc.

GRAMDAN
Nope

Nope
Benefits only the person who gets the land

Economies of scale
Sarvodaya of entire village. Everyone
benefits.
possible to correlate with
economic planning in the
country.
2nd FYP recognized that
Gramdan village have great
significance for co-operative
village development.

Nope

Limitation of Gramdan? Gramdan was successful mainly in villages where class differentiation had
not yet emerged and there was little if any disparity in ownership of land or other property. E.g. Tribal
villages. But didnt find cooperation from other villages in the plains or villages near urban centers.

Pardi Satyagraha, Gujarat, 50s

WHO

1. Socialist workers: Iswarbhai Desai, Ashok Mehta.

2. Kisan Panchayat: a non-political body with no affiliation to any political party.
3. Tribals from Pardi and Dharmpur Taluka

WHEN 1953-1967
Why?
1. 75% of the agro land was owned by 100 big landlords.
2. These landlords were not interested in farming. They kept the land as such- so grass automatically
grew and sold profitably in Bombay fodder trade.
3. Local tribals would get labour work in such fodder-farms for only 1-2 months during harvesting.
They remained jobless and starving for remaining months. While the landlords made decent profit
with almost none investment or efforts.
OBJECTIVES/FEATURES/ACTION:
Redistribution of land was not on their agenda. (Themselves declared it)
Satyagrahi would enter in the private land and start tilling to grow foodcrops and court arrest.
Tribals to boycott grass cutting work. even outside labour would not be allowed do the work.
Picketing. As a result, the grass dried up at many places.
With time, movement found support from public and political parties
Bhoodan and Gramdan movements also started but failed thanks to poor response from landlords.
Result? Almost #EPICFAIL because:
1. 1960, Gujarat created out of Bombay state. New state government made some
promises=>Iswarbhai and other Satyagrahi joined the Congress party. Hence momentum/pressure
was lost.
2. 1965: War between India Pakistan. The CM (Balwant Rai Mehta) died in plane crash. New CM
(Hitendra Desai) did not show much interest in fulfilling promises made by previous CM.
3. Landlords went to Gujarat Highcourt court. Although HC rejected their plea, but state
government did not show any urgency to implement the agreements.
4. 1966: Ishwarbhai Desai decide to quit congress and launch a new Satyagraha, but he died. And

others were unable to provide effective leadership/direction to the movement.

5. 1967: A new agreement between the government, the landlords and the Satyagrahis. But the
implementation carried out at a snails pace.

Mock Questions
12/15m
1. Critically examine the philosophy, the concept and the working of Bhoodan and Gramdan
movements in India.
2. It is far better for a hundred families in a village to cultivate their land collectively and divide the
income therefrom than to divide the land any how into a hundred portions. Comment.
3. Write a note on the Lacunae in Bhoodan and Gramdan Movements.
4. Bhoodan was an experiment in Gandhian idea of trusteeship. Comment.
5. Evaluate the impact of Bhoodan and Gramdan movements as measures of land reforms. In what
way Gramdan was superior to Bhoodan movement?
6. Discuss the significant movements initiated by people for land reforms in India after
independence.
7. critically evaluate non-governmental initiatives in the area of land reform
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