INDIA: Bhoodan & Gramdan

In India, where the symbolic gesture means so much, the 20th century last week sought out the old-fashioned ways. In his personal turboprop Viscount Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru flew 500 miles from New Delhi south to Ahmedabad. There he stepped into a red and cream Chevrolet convertible, rode 37 miles into the countryside, and came to a stop in the dingy village of Gangad, a place so desolate that it specifically recalls Gandhi’s bitter comment about India’s “700,000 dungheaps, known as villages.”

Acknowledging the cheers of thousands of peasants who had come swarming into Gangad from 50 miles around, Nehru alighted from his car outside a yellow brick schoolhouse and strode up the gravel path to greet the man he had traveled this distance to see: Vinoba Bhave, a skinny, penniless oldster with sunken cheeks, a wispy white mustache and beard (TIME Cover, May 11, 1953).

For two days the Prime Minister and the 63-year-old holy man talked together, made speeches to the crowds, walked side by side along dusty roads. Nehru’s sophisticated aides, their minds on turbo-electric power, had once brushed off this holy man’s ideas. But now Nehru needed Bhave’s help to find for India a way of raising food production and the peasant standard of living without using the coercion and brutality employed by Red China.

Refusing Landlords. Six years ago, Vinoba Bhave and his followers vowed to collect 50 million acres of land from India’s landlords by the simple process of “looting with love.” Explained a disciple: “If in a village we find two landlords who refuse, we say we will not force you. Some day the light will dawn in your hearts. Until then, we would lay down our lives to protect your ownership.”

So far, Bhave has shamed and wheedled rich men into surrendering some 7,000,000 acres, but much of the land has proved barren and worthless, and other tracts are enmeshed in litigation. But Vinoba Bhave has gained more than land; in a nation that can still be stirred by radically simple spiritual appeals, he has won the hearts of millions of crushed and simple peasants.

One Plus Zero. Nehru himself, whose dreams have always run to government-run industry, giant dams, and steel mills and machine-tool plants, has come to realize that industrialization is being dragged to a full stop by the deadweight of the impoverished villages. He went to Gangad to dramatize his full backing of Bhave’s plans of Bhoodan (gifts of land) and Gramdan (pooling of all community resources) in the hope that they will build a future of healthy peasant cooperatives. Speaking to audiences of thousands, as he walked from city to village to city, Bhave expressed his idea in mathematical terms, saying that the people represent 1 and the government 0. Separately, they could not achieve much, but put together they equal 10: India’s achievement would be tenfold. Said Nehru: “The land problem is the main problem before us. Vinobaji says that private ownership of land must go. He is right. The land should belong to the community. But even that is not enough. The community must have the necessary organization to develop its economy.” He exhorted the peasants to work harder, because “great nations like America and Russia” have progressed through the toil of their people. Then Nehru returned to his Viscount.

At 3 the following morning, under a starlit sky, Vinoba Bhave’s disciples rose quietly and loaded their meager belongings in a truck. Ninety minutes later, wearing a grandmotherly shawl over his dhoti, Bhave marched briskly out of the schoolhouse and headed straight down the village road at a brisk pace, looking neither to right nor left. A man with a lantern raced ahead of Bhave to light his way. Following after came some three dozen wraithlike women secretaries and husky disciples—including the barefoot son of a wealthy cotton-mill owner, a nephew of India’s Finance Minister, and landowners who had joined Bhave after giving away their estates. As the day slowly brightened, peasants began lining the road to greet Bhave. Some decked him with garlands, others tried to touch him. Gently, Vinoba Bhave discouraged such marks of devotion and walked straight on. His destination: all India. His hope: a saintly communism, achieved through love and nonviolence.