Page 114 - Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 21st Century ISBN

21oha “krkCnh esa vkpk;Z fouksck Hkkos dh izklafxdrk

The ‘simplification’ of Gramdan opened up the possibility of its wide propagation.
Gramdan Acts were made in many states. An ambitious attempt to bring most of the villages

in Bihar under Gramdan was made through ‘Toofan’ campaign (1965-1969). Villagers in 60,065
villages in Bihar accepted Gramdan by putting signatures or thumb impressions on the Gramdan

pledge letters by September 1969. Number of such villages in the whole country at that time was
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137,208. This meant that the idea of Gramdan had reached thousands of villages and the villagers in
them had broadly given their consent for it. After this stage, it was necessary to fulfil legally stipulated
conditions like obtaining declarations about surrender of the lands, distribution of 5% land to the

landless and formation of village fund (gramkosh) for village development and village service. But
what was more important was to strengthen the gramsabha (assembly of all adult villagers), make it

all-inclusive, encourage active participation of all the strata of village community, develop the habit of
taking decisions by consensus—in brief, make the gramsabha an effective tool for advancing towards

self-rule, an instrument of ‘permanent revolution’. So far, emphasis was on propaganda. Now different
techniques needed to be developed. The challenging task needed creativity and patience of a high

order and a long-term perspective. It involved closely working with the village people. Not flying visits,
but planting oneself firmly in as many villages as possible was the need of the day.

Unfortunately, this did not happen. Sarvodaya workers were not only tired; doubts aboutthe
path they had chosen had also begun to assail them. Kanti Shah laments, “Everything was there, but

because of lack of comprehensive perception, skilfulplanning and co-ordination everything went haywire.
An impression gained ground in the minds of the workers that whatever had been done had proved

futile. This impression eroded their faith and strength. This was one of the consequences of the lack of
revolutionary perspective about evaluating the work.” 22

Vinoba had indeed taken a risk. When formidable forces like the State and the marketwere
out to destroy the villages, he was seeking to resuscitate them. He wanted to arouse and organise the

villages to fight them, forgetting age-old differences which had strengthenedtheir chains of slavery. He
knew that it was an uphill task: “Bhoodan, by nature, was a definite work. Gramdan is such a work

which can result in either zero or in infinity (Either nothing will come out of it or its results will defy all
proportions). There cannot be any other result in between.” 23

Did Gramdan result in a big zero? Did it fail? The answer will depend on ourperspective.
Jayaprakash Narayan had given an apt reply: Can Truth and non-violence ever fail? What is alternative
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to Truth and non-violence? Vinoba had also said, “Gramdan is a value in itself. People ask how much
did production increase, what was the economic development, how much did the standard of living

rise. All this will happen in proportion to the capacities of the village. But it is value which really
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matters.” Not only the capacities of the village, but the conditions would also influence the outcome.

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