Vinayak Narahari Bhave was born on Septem-
ber 11, 1885, to a Brahmin family in the village of
Gagode in Maharashtra. Vinoba (an affectionate
nickname) studied the works of Maharashtra’s
saints and philosophers as a boy. He had a pas-
sion for mathematics, but as had Sri RAMAKRISHNA
before him, he seemed uninterested in the ordi-
nary course of education. He spent two years in
college dissatisfied and adrift. Early in 1916, on
his way to Bombay (Mumbai) to appear for the
intermediate examination, he threw his school
and college certificate into a fire and decided to
change course for BENARES (Varanasi), the Hindu
holy city, to study Sanskrit.
At Benares, Vinoba encountered the views
of Mohandas Karamchand GANDHI. Enthusiastic
about Gandhi’s ideas of uplifting the poor and
purity of purpose he joined Gandhi’s ASHRAM at
Sabarmati near Ahmedabad in Gujarat state. At
Gandhi’s request he took charge of the ashram
at Wardha in Maharashtra in 1921. In 1923
he began to publish the monthly Maharashtra
Dharma in the regional Marathi language, to
which he contributed articles on Indian philoso-
phy, including popular studies on the Abhangas
of the poet-saint TUKARAM. Later on, the monthly
became a weekly and continued to be published
for three years.
On December 23, 1932, Vinoba moved to
Nalwadi (a village about two miles from Wardha),
where he tried to implement his idea of support-
ing himself by spinning. When he grew ill in
1938, he moved to what he called Paramdham
Ashram in Paunar, which remained his headquar-
ters. Vinoba was heavily involved in the freedom
movement throughout this period. In 1923, he
was jailed for several months at Nagda and Akola
for taking a prominent part in agitation at Nag-
pur. In 1925, he was sent by Gandhi to Vykon
in Kerala to supervise the entry of the Harijans
(Dalits, or untouchables) to the temple. In 1932,
he was jailed for six months for raising his voice
against British rule. In 1940, he was selected by
Gandhi as the first person to do “Truth Force”
(satyagraha), Gandhi’s nonviolent method of
social action, on his own.
Vinoba was jailed three times during 1940–41
for successively longer terms. He became known
nationally when Gandhi selected him for indi-
vidual action, introducing him in a statement on
October 5, 1940. Vinoba took part in the Quit
India movement of 1942, for which he was jailed
for three years at Vellore and Seoni.
Jail for Vinoba had become a place for reading
and writing. He saw the proofs of his book Gitai (a
Marathi translation of the BHAGAVAD GITA) in the
Dhulia jail, where he lectured on the Gita to his
jailed colleagues; the talks were collected by Sane
Guruji and later published as a book. In Nagpur
jail he wrote Swarajya Shastra (the treatise of self
rule) and completed a collection of the bhajans
(religious songs) of the saints Gyaneshwar (see
JNANESHVARA), Eknath and Namdev. His popular
books eventually treated many diverse topics in
religion, philosophy, education, and the common
good.
In March 1948, Gandhi’s followers and work-
ers met at Sevagram, to discuss the idea of
Sarvodaya Samaj (Society for the uplift of all).
Vinoba got busy with activities to soothe the
wounds of partition of the nation. In the begin-
ning of 1950, Vinoba started several idealistic
reform movements.
In 1951 Vinoba launched the activity for which
he became most famous, the Bhudan (Gift of the
Land) movement. For the next 13 years he walked
from place to place around the country asking
large landowners and villages to offer land to the
poor, to help bridge the great divide between the
landed and landless. His efforts yielded surpris-
ing success by the time he returned to Paunar on
April 10, 1964.
Over the following several years he continued
in his travels, now campaigning against the various
divisions within Indian society: caste, language,
and class. In 1970, he announced his decision to
stay in one place. He observed a year of silence
from December 25, 1974, to December 25, 1975.K 82 Bhave, Vinoba