bhoo cheen (land grab)

1951 was when vinoba bhave launched the historic bhoodan movement.

the movement is fascinating. they actually managed to get 1.3 million acres of land redistributed (source here). considering that vinoba's target was 50 million acres, it could be deemed a failure. that would be the half-empty-glass approach.

i remember somewhere reading gandhi's quote "vinoba is more gandhian than me."

in this regard and what we have been reading of late, especially in bengal, is distressing. it is the very anti-thesis of bhoodan.
across the country, land is being sought after with a kind of greed and brutality only seen by the territory-expanding phase of the emperors (alexander, genghis khan etc).

someone writes on the state's role in land reform in bihar here.
earlier posts on this topic are here and here