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Vinoba Bhave legacy under threat

DOWN MEMORY LANE: Bhoodan leader Acharya Vinoba Bhave is received by the then Madras Chief Minister Kamaraj Nadar on one of his “padayatras” in 1956.

JAIPUR: The good old “Gramdan” villages, visualised as communes of joint ownership by the legendary Bhoodan movement leader Acharya Vinoba Bhave, are under threat in Rajasthan today with the State Government deciding to provide ownership rights to individual landholders. There are 210 Gramdaan villages spread over a dozen districts across the State and with increasing pressure on land in the wake of growing urbanization it is feared that the land in these villages, now mostly with small and marginal farmers belonging to Adivasis and Dalits, would change hands pretty soon.

The Rajasthan Gramdan Act forbids individual ownership of land in the Gramdan villages, which has been proving a deterrent to transfer of land so far. The landholders are free to cultivate the farmlands under them but they cannot sell the land to any other person.

Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan campaign years ago had a huge impact in Rajasthan where landowners donated over 42 lakh acres of land to the movement as common property till March 1964. “The surest way to reach Gandhiji’s ideal gram raj is gramdan,” wrote the late Sarvodaya leader Siddhraj Dhadda in his book, “Gramdan”, exactly 50 years ago.

“As long as the Act remains in force, the ownership right of land cannot be given to individuals. Any such move would lead to playing into the hands of land sharks,” says Sawai Singh, president of Rajasthan Samagra Seva Sangh. “Other than the power to transfer the land, the cultivators have all kinds of rights over their holdings. The Government move is only to facilitate the sale of land,” he alleges.

At a recent meeting of the Rajasthan Cabinet, held in Ajmer, it was decided to provide ownership rights to landholders in Gramdan villages.

“There is a provision in the Act which says that only the gram sabha can decide on transfer of the land. As long as the Act is in force, khatedari (title) right to anyone would be only at the cost of violation of law,” observes Rameshwar Vidhyarthi, president of the Bhoodan-Gramdan cell of Samagra Seva Sangh.

As such, many of the powers vested with the Gramdan villages, spread over in the districts of Jaipur, Sikar, Banswara, Dungarpur, Chittorgarh, Sirohi, Jaisalmer and Bhilwara, have been taken away after the Constitutional amendment pertaining to Panchayati Raj in the past. Now the panchayats are empowered to be the nodal agencies for carrying out development works even in the Gramdan villages. Only the revenue matters are now with the once all powerful gram sabhas, which have elected chairpersons as heads. “The maximum number of Gramdan villages in Rajasthan are in the tribal districts of Banswara and Dungarpur and any such move would only deprive the tribals of their land,” notes Awadh Prasad, director of the Jaipur-based Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj. “The pressure on land is increasing all over the State and inhabitants in villages situated near to the urban centres are tempted to sell off land,” he noted. The Gramdan villages near Jaipur are under severe pressure, Dr. Prasad adds.

TheGramdan villages are in limbo with development activities changing hands. “Gram sabhas have become almost like wards under any panchayat. Earlier the gram sabha chairperson was empowered to issue death and birth certificates and the ration cards. Now these powers have been transferred to the panchayats,” says Jayaprakash Arya of Naharwali Dhani, one of the Gramdan villages in Chaksu tehsil of Jaipur district.

Chaksu tehsil alone has 12 Gramdan villages. “Earlier the gram sabha chairperson used to have powers to vote in the election of the panchayat samiti pradhan. Now that right too has been taken away,” Dr. Arya notes.

Not to speak of powers of the elected chairpersons, the Bhoodan-Gramdan Board, which is empowered to conduct elections in the Gramdan villages, stands defunct in the State after the State Government failing to constitute it after coming to power.

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Vinoba Bhave legacy under threat

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