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 - need?” They said, “We are 40 families and it would be enough if we get 80 acres.”

Vinoba went into deep contemplation, as he could not see any way out. He said, “I will talk to the Government authorities and try to get this land alloted to you.” But then it somehow occured to him to ask the many villagers in front of him; “Could some of you help these Harijan brethren? They are ready to work hard on the land.”

One of them, Ramachandra Reddy, stood up to say, “My father desired that half of our 200 acres of land should be donated to a fitting person. For me, this is the auspicious opportunity, Kindly accept this gift of a hundred acres of my land.”

This was the first spring of the Bhoodan Ganga, and the date was April 18, 1951. In the next thirteen years, 42,00,000 acres were gifted to Vinoba by villagers from all parts of India. All the State Governments in India put together, who confiscated by the law excess land beyond the ceiling limits, could not match this figure even in the next thirty years.

With love,

Yours, L.N. Godbole

Letter 19

10th June, 1990 : My dear Pranav :

In my previous letter, I referred to the achievement of the land gifts movement (bhoodan) and the efforts of the government. Many people have dismissed this achievement of bhoodan by saying that only useless land was donated. But possibly they do not know that under the law of land ceiling, the landlord whose land is- being confiscated has the choice to decide which part of his land he will give. What kind of land will any “economic man’

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