SSC
Vinoba Bhave started the Bhoodan (land gift) movement in April 1951 from the village of:
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Answer: Option C — Pochampally (Telangana)
Detailed Solution
Acharya Vinoba Bhave started the Bhoodan (land gift) movement on 18 April 1951 at the village of Pochampally, in the Nalgonda district of present-day Telangana (then Hyderabad State).
How it began:
- In 1951, Vinoba Bhave was travelling on foot through the Telangana region, where there had been a violent communist-led peasant uprising against landlords.
- At Pochampally, landless Dalit families told him that they needed land to make a living.
- Vinoba asked the villagers whether anyone would give land to them.
A local landlord, V. Ramachandra Reddy, offered 100 acres of land.
This was the beginning of the Bhoodan movement.
About the Bhoodan movement:
- Vinoba travelled on foot (padyatra) across India, asking landlords to donate one-sixth of their land to the landless poor, voluntarily.
- He believed that land reform could be achieved peacefully, through a change of heart, rather than by force or law.
- He collected more than four million acres of land through donations, though much of it was not suitable for cultivation or was never distributed.
Gramdan:
- The movement was extended into "Gramdan" (village gift), in which the whole village land was given to the village community.
- The first Gramdan village was Mangroth in Uttar Pradesh (1952).
About Vinoba Bhave:
- He was born on 11 September 1895 at Gagode, in Maharashtra.
- He was a close disciple of Gandhi, and was chosen as the first satyagrahi in the Individual Satyagraha (1940).
- He lived at the Paramdham Ashram at Paunar, near Wardha.
- He was the first recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1958).
- He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1983.
- He died in 1982.
Pochampally today:
It is also famous for its ikat handloom sarees, and is called "Bhoodan Pochampally"; it was chosen as a best tourism village by the UN World Tourism Organisation (2021).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Paunar, Sevagram and Nagpur are in Maharashtra and are connected with Vinoba or Gandhi in other ways.
Quick tip
Remember: Bhoodan movement = Vinoba Bhave, 18 April 1951, Pochampally (Nalgonda, Telangana); first donor V. Ramachandra Reddy; first Gramdan village = Mangroth (UP).
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This topic covers famous personalities from India and the world: leaders, reformers, scientists, entrepreneurs and their nicknames, along with the founders of organisations, companies, institutions, religions and movements. Questions often use popular titles such as 'Iron Man of India' (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel) or 'Nightingale of India' (Sarojini Naidu), or ask who founded an organisation, such as the Ramakrishna Mission (Swami Vivekananda). Grouping people by field and by title makes revision faster and helps you spot wrong options. Practise the famous personalities questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.