The Naxalite-Sarvodaya Syndrome-The Patnaik Case


The Naxalite-Sarvodaya Syndrome The Patnaik Case MR ACHARYA Vinoba Bhave's bhoodan (land gift) campaign, launched over 20 years ago from Pochampalli village in former Hyderabad state, was the Gan- dhian answer to the communist challenge that had taken the form of armed struggle linked to an agrarian programme in Telengana. Land was the key issue in the struggle. Cominform intervention forced an end to the armed struggle and CPI settled for peaceful constitutionalism in 1951. Bhoodan has since been part of the Sarvodaya movement, which functions outside the spectrum of parliamentary politics and seeks to achieve through change of heart what legislation cannot achieve. By Sarvodaya norms, even legislation is violence.