Who among the following initiated the Bhoodan Movement?

The Bhoodan Movement, also known as the 'Land Gift Movement', was initiated by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in April 1951 [1]. The movement's genesis occurred in Pochampally village, Telangana, when a local landowner, Ram Chandra Reddy, voluntarily donated 100 acres of land to landless Harijans following Bhave's appeal. Bhave, whom Mahatma Gandhi had declared his spiritual heir and the first individual Satyagrahi, aimed to solve India's land problem through non-violent persuasion rather than government legislation [2]. The movement sought to convince large landowners to surrender surplus land for distribution to the landless. It later evolved into the Gramdan Movement in 1952, where land became the property of village associations [1]. Vinoba Bhave's efforts in land reform and community leadership earned him the first international Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1958.

Sources

1. [1] Indian Economy, Nitin Singhania .(ed 2nd 2021-22) > Chapter 10: Land Reforms in India > NEED AND OBJECTIVE OF LAND REFORMS > p. 339
2. [2] NCERT. (2022). Contemporary India II: Textbook in Geography for Class X (Revised ed.). NCERT. > Chapter 4: The Age of Industrialisation > Bhoodan – Gramdan > p. 88