Gandhi and associates

Some ideas from Laurie Baker about constructing low-cost buildings, especially applicable to rural areas.

Also watch these videos of his:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoJR6nFMTxU

https://youtu.be/3F53tw3q2Go?t=582

The excellent autobiography of Vinobha Bhave, also known as Gandhi's successor. He ran a very impressive movement called 'Bhudaan movement'. He used to walk around India, all on foot. In every village he went to, he was greeted as a family member. He used to ask every wealthy family, "Think of me as your sixth son, and give me one-sixth of your land so that I can distribute them to the poor farmers." Because of his sincerity and love for people, they used to give him that part of their lands.

The one who wrote the forward for this book, says: "IN APRIL 1951 Vinoba Bhave sprang into sudden prominence. He started his Bhoodan Yagna. This movement--which we translated into English as 'Land Gift Mission'--was a brilliantly simple conception. Vinoba went on foot from village to village appealing to landlords to hand over at least onesixth of their land to the landless cultivators of their village. 'Air and water belong to all,' Vinoba said. 'Land should be shared in common as well. The tone of voice in which this was said was all-important. It was never condemnatory, never harsh. Gentleness--true Ahimsa --was Vinoba's trade mark. A gentleness backed up by a life of such dedication and simplicity that few could listen to his pleading unmoved. In the first six years of his mission Vinoba walked over five thousand miles and received land for distribution which amounted to an area the size of Scotland."

No doubt, the moment faced many obstacles, but the fact that a man could convince landlords to donate one-sixth of their lands to someone to whom they were completely un-related, is something very impressive. Indeed, he could move people by Love.

Gandhi did the same. When he travelled in a train, he used to collect funds for Harijan upliftment (Harijan means 'men of God', the term he coined for the lower caste to change their image among the society). On every stop, crowds and crowds of people used to gather to meet him and ended up giving a lot of their wealth to him. Husbands used to be reluctant to allow their wives to meet him, worrying that they would give their jewellery to him. And they certainly did. They used to give their jewellery to him. All kinds of people used to give him a lot of money during his train journey. He could hardly sleep because people used to gather at every station. Even while sleeping, he would keep one hand just outside the window so that people could put currency notes in them. Read all that and much more in "Life of Gandhi" by Louis Fischer.

Vinoba says: "I began to ask for one sixth of the land. After that I said to people, see to it that no one in your village is without land. Next, I began to tell them that it was wrong to think in terms of land ownership at all, that land is for everyone, like air, water and sunlight."

Truely, the way things are now, healthy air is also going to be divided among people in a few years or decades. He was trying to remove boundaries, by his Love for people and humanity.