INDIA: Bhoodan & Gramdan

In India, where the symbolic gesture means so much, the 20th century last week sought out the old-fashioned ways. In his personal turboprop Viscount Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru flew 500 miles from New Delhi south to Ahmedabad. There he stepped into a red and cream Chevrolet convertible, rode 37 miles into the countryside, and came to a stop in the dingy village of Gangad, a place so desolate that it specifically recalls Gandhi's bitter comment about India's "700,000 dungheaps, known as villages."

Acknowledging the cheers of thousands of peasants who had come swarming into Gangad from 50 miles around, Nehru...

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