Hindi review
Readable account of Bhave’s life
Madhur Kapila

Bhoumarshi
by Shubhangi Bhadbhade. Translated by Om Shivraj and Rita Sengar. Bhartiya Jnanpeeth. Pages 376. Rs 250.

Writing a novel based on the life and times of an eminent historical figure has its own challenges, especially if the chosen character happens to be contemporary. This, apparently, would have been the experience of Shubhangi Bhadbhade whose original Marathi novel Bhoumarshi about ascetic Vinoba Bhave has just been brought out in Hindi by Bhartiya Jnanpeeth. The Hindi translation has been done by Om Shivraj and Rita Sengar.

Vinoba Bhave’s life was an open book. One could have different views on his approach to life and its challenges. The impressive narrative makes it difficult for the reader to realise when fiction takes fact in Bhadbhade’s portrayal of Bhave’s life. Understandably, it is not an easy task to handle historical characters in a fictional world in view of the ongoing dilemma about interspersing reality with imagination to ensure readability.

In fact, accepting all these challenges, Bhadbhade has delineated Bhave’s struggle, social commitments and political life in a sincere manner. The reader comes face-to-face with the towering yet humble reformer who sought and got surplus lands in donations throughout the country and distributed the same among the landless, a mission that became a countrywide movement, Bhoodan. As the writer herself has conceded about Bhave: "Such persons are like the Himalayas, a distant glimpse of which casts an enduring attraction." But Bhadbhade’s 376-page novel has succeeded in retaining the contemporary relevance of Bhave’s personality which is conveyed to the readers in a highly readable form .The pictorial quality of the her language helps in sustaining interest. The inimitable description of incidents related to Padyatra and Bhoodan are engrossing. However, the portion pertaining to the letters and speeches of Bhave in the beginning of the book are somewhat boring. Though the letters and speeches are important but these could have been avoided in the novel.

Bhadbhade appears to be impressed by the ascetic lifestyle of Bhave who had few needs and fewer desires. This book is a suitable tribute to a person who spent a good 13 years of his life walking from one end of the country to the other, beseeching landlords to part with a small portion of their large holdings so that the landless, too, could have some means of livelihood. It would, hopefully enable the generations to come for understanding Bhave’s life and times.

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