Narayan Desai

The son of Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary and biographer Mahadev Desai,[1] he was born in Bulsar (now Valsad), Gujarat on 24 December 1924.

Following the Bhoodan movement launched by Vinoba Bhave, Narayan traversed through the length and breadth of Gujarat, by foot, collecting land from the rich and distributing the same among the poor landless villagers.

He started the mouthpiece of Bhoodan movement, titled Bhoomiputra (Son of the Soil) and remained its editor till 1959.

Narayan was active in the campaign against the imposition of emergency in India and brought out a magazine defying the censorship laws.

Following JP's death, Narayan moved to Vedchhi and set up the Sampoorna Kranti Vidyalaya (Institute for Total Revolution).

After completing Gandhi's biography he thought that very few people would buy this book due to its volume and high price.

[2] Narayan was accorded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati in 1993 for the biography of his father Mahadev Desai he wrote as part of the centenary celebrations of Gandhi's close aide.

He was awarded the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1999 [5] and the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence in 1998 "for his tireless work in favour of the promotion ofinter-religious and inter-ethnic understanding, tolerance and harmony and his achievements in the education and training for non-violence and peace, as well as anti-nuclear activism.