A follower of Mahatma Gandhi from 1916, he was active in attempts to revitalize Indian village life. Imprisoned by the British (1940–44) for defying wartime regulations, Bhave was, after Gandhi’s assassination (1948), widely regarded as the leading exponent of Gandhism. He founded (1948) the Sarvodaya Samaj to work among refugees. In 1951 he began the Bhoodan or land-gift movement, and led the Shanti Sena movement for peace and economic and social reform.