Context: Champaran Satyagraha was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in April 1917. This year marks the 108th anniversary of the movement.

Meaning of the context: It is commemorated as an awakening of Indian peasants against the colonial planters and policies in India. To a large extent, it drew inspiration from Gandhi’s South African experience.

Learning Zone:

Background and Causes

• Indigo was a celebrated product of India, down the centuries, raised and processed locally by peasants. But in the 17th century, European-owned slave plantations in the West Indies also began to produce it. 
• When the English conquered Bengal, European indigo planters appeared soon enough. Obtaining zamindaris, they coerced peasants into raising indigo, for the dye to be processed out of the plants in their “factories”.
• In the early 19th century, white planters had forced cultivators in this part of present-day northwest Bihar into agreements known as teenkathia, under which they were obligated to grow indigo on 3/20ths of their landholdings.
• However, production of synthetic dye brought down the price of Bihari indigo and the profitability of its European plantations. As indigo prices and the planters’ profits fell, the planters began correspondingly to increase the rent-burden on the peasants, invoking their rights as zamindars.
• Alongside these exactions, the planters made full use of the traditional zamindari practice of begar, forced unpaid or ill-paid labour (abwabs), requisitioning at will the peasants’ cattle, plough and carts, or compelling them to provide labour for their plantations.
• Local farmer Rajkumar Shukla invited Gandhi in 1916 to investigate the plight of indigo farmers.

Events (April 1917):

• Gandhi arrived in Champaran on April 10, 1917, and began a fact-finding mission, meeting farmers in villages like Motihari and Bettiah.
• He defied British orders to leave, facing arrest threats, which galvanized local support.
• Used Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) to mobilize peasants, supported by leaders like Rajendra Prasad, Brajkishore Prasad, and Anugrah Narayan Sinha.
• Conducted surveys, documenting grievances of 8,000+ farmers, exposing forced cultivation, illegal taxes, and landlord oppression.

Outcomes:

• Champaran Agrarian Enquiry Committee (1917): Formed by the British due to Gandhi’s pressure, with Gandhi as a member, leading to reforms.
• Abolition of Tinkathia: The Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918, ended forced indigo cultivation, reduced rents, and refunded 25% of illegal dues to farmers.

Source : Indian Express