In April, the peasant movement of Champaran completed 105 years. The roots of many demands of the movement against the corporatization of agriculture and organized loot of exploitation will reach to Champaran. There had been revolts before this, but there was no such organized planned effort. This was the first organized peaceful non-violent movement of farmers a century ago. Gandhiji stayed in Champaran, Bihar for 175 days and kept running the movement. Champaran in turn made it the first movement to put Gandhi’s leadership on the national stage. There used to be big landlords in Champaran district. More than three-fourth of the land belonged to only three big owners and jagirdars. The names of these jagirdars in Champaran were Betiya Jagir (Raj), Ramnagar Jagir (Raj) and Madhuban Jagir (Raj). Earlier there was no road etc., so the contractors were given villages to make good arrangements, whose basic work was to collect revenue and give it to the jagirdars. Before 1793, some contractors used to be indigenous, later the British also came in it, Who were linked and having relationships with the international trade of sugarcane and indigo. They started taking contracts on behalf of Betiya Raj. Over time, the British contractors replaced the native contractors. Their influence continued to grow. After 1875, some of the British settled in districts in the north-western part and thus the British cells were established all over Champaran. When Gandhiji went to Champaran, 70 British colonies had already been established. The Tinkathia cultivation was one of the three methods enforced by the British owners for the cultivation of indigo by the farmers of Champaran district of Bihar in India. The other two methods of cultivation were called ‘Kurtauli’ and ‘Kushki’. In Teenkathia farming, it was made mandatory to cultivate indigo on three katthas of land per bigha (20 katthas), which means 3/20 part. Around 1860, a 5 kattha farm was set aside for indigo cultivation by the indigo factory owner, which changed to the three kattha or three kattha method by 1867. In this way, in return for the amount given before the harvest, the factory owners forced the farmres to cultivate in proportion to the land. Since 1867, the practice of coercive planting of indigo on the ground in the Tinkathiya method was prevalent in Champaran. An agreement was made to plant indigo which was called Satta. According to this agreement, the farmers had to plant indigo in a certain part of their land. These Neelwalas, who were also called Kothiwalas used to decide which land would be that land. The farmers had to give good fertile land for indigo even if they did not want to. The farmers were given seeds and they would have to work for sowing and plowing. The cost of bullock cart till the time of bringing the crop to the factory was bared by the Kothiwalas, which would have been deducted in the money prefixed in the Agreement or satta. If the crop was good, the recorded amount was given and if it did not, whatever the reason, its price was not received right. If the farmers broke the agreement and planted anything else, a huge amount would have been recovered from them as compensation. The farmers had to cultivate indigo instead of other profitable cultivation and had to give their most fertile land for it. If farming went into loss, it would have become difficult for the farmers to return the advance amount of the Kothiwalas. A mountain of debt would rise on him. They were beaten and tortured. Gradually the area under the Nile expanded. Price based on area had nothing to do with market volatility and weight. There was a special court to hear such cases, but in this most of the decisions were against the farmers. Around 1912, due to the arrival of Germany’s artificial color indigo in the market, the price of indigo fell completely and there was a huge loss. To compensate for the loss caused by indigo, by making rules under the names of Sharhabeshi, Harja, Hunda, Tawan etc., they started forcibly collecting taxes under different names. After registering the covenants of 30,710 illiterate poor farmers, 60 percent tax was levied on them instead of the then applicable 12.5 percent, this was called Shahrabeshi. The hefty tax that was collected for freeing the farmers from the bondage of planting indigo was called Harja. In place of indigo, taking other paddy or other crop, it would have to be sold compulsorily to the Kothiwalas only at nominal price. It was called a hunda. While working in agriculture the farmers would get 4-5 annas in other places, whereas on the cultivation of kothis, they would get 2-3 paisa. In order to get rid of indigo sowing, it became a rule to collect money in the name of ‘Tavan’ as compensation. At that time Motihari Kothi collected Rs 3,20,00, Jalha Kothi 26,000, Bhelwa Kothi collected Rs 1,20,000 from the farmers. Those who could not pay, their lands and houses were confiscated. Many had to flee the village. They would suffer at worst through social and financial boycotts. Somewhere the farmers were stripped naked and mud was thrown at them, they were punished to keep looking at the sun. Women were stripped naked and tied to trees. The Kothiwalas considered themselves bigger than the collectors. The skins of the dead animals of the village, the trees in the fields, would have been captured by the kothiwalas. The tanners also became useless due to the kothiwalas taking the contract of leather and the farmer tanner relations ended. Every farmer had to deliver kothiwalas a part of everything like all the festivals, building a wall in the house, buying goats, selling animals. In the Bengal province of 1857, the Neelwalas or indigo corporates or businessmen were made assistant magistrates by the government. This further increased the discontent and exploitation among the farmers. People used to stand with applications to leave mills indigo cultivation. Violence took place with farmers at many places. The leader of this rebellion was Harishchandra Mukherjee, whose continuous movements put a stop to it in Bengal. But this ban was not implemented in Bihar. There, gradually the discontent took the form of rebellion. In 1908, Sheikh Ghulam and his associate Sheetal Rai started campaigning vigorously against the government during their visits to Bettiah and the rebellion spread in areas like Malhia, Parsa, Bairia, and Kudiya. Many rebellious peasants were jailed and other types of sentences and fines. Pandit Rajkumar Shukla, a resident of Satwaria of West Champaran, used to help the farmers in the police station and court by spending money from his own pocket. People like Motihari’s lawyer Gorakh Prasad, Dharanidhar Prasad, Kataib Peer Mohammad Munis of the court, Sant Raut, Sheetal Rai and Sheikh Gulab became sympathizers. They went to Kanpur and told the plight of the farmers to Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, editor of ‘Pratap’. Vidyarthiji published an article in Pratap on January 4, 1915, titled ‘Darkness in Champaran’. Vidyarthiji advised Shuklaji to meet Gandhiji. The 31st annual session of the Indian National Congress was held in Lucknow from 26 to 30 December 1916. A large number of people had attended from Bihar. Brajkishore, Ramdayal Sah, Gorakh Babu, Harivansh Sahai, Peer Mohammad Munish, Sant Rawat and Rajkumar Shukla also went from Champaran to participate in it. Their purpose was to convey information about the atrocities on the farmers of Champaran to the Congress leaders. they reached there and talked to Lokmanya Tilak on this issue but Lokmanya Tilak expressed his inability to pay attention to it due to Swaraj being the main objective of the Congress. After meeting Madan Mohan Malaviya, he sent them to Gandhiji as he was busy with university work. Gandhiji listened to them very carefully and assured them to come. A resolution was made in the conference on the exploitation of the farmers of Champaran, for the first time which was being heard by the elite middle class, highly educated people gathered in the Congress. After a few days, Mahatma Gandhi left for Champaran, but as he reached Patna, was given a government notice to leave the district. As Mahatma Gandhi refused to return, he was prosecuted for disobeying the government order. Gandhiji, seeing the possibility of being arrested, had called many of his co-workers to continue the movement. He was arrested. Gandhiji entered the court on the morning of 18 April 1917. There he said in his written statement that his aim is to take information from all the parties in this matter and there is no question of any disturbance of law and order. He described himself as a law-abiding person, but while calling it a duty to work on the questions of the farmers, he talked about following the duty rather than the law. Admitting the crime, he refused to grant bail. On 18 April, Magistrate George Chander in the Motihari District Court ordered Gandhi to pay a security deposit of Rs 100 which he politely declined. The judges and those present in the court were stunned and the sentence was postponed for a few days. Demanding his release, thousands of people protested and rallies took place outside the court. Later the British government withdrew the case. On the third day, information was received from the government that Section 144 has been removed from Gandhiji. The higher officials were ordered to extend their full help. After that, Gandhiji started visiting villages. After walking for miles in villages like Lokaria, Sindhachpara, Murlibharwa, Belwa etc., heard the plight of the villagers. Saw the houses and fields destroyed by the Kothiwals. The Kothiwalas were beginning to panic with the support that Gandhiji received. He prepared 20 to 25 thousand applications by writing day and night with the help of his associate actvists like Dr. Rajendra Prasad and others. Since Gandhiji’s Hindi was not good, all the work was being done in English only. As soon as he reached Champaran, he faced casteism there. During that time, Gandhiji established ashrams in these three villages, Bhitharwa, Badharwa and Madhuban, with his co-workers to remove the illiteracy, ignorance, unhygienic poverty of the villages, he started school in his Ashrams for adult education programs. Dr. Dev stayed in Champaran for 6 months on behalf of Bharat Sevak Samaj. People were not ready to remove the dirt, so they along with volunteers cleaned the roads of the village, threw garbage from the houses, and filled the pits around the well. Due to purdah system, girls did not come to school, then a separate school was opened for them in which 40 girls and women of 7 to 25 years would come to study. they got so much freedom for the first time. Women were taught to wash their hair, wear clean clothes, and keep the house clean.
All this was not easy; he had to face many things like mockery, disdain, indifference. The volunteers learned the Bihari language on their own. Gandhiji met the Provincial Governor Mr. Gate and the members of the Bihar Province Council for 3 days and apprised them of the seriousness of the farmers’ discontent. Mr. Gate set up an inquiry committee consisting of government officials, lawmakers and representatives of the rebels in the Legislative Council, representatives of farmers and Gandhi himself. The then government-supported newspapers like Pioneer, Statesman, English Man etc. and the European Association objected to Gandhi being a member of the committee. The work of the committee started in Bettiah. A massive crowd started gathering. The committee also received applications for excesses committed 20 to 25 years ago. The committee also took the application of the Kothiwals. The main themes were the removal of the injustice of the Teen-Kathiya system, Sharhabeshi and Tawan. If a case had to be filed in cases related to Sharhabeshi, then 50 thousand cases would have to be filed. If the Kothiwalas lost in these, they would not have lived without going to the High Court. So it was necessary to settle it amicably. Gandhiji demanded 40 percent cut and pressured him by threatening to demand 55 percent cut if he didn’t agree and with his tactful skill, agreed to a reduction of 26 percent in Sharabeishi of Pipra Kothi and 20 percent in Turkaulia Kothi respectively. Mr. Sly, the chairman of the committee, was impressed by Gandhiji’s harmonious approach and became his admirer. On 3 October 1917, the report of the committee was published in which the ‘Teen-kathia’ system was considered to be defective and recommended to repeal it and make a law for it. The right to decide which land to give for indigo was given to the farmer and it was recommended to give the indigo price on the basis of weight rather than area. Short term limit was fixed for the indefinite period of the agreement and it was written to fix the minimum price with the permission and consent of the union commissioner of gardeners. Under Tawan, provisions were made to return some part of the amount recovered to the farmers, to stop the increase in fine and to punish for overcharging. The ownership and use of leather was decided to be given to the owner of the dead animal. The rate of minimum wages should be fixed by the union of gardeners and the same rate should be given to the workers. It was also recommended to give the order of the government to the farmers in the native language. After three days, this report was discussed in the Legislature and it was generally accepted and decided to make a law immediately. The fearlessness that had come among the villagers due to Gandhiji had now made them ready to fight against the Neelwalas. The Champaran Farming Bill was introduced and the Champaran Farming Act was passed on 4 March 1918. Rs. 8,60,301 of Tawan recovered by 18 kothis were returned to the farmers. The term of the agreement was fixed at a maximum of 3 years. The price began to be determined on the weight of the indigo. With the enactment of the new law, the mightiness of the Neelwalas and the Kothi came down. Many Neelwalas took advantage of the high inflation after the First World War and made profit by selling their land, kothi and goods, and the farmers heaved a sigh of relief. Gandhiji was 48 years old. Before Champaran-Satyagraha, Gandhi had successfully used his satyagraha weapon in South Africa for twenty years by fighting non-violently against the apartheid-policy of the white government there. Till then he had faith in the judiciary of the government. Gandhiji’s middle-class cooperative connected with rural illiterate and low-caste farmers. This Satyagraha was the beginning of the non-violent form of the country’s freedom struggle. This is a golden chapter in the history of the farmers’ movement and the form of exploitation of farmers by the corporatization of agriculture, and it is also a pillar of inspiration to get the demands made by the movement which lasted for half a year. It was not limited to only economic demands. During this, many social reform efforts like casteism, village cleanliness, school, adult and women’s education were also done by which people joined the movement. It should be an essential part of political practice for political parties and their workers even today.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are her own)
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