The Champaran Satyagraha in 1917 was the first satyagraha movement by Mahatma Gandhi and an important historical event in the Indian independence movement or rebellion. The Champaran Satyagraha was a farmer’s uprising by farmers in Champaran district of Bihar (in the Indian subcontinent) during the British colonial period. The farmers wanted to protest having to grow indigo with little or no compensation.
In 1915, Gandhi returned to India (from South Africa) and discovered peasants in Northern India very oppressed by indigo planters. He tried to use what he had developed in South Africa in organizing mass protests by people for unfair treatment.
Champaran Satyagraha was India’s first mass-based satyagraha movement. The Champaran Satyagraha provided a sense of direction to the youth and freedom struggle of India, which seemed to be in disarray between moderates (who argued for Indian action within a British colonial state), and the more violent radicals from Bengal who were attempting the use of revolutionary violence against British colonial rule in India.
Many tenant farmers, under colonial-era laws, were required to grow some indigo in part of their land to fulfill their lease requirement. Indigo would be processed for dye. When the Germans made artificial dye, there was no demand for indigo. Some tenants paid extra rent to be excused from growing indigo. However, during the First World War, German dye was no longer available and indigo became profitable again. So many tenants were once again forced to grow it in part of their land because it was required by their lease. Again, this created tremendous anger and resentment.
