Champaran

Region in the northern part of the state
of Bihar, between the Gandaki River
138
Chakravyuha
A shoemaker in Agra. Shoemaking and leather tanning are traditional occupations of the Chamar social group.
and the border of Nepal. Now it is composed of two provinces, eastern
Champaran and western Champaran.
The Champaran region is famous as the
place where Mohandas K. Gandhi engineered the first successful satyagraha
(nonviolent resistance campaign)
against British rule. At the time, the
province was largely agricultural, as it
remains today, and most of the inhabitants were very poor. The farmers had
traditionally designated a portion of
their land for growing indigo to give to
the landlords as rent. This arrangement
was disrupted by the invention of a
much cheaper synthetic indigo. The
landlords responded by ordering the
tenants to stop growing indigo but proceeded to raise the rent on their land,
based on the traditional agreement that
allowed them to do so if a tenant grew
no indigo. The trouble began in 1912,
but Gandhi did not arrive until 1917.
After a campaign lasting nearly a year,
the tenants won concessions from the
landlords guaranteeing no further rent
increases and a 25 percent rebate on the
previous increases. For further information see Mohandas K. Gandhi, An
Autobiography, 1993; a more readable,
though highly partial, account can be
found in Louis Fischer, Gandhi, 1954.