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| Motihari railway station, Bihar. patnabeats.com |
Above image: The original Motihari railway junction (where Gandhi embarked on his arrival in Champaran) to join the protest against forced Indigo cultivation by the British.........
It was at Motihari railway station in Bihar's East Champaran on the afternoon - around 3 pm of April 15, 1917 in Bihar’s East Champaran, Gandhiji got off from the train coming from Nuzaffur with a firm determination not to leave that place unless hia mission was successfully completed. - lifting the poor farmers from abject povery and misery and to give a direction and a sense of purpose. A big crowd was waiting to receive Gandhi and none of them had no idea whatsoever about the outcome of their perpetual struggle against the British who forced them to grow indigo.
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| Location of Motjhari, Champran Dist. Bihar.mapsofindia.com |
Little did the press or the British realize that the little man's crusade against them would snow ball into a popular passive resistance called Satyagragha. The first satyagraha (policy of passive political resistance) was successfully introduced here which later became a tool for Gandhiji to continue his freedom struggle against the English. The concept was so effective, it drew the attention of the media world over. ''While Champaran “introduced” India to Gandhi, he introduced his idea of Satyagraha or civil disobedience to India.'' It was at Champaran that the transformation from Mohandas into the Mahatma began. During the 31st session of the Congress in Lucknow in 1916, Gandhi met Raj Kumar Shukla, a representative of farmers from Champaran through whom he came to know about the repression being faced by the native farmer. The wily British took advatage of the native farmers ignorance and illiteracy and exploited them to make fast bucks.
The house passed the bill, which paved the way for the abolition of Tinkathiya system.Tinkathia was the system under which the native peasants of Champaran( Bihar) were forced to cultivate 3 kathaa Indigo out of every 20 kathaa (Bigha) of land. A Bigha is a popular land holding in Bihar and it is little less than an Acre. In other terms, the European agriculturists in Bihar (Champaran) followed illegal means of indigo farming and urged the Indian farmers to grow Indigo on the 3/20th portion of their land holding. This system came to be known as the Tinkathia system.The farmers were poorly compensated for their indigo crops and if they refused to plant indigo, they had to face heavy taxation. The landlords (mostly British) would enforce this system through their agents, called gumasta, who executed the terms brutally.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/when-mahatma-gandhi-arrived-in-bihar/articleshow/71289185.cms 2019
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