Question

The Champaran movement was against ____________.

Answer 1

Hint: The Champaran Movement was the first kind of Civil Disobedience movement. It was led by Mahatma Gandhi. The year 1917 marked the beginning of the Champaran movement.

Complete answer: The Champaran movement was an important event in India’s struggle for freedom. It involved a mix of elements of extra-constitutional struggle as well as employment of moral force against an adversary, an exemplar of the rule of law and using compromise as a tactic.
Champaran is a small district in Bihar and it had large zamindari land under wealthy and influential landlords. Most of the villages were leased out by the zamindars to thikadars who were mostly European Indigo Planters. The planters were temporary tenure holders, but they extracted rent from the peasants as well as exercised various rights over them.
In Champaran, there was a tinkathia system, in which three kathas of land had to be planted with indigo. The farmers could not grow their food, nor they received adequate compensation for the indigo that they had grown.
Therefore, Gandhiji had agreed to sort out this problem of agricultural labour. He arrived in Champaran in 1917 and met various people there. But he had received an order saying that he needed to leave the district, or he would be arrested. Gandhiji’s nature of non-violence made the government withdraw the case and thus Gandhiji remained in Champaran to solve the issue.
Then, he led protests against the landlords. This made them and the British government grant more compensation and more control over farming for the poor farmers. There was a special committee made and the recommendations were implemented, partly by the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1917 and partly by the executive orders.

Note: During this agitation against the landlords of Champaran, the people were in awe of Gandhiji’s magnetic personality. This made Gandhiji earn the title of Bapu (Father) by Sant Rout and Mahatma (Great Soul). These names gave Gandhiji more recognition and he was called mostly by these two titles.