Movement of Champaran Agrarian Act 1918- An Insight

Abstract

The Champaran peasant movement was also a part of the wider struggle for independence. When Gandhiji returned from South Africa, he made the experiment of non-cooperation in a smaller way by giving leadership to the peasant struggles in Champaran (Bihar) and later on in Kheda (Gujarat). These struggles were taken up as a reformist movement but the idea was to mobilise the peasants for their demands. The Champaran peasant movement was launched in 1917-18. Its objective was to create awakening among the peasants against the European planters. These planters resorted to illegal and inhuman methods of indigo cultivation at a cost which by no canons of justice could be called an adequate remuneration for the labour done by the peasants.This paper presents the true picture of Champaran Agrarian Act 1918 & focusing history about it.