Where Gandhi became a Mahatma

Champaran: Mahatma Gandhi's unique idea of Satyagraha that kick started the national movement began in Bihar with the Champaran Neel Satyagraha.

Champaran was a district in north Bihar during the British rule where poor farmers were forced to grow indigo and other cash crops instead of the food crops necessary for their survival.

Suppressed by the ruthless militias of the landlords -- mostly British -- they lived in extreme poverty.

Raj Kumar Shukla drew the attention of Mahatma Gandhi towards the plight of the poor farmers. And in the fields where indigo was cultivated the first seeds of protest against the British were sown.

Those who participated in the Champaran Satyagraha have fond memories.

"Kahlan ki bataiye. Goan wale aur kishan ka kya dukh hai. Gaon wale kahe ki angrez saab aise aise karta hai. Bada hum log ko dukh hai tab kuch log kaha. Yaha baithiye, hum ko jane dijiye police hamare piche pada hai, humko giraftaar kaar lega. Yaha ate ate police pakad liya. Yahe se gadi se laad kaar jail le gaya (What can I tell about the suffering of the villegers and the farmers. They told us about the atrocities of the Britishers. Police was after me and as soon as I came here I was arrested and taken to the prison)," a villager Gopal Bhagat says.

But that was then and the farms have now become grazing grounds for cattle.

The British planters used to cultivate indigo in the fields where paddy and sugarcane fields now grow.


It was the exploitation, which brought Gandhi to Champaran. It was in Chandrahia village, where Mahatma Gandhi was served the notice to leave the district.

The Gandhi Memorial was built at the place only to be neglected later.

"Yahan kuchh log safai ke badle tande me mawashi bandhta he. Safai ke badle aur ganda ho jata he, aur idher mitti kaat ke leghaya aur isko bhar ne me 50 trailer mitti lage ga, yahan ki sampathi jo is ko sharm daan se bharna chahiye to aur 50 trailer mitti nikal le gaye," Ram Babu Yadav says.


The Sub Divisional Magistrate court of the British Empire, the court that passed the orders to convict Gandhi, for the first time in India stood where the memorial now stands.


"Yahan ka is asthan ka importance yahi he ki yahan history of court tha aur yahi court se faishla hua tha (This is a historic place as it was here that the court that sentenced Gandhiji stood)," secretary of Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Motihari Brajkishore Singh says.

There is a popular saying in Champaran: "Gandhi came here fully dressed and left in a loin cloth which was the face of Champaran impoverish peasantry and in the process he also gave voice to million of farmers being exploited by the indigo planters. The rest is history as Champaran become the turning point in India freedom struggle and Gandhi became Mahatma here".


One of Gandhi's first trysts with rural India was Champaran. It was here that the urban freedom fighter came face to face with the destitute peasant, with what he would later on call the real India.


SANTOSH PANDEY
SHANGHAI