Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi first put his foot in Bihar around 101 years ago on April 10, 1917.
He arrived at Patna Junction with the farmer leader of Champaran, Rajkumar Shukla in the early hours. At the time, only a few people had heard of Mahatma Gandhi, and hardly anyone knew what he looked like. No one came to the station to pick him up that day.
He directly went to Dr Rajendra Prasad’s residence in Patna, just like a common man. On the same day, Gandhi went to Maulana Mazharul Haq’s residence near Sinha Library and stayed at his house for a while. Maulana was his classmate in London when he was studying law.
The way Britishers oppressed the farmers of Champaran left Gandhi distraught. He left the same day for Muzaffarpur and reached Motihari on April 15.
Mahatma Gandhi, as he later came to be known, not only blew the trumpet of freedom struggle from Champaran but also established the first basic school in the country for employment education there.
In Bhitiharwa Ashram’s Vrindavan, children are taught skills with training even today.
“If youths do not learn good ways, all studies are useless,” is the message that greets you at the Ashram’s entrance, followed by another of Gandhi’s quotes, “If you want justice, you also have to be fair to others.”
During the Champaran Satyagraha conducted in 1917, Mahatma Gandhi and his wife Kasturba built the ashram and school. In Bhitiharwa Ashram’s Vrindavan, there is still a thatched hut, school bell, the table made by Bapu, the well from where Bapu, as he was fondly called, used to quench his thirst and the grinder (chakki) use by Kasturba.
Building an ashram
To understand the relationship between Gandhi and Champaran, let’s turn the pages of history books.
On April 27, 1917, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi arrived in village Bhitiharwa in West Champaran on elephant back, on the insistence of Raj Kumar Shukla.
Bhitiharwa is located 16 km from Narkatiaganj and 54 km from Bettiah in Bihar. Baba Ramnarayan Das, head of the Math of the village provided land to Bapu for the ashram. On November 16, 1917, Bapu built a school and a hut in Bhitiharwa. He was staying in Belwa Kothi while the construction work was on.
However, Bapu’s stay was not acceptable to the British authorities and AC Ammon Saheb, a British officer, hatched a plot to kill Bapu and set fire to the Kothi. Luckily, Bapu was not present in the Kothi and had gone to a nearby village.
All the villagers built another room for Bapu the very next day, in which Bapu also participated by giving ‘shramdaan’.
How it started
In Bihar, the landlords were imposing illegal taxes like Kathia, Asamiwar and Jirati system on the local farmers. Rajkumar Shukla, a farmer who raised his voice against this, reached Lucknow to meet Gandhi during the Congress session in 1916.
He urged Gandhiji to lead the farmers’ movement in Champaran. Bapu assured Shukla and reached Motihari on April 15, 1917. When he was 10 km away from Motihari, he was given a notice of the then British Collector WB Haycock to leave Champaran as soon as possible.
Gandhi returned to Motihari but insisted on staying in Champaran. He was then prosecuted in the SDO court where he refused to take bail.
A large crowd of farmers surrounded the SDO court and subsequently senior officials instructed Gandhi to be released unconditionally.
After being released, Gandhi spoke to the farmers and took the statement of 13,000 farmers from 2,900 villages. Under the leadership of Gandhi, the farmers of Champaran started to unite and they started calling Gandhi as ‘Mahatma’.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi became ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ for the people of Champaran.
The ‘Satyagraha’ of Champaran farmers spread nationwide against the landlords under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. The British rulers had to bow down and all taxes imposed on the peasants were removed.
The movement that succeeded in Champaran paved the way for the independence of the country.