THE Champaran Satyagraha marked the last phase of the protracted struggle against the indigo planters and with it the peasant struggle in Bihar entered the national arena.

The movement enjoyed a wide popular support as the entire population of the district was against the planters for one reason or the other. Agricultural labourers were dissatisfied because they did not get wages at prevailing rates and they were forced to do unpaid labour for them. Tenants were against the planters for Tinkathia obligation, very low price for indigo, unremunerative cart Sattas, the realisation of Abwab and Dastoori, besides harassment by planters and their amlas. Cobblers were hit hard because of an attack on their right to hides and small shopkeepers were aggrieved because they were restricted in their operations and subjected to illegal taxes. Moneylenders and traders also found the planters in the way of expansion of their business as indigo cultivation with its accompanying system of cash payment had lessened the peasants' depen­dence on them. The Marwaris and the Shahs were not directly concerned with indigo cultivation and as such they were not involved in any direct dispute with the planters, but aware as they were of the very well-judged possibility that the planters' departure would result in greatly increased power and profit for themselves, they offered all sorts of material help for carrying on the movement.

All these diverse elements joined hands in the Satyagraha. The leadership, however, was provided by the moneylenders, rich tenants, petty zamindars, ex-factory employees and teachers. Raj Kumar Shukla, the most prominent among local leaders and instrumental in bringing Gandhi to Champaran, was himself a moneylender. Other important local leaders like Khendhar Rai of Laukaria, the Shahs of Motihari and the Marwaris of Bettiah and Motihari who financed the movement and gave it all sorts of material support were all moneylender-cum-traders.

At the same time the country was seething with anti-British discontent and Gandhi was fast emerging as a popular leader. His rural image, pro-poperty and even pro-usury stand and the harmless form of Satyagraha agitation made him easily acceptable to the local leadership.

The movement did not last long and remained restricted in scope, never touching even the fringes of deeper agrarian issues. The cultivation of indigo did soon draw to a close, but that was due not so much to the Satyagraha as to the invention of a cheaper, artificial dye.

Gandhi’s whole experiment was in tune with the line of the collaborating Indian bourgeoisie who looked to the peasantry only to wring greater concessions from the British imperialists, and was mortally afraid of arousing the peasantry in any massive, militant movement. In the name of nationalism Gandhi always discouraged any peasant movement against ‘native’ landlords. Thus it was no wonder that when a massive anti-zamindari peasant agita­tion broke out in Darbhanga estate in 1920, the entire Bihar Congress leadership kept itself aloof from the movement.

However, in subsequent anti-British movements the peasants of Bihar did always raise the banner of anti-landlordism despite Gandhi’s express disapproval. Thus, while in the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921 Gandhi had only advocated stopping of tax payment to the govern­ment, the peasants extended it to a no-rent campaign as well.