What happened during Mahatma Gandhi’s Champaran campaign in 1917?

The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was Mahatma Gandhi’s first major campaign of nonviolent resistance in India. It served as a protest against the tinkathia system, which forced tenant farmers in Bihar to cultivate indigo on 15 percent of their land, leading to debt, poverty, and reduced food production.12

Invited by farmer-leader Raj Kumar Shukla, Gandhi conducted an extensive investigation, collecting thousands of testimonies with volunteers like Rajendra Prasad, J.B. Kripalani, and Kasturba Gandhi. When authorities ordered him to leave, he chose arrest over compliance, marking a significant act of civil disobedience.2

Public pressure forced the colonial government to establish the Champaran Agrarian Enquiry Committee, with Gandhi representing the farmers. The committee’s report validated the farmers' grievances, leading to the abolition of the tinkathia system and the passage of the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1918, which granted tenants the freedom to choose their own crops.2