1) A few tweets on the Champaran issue, where people are claiming Gandhi achieved `great success'. In the following tweets, I will investigate the Champaran issue and people can judge just how much `great success' Gandhi had in this issue.
Champaran, being far up north of the Ganges, at foot of the Himalayas on Nepal border, was cut off from the rest of India. The Congress was practically unknown here. Even those who had heard the name of the Congress shrank from joining it or even mentioning it.
3) The issue there was a) increased rents. b) excesses committed by European indigo planters. c) agricultural price collapse in WW1.
Gandhi, even early in 1917, knew nothing about Champaran, not even its name or geographical position, let alone the economics of indigo planting.
4) Gandhi's gaining of fame was due to a comedy of errors and a clash between the central British administration and the local administration. The local administration, panicked by the arrival of an outsider of some considerable fame, served him with an externment order.
5) Gandhi, however, due to his South African adventures, had gained some fame among the higher British officials, in particular, the Viceroy's secretary. When hit by the externment order, he wrote to the Viceroy's secretary about his determination to do satyagraha and disobey.
6) Both Bihar government and central British administration sharply rapped the local Champaran officials [all Britishers] on the knuckles. They told the locals to let Gandhi continue his passive agitation. `Nationalist' papers, however, waxed eloquent on `Gandhi's victory'.
7) In particular, Amrit Bazaar Patrika was continually singing his praises. However, Gandhi was milking it for all it was worth, as some kind of divine agent. He was exhibited at specified hours to darshan-seekers, and had to have a gate keeper to protect him from his admirers.
8) Gandhi's original intention was to come to some kind of private arrangement with the European planters and leave, declaring victory. But the situation was far too volatile, the European planters too stubborn, and he could not do so. He had to put up a show of struggle.
9) Lieutenant Governor Edward Gait and Gandhi came to an agreement that local officials should stop abuses wherever they came to light, while the planter member of the Committee should be asked to point out to his fellow planters the harm such actions did.
10) In return, Gandhi and his assistants for their part would stop taking evidence and would not go into the Champaran countryside. After this discussion Gandhi accepted an invitation to sit on the Committee which was formally constituted by a government resolution on 10/06/1917.
11) In particular, the Viceroy was keen to put Gandhi in the commission, as they were sure that he would not disturb the relations between the British and the peasants. The Viceroy himself emphasised, `In appointing a Commission, to use your phrase, we are "heading off" Gandhi.'
12) The main recommendations of the Committee were
a) the tinkathia system was abolished [already recommended in 1908],
b) enhanced rents fixed reduced by 20% or 26% according to the indigo factory concerned.
c) repayment of tawan, were enforced by executive
orders.
13) Now, the question is - did it benefit the peasants?
Quoting Judith Brown here, `Some of Gandhi's helpers were surprised that he agreed to a compromise and did not press for a return to the original rent in such cases: but quite apart from the planters' refusal to give up+
+more, Gandhi felt that their prestige had been damaged sufficiently and that as peasants and planters had still to live together in the future a compromise was the best foundation for better relations.'
In short, Gandhi sold out peasants to safeguard British planter prestige.
14) Gandhi organised a band of `educators' [for the peasants] from among his minions, but by 1918, only three of them remained and the rest had decamped.
15) As regards the British government, Gandhi, once more to quote Judith Brown, `Moreover, he [Gandhi] had no wish to embarrass a government which in this matter was his friend.'
16) Gandhi's success was very limited, and the abuses continued after Gandhi declared victory and left Champaran, but it was still something he could show and declare a victory over. And that was because the British government wanted his help in calming situation in WW1.
17) This, then, is the sum total of the `achievements' of Gandhi in the Champaran Satyagraha. A few British promises and he was able to declare victory and pose as a saviour.
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