Indigo – Champaran – Satyagraha
Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde
BCDSS Exhibition Curator
These three words are closely linked to the name Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) (fig. 1). At the beginning of the 20th century, he ended exploitative indigo production in Bihar/India through the Champaran campaign. He was guided in this campaign by the principles of satyagraha.
Fig. 1: Mahatma Ghandi in the year 1931 (Photo: Dinodia Photos / Alamy Stock Photo).
Indian Indigo
At the beginning of the 20th century, Indian indigo was mainly cultivated in the present-day state of Bihar in the district of Champaran (fig. 2). Cultivation still took place under the same exploitative conditions of the zamindar leasing system that had led to the resistance by small farmers in Bengal in the middle of the 19th century. This resistance went down in Bengal’s colonial history as the Blue Mutiny (1859-1862).
Similar to the middle of the 19th century in Bengal, the economic situation of the small farmers forced to cultivate indigo in Champaran in around 1900 was also very poor. The leasing system, in which they cultivated the fields, forced them to grow indigo, although rice was a staple food and would have fed them. In addition, since the invention of synthetic indigo, indigo cultivation had become increasingly unprofitable from the end of the 19th century. As a result, the income from the harvests continued to fall and eventually barely covered the high expenses for the leasing system. This put the indigo farmers in an increasingly catastrophic economic situation.
Fig. 2: India, map from 1857.
Mahatma Gandhi in Champaran
In 1917, Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) heard about the desperate situation of the small farmers in Champaran. Together with supporters, he soon traveled to this province and launched a support campaign with great public interest (figs. 3-7). This centered around a survey of thousands of small indigo farmers to reveal their dramatic economic situation. As a result of this, Gandhi and his fellow campaigners succeeded in getting the government to set up an investigation committee. This officially identified that the compulsion to cultivate indigo had forced many small farmers into deep poverty.
Satyagraha
The campaign, which Gandhi had led according to the principles of satyagraha (search for truth), was the first major campaign on Indian soil in which he was led by the principles of non-violent resistance. It was part of a resistance movement against the exploitation of small indigo farmers in Champaran and was ultimately successful. As a result of the Champaran campaign, the leasing system, on which the small indigo farmers had been dependent up to then, was officially abolished.
Fig. 3: Gandhi during the Salt March in March 1930 (photo: World History Archive / Alamy stock photo).
Fig. 4: Gandhi with British textile workers in Darwen, Lancashire, 1931 (Photo: History and Art Collection / Alamy stock photo).
Fig. 5: Mahatma Gandhi spinning with a charkha (photo: unknown, late 1940s / Public domain).
Fig. 6: Appeal in the newspaper ‘The Bombay Chronicle’ to boycott foreign clothing in 1921 (photo: Dinodia Photos / Alamy stock photo).
Fig. 7: Statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Paramaribo, Suriname (photo: A. van Zandbergen, 2014 / Alamy stock photo).
Further Reading
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand, 1931. My experiments with truth. Ahmedabad: Sarvodaya.
Nadri, Ghulam A. 2016: The Political Economy of Indigo of India, 1580-1930. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004311558_007