Man Of All Times

India's freedom was not won in a day, but one successful experiment of non-violent civil resistance in a remote corner of Bihar irrevocably paved the way for the Struggle for Independence. Here, I recount the high drama that ensued following a notice served to Gandhi in Champaran and his reply to the same, and explore the meaning of Satyagraha in today's world...

German scientist Albert Einstein once paid homage to Gandhi, saying, "Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."
American lawmakers described him as a "man of all times and places" and one of its Congressmen aptly remarked, "It is important we never forget that without Gandhi, the fates of what is now the world's largest democracy India, and the oldest democracy, the US, would likely be far different."
As for Gandhi himself, much before he became a global phenomenon, many incidents shaped and supported his belief in non-violence and civil resistance as a tool against injustice.

Gandhi's first true encounter with the injustices inflicted by the British in Bihar was on April 16, 1917. While in Motihari, Raj Kumar Shukla, Gandhi’s host, had arranged for an elephant to take them to Jasaulipatti, to talk to the farmers there and gather information about their sufferings at the hands of the British indigo planters. En route, they stopped at Chandrahia village, few kilometres from Motihari, to talk to one of the labourers. Within no time a constable came running and handed over an order from the collector, asking Gandhi to leave the district within 24 hours and in case of non-compliance, explain the reason.
"Upon hearing the news of the notice served to him, many top lawyers of Bihar visited Gandhi and most of them advised him to take up legal recourse for non-compliance, but Gandhi decided otherwise and was consequently tried on April 18," says Razi Ahmed, secretary of Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Patna.
That day of trial, points out Ahmed, effectively became the first day of Champaran Satyagraha, for there, facing the collector, the public prosecutor and other government officials and with thousands of farmers and land tenants thronging the court premises to show solidarity with the man "who was willing to go to jail for them", Gandhi read out aloud his reply to the notice. The summon was full of holes but he did not quote any legal provisions, much to the surprise of the public prosecutor, and neither did he attempt to talk his way out of the penalty in store. Rather, he said that he was in Champaran to find the truth about the atrocities on indigo farmers, and would not leave until he had done exactly that. Only when he arrived at the truth will he decide upon his next course of action. If he were thrown out, he would come back again.
This reply threw those present completely off balance. After much deliberation, they asked Gandhi to furnish a bail of Rs 100 for his release. Gandhi replied that he had no bailor and could not offer bail. Disconcerted yet again, the magistrate found a way out by offering to release him on his personal recognizance.

Gandhi stayed back in Champaran till August 15, 1917, and along with others including Brajkishore Prasad, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Mahadeo Desai, Narhari Parikh and Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani, went from village to village, cross-examining and recording the statements of farmers to understand the situation better. During these trips, Gandhi noticed the acute poverty, widespread illiteracy and unhygienic living conditions, and realised that educating the masses was the only way of emancipation. He felt that his efforts to uplift them would not bear fruit unless a desire for the same was created within them. Thus, through mid 1917 to early 1918, he opened schools and ashrams at Barharwa Lakhansen, Bhitiharwa and Madhuban villages. Additionally, he roped in his wife Kasturba, son Devdas and Dr Avantikabai Gokhale to teach the villagers about hygiene, says Ahmed. In light of the deep, entrenched rural poverty, he encouraged people to adopt the 'swadeshi' model for maintaining cleanliness, like using saltpetre to wash clothes.
An AICC report states, "It is worth mentioning that the Satyagraha of Champaran was responsible for initiation in the service of the motherland of two volunteers Acharya Kripalani and Deshratna Dr Rajendra Prasad. While Bihar's indebtedness to Mahatma Gandhi is irretrievable not only for having succoured her millions from the tentacles of white planters but also for having breathed into her soul the new message."
Says Ahmed, "Gandhi was a firm believer of dignity of labour. His economic formula based on cooperation was unique and effective. He truly believed that rather than clash among the factors of production as was the cornerstone of socialism, it was cooperation among the factors that would do the trick.” According to Ahmed, Gandhi's Satyagraha is as relevant today as it was then; maybe even more.
"With more than 23,000 nuclear warheads in the world and decreasing levels of tolerance, resorting to aggression and violence has become easier than ever. To add to the woes, corruption is at an all-time high. Given the situation, Satyagraha in its truest sense is our only hope," he says.
Sadly, the form of resistance that many people are opting for today to pressurize the government into accepting their demands is not Satyagraha, but Duragraha, says the Gandhian, without naming anyone but clearly alluding to a particular social activist in news nowadays. Satyagraha, according to Ahmed, is to accept the injustices willingly without budging from one's stand, without feeling any malice towards the antagonist, until the conscience of the antagonist awakens. When we start pressurizing and threatening the antagonist, it becomes Duragraha – something that the 'Father of our Nation' would have opposed almost as much as he opposed the injustices on Indians!

*During his stay in Champaran, Gandhi came to realise the full extent of rural poverty. Upon seeing the dirty clothes of the women of a particular village, he asked his wife Kasturba to talk to them about cleanliness. When asked, one of the women took Kasturba inside her hut and said, "Look around you, I don't have any cupboards or clothes. The saree I am wearing is the only one I have. Ask Gandhi Ji to give me another saree and I promise to bathe and wear clean clothes everyday."

*Reply of the Satyagrahi
Gandhi's Statement In Court On April 18, 1917
"With the permission of the Court I would like to make a brief statement showing why I have taken a very serious step of seemingly disobeying the order made under section 144 of Cr. P. C. In my humble opinion it is a question of difference of opinion between the local administration and myself. I have entered the country with motives of rendering humanitarian and national service. I have done so in response to a pressing invitation to come and help the ryots, who urge they are not being fairly treated by the indigo planters. I could not render any help without studying the problem. I have, therefore, come to study it with the assistance, if possible, of the administration and the planters. I have no other motive and cannot believe that my coming can in any way disturb public peace and cause loss of life. I claim to have considerable experience in such matters. The administration, however, have thought differently. I fully appreciate their difficulty and I admit, too, that they can only proceed upon information they receive. As a law-abiding citizen my first instinct would be, as it was, to obey the order served upon me. But I could not do so without doing violence to my sense of duty to those for whom I came. I feel that I could just now serve them only by remaining in their midst. I could not therefore voluntarily retire. Amidst this conflict of duty I could only throw the responsibility of removing me from them on the administration. I am fully conscious of the fact that a person, holding in the public life of India a position such as I do, has to be most careful in setting examples. It is my firm belief that in the complex constitution under which we are living the only safe and honourable course for a self-respecting man is, in the circumstances such as face me, to do what I have decided to do, that is, to ‘submit without protest to the penalty of disobedience’.
I venture to make this statement not in any way in extenuation of the penalty to be awarded against me, but to show that I have disregarded the order served upon me not for want of respect for lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience."

On The Mahatma's Trail

Gandhi had a unique relationship with Bihar. This Independence Day, I revisit history with Gandhian Razi Ahmed to explore why, among other places, Bihar is considered his ‘karmbhoomi'

All of us have heard of Anna Hazare's threat to resume his indefinite fast on August 16, and most of us have shown a clear appreciation for his conviction and commitment, as also awe for the Gandhian tool of Satyagraha used by him to rout corruption from India. But what many of us – or, at least, the newer generation – are unaware of is that Satyagraha as an effective tool of resistance was, for the first time, successfully tested at Champaran in Bihar, almost 94 years ago.
The Champaran Satyagraha in 1917 was the first experiment of mass struggle in India. Before that, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had adopted his still evolving methodology of Satyagraha or non-violent protest, for the first time, in South Africa, to protest against the discrimination directed at Indians. Says Razi Ahmed, secretary of Gandhi Sangrahalaya at Patna, "It was an unremarkable place like Champaran in Bihar that introduced a remarkable leader like Gandhi to India, as well as catapulted leaders like Dr Rajendra Prasad, Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani and Anugrah Narayan Sinha into national prominence."

Ahmed proceeds to share with TOI, the story of Gandhi's sojourn in Bihar. The annual session of Indian National Congress at Lucknow in 1916 saw participation of leaders of national stature like Lokmanya Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gandhi too, having recently returned from South Africa, attended as a delegate for the first time. It was at this Lucknow Congress that barrister Brajkishore Prasad along with 40 delegates from Bihar appealed to the leaders to take up the cause of the 'ryots' of Champaran – landless serfs, indentured labourers and poor farmers – who were forced to grow indigo and other cash crops instead of the food crops necessary for their survival.
Among the delegates from Bihar was a farmer called Raj Kumar Shukla. The session was extraordinary because for the first time a semi-illiterate, rustic man like Shukla was allowed to address the distinguished audience and share with them the plight of the indigo farmers of Champaran. In broken Hindi, Shukla gave an impassioned account of the tenants' misery. Gandhi gave a separate, patient hearing to him later, but did not commit to a visit to Champaran due to time constraints.
Gandhi then went on to Kanpur, where to his surprise he found Shukla already waiting for him. In fact, so committed was the farmer that he kept on pursuing Gandhi to visit Champaran and take stock of the situation first-hand. But it was in Kolkata – where Shukla had arrived before Gandhi to wait for him and beseech him to come along – that Gandhi realized the extent of the farmer's commitment.
Without further delay, Gandhi accompanied Shukla to Motihari, the district headquarters of Champaran, via Patna and Muzaffarpur.
"While in Patna, Gandhi came face-to-face with one of the social evils plaguing Bihar at the time – untouchability. Upon reaching Patna, the duo decided to pay a visit to Dr Rajendra Prasad. Dr Prasad was, unfortunately, away at the time and his servants, mistaking Gandhi to be a lower-class rustic because of his plain clothes and unremarkable demeanour, did not allow him inside the house nor offered him water," says Ahmed.
Gandhi then remembered that his London classmate, Mazharul Haque also lived in Patna. Upon getting Gandhi's message, Haque, a noted barrister at the time, came personally to fetch the duo to his Sikandar Manzil home on Fraser Road.
Gandhi and Shukla then moved onwards to Muzaffarpur where, having got a message to meet them at the station, Kripalani had come to receive Gandhi. Having never met Gandhi earlier and thinking Gandhi to be travelling in the first class of the train, Kripalani – a professor at GBB College (now, L S College) started searching the first class bogie with his supporters but without any success. Upon seeing the crowd assembled on the platform, Shukla knew it must be in Gandhi’s welcome, and so he took Kripalani and the others to the third class and presented them to Gandhi. If it was a jolt to see Gandhi travelling in the "poor man's" class, it was a bigger shock to realise that this frail, unassuming man dressed as a peasant was Gandhi, come to deliver the farmers from their plight!

The next day Gandhi and his supporters shifted to noted barrister Gorakh Prasad's house in Muzaffarpur. Once there, such a large number of people came to meet – and in many cases, catch a glimpse of – the leader, that Gandhi joked about Prasad's house having turned into a 'caravanserai'.
Finally, on April 15, 1917, the group reached Motihari in Champaran. An AICC report of 1917 states that "a large crowd of people of Champaran witnessed the greatest architect of Indian Freedom Struggle in Motihari". In fact, the huge response of the people to Gandhi irked the administration to no end.
On April 16, while Gandhi was talking to villagers at Chandrahia village, the administration served a notice to him to leave the district within 24 hours.
On April 18, Gandhi appeared for trial in the court of the magistrate, who ordered him released on condition of bail payment. Gandhi refused to pay the bail and instead, indicated his preference to remain in jail under arrest. Alarmed at the huge response Gandhi was eliciting from the people of Champaran, and intimidated by the knowledge that Gandhi had already managed to inform the Viceroy of India of the mistreatment meted out to the farmers by the British plantation owners, the magistrate set him free without payment of any bail.
The case against Gandhi was finally withdrawn on April 21. Also, the government yielded and a commission was appointed to look into the entire matter and suggest remedies. Gandhi, too, was invited to join the commission and he accepted. The commission recommended the acceptance of the peasants' demands and taking legal steps to implement them, and within a few months the Champaran Agrarian Bill was passed providing a marked respite to the farmers and land tenants.
Thereafter, Gandhi visited Bihar many a times, the visit to Patna on August 8, 1947, being his last one. Through these visits and by connecting and empathising with the masses here, he left an indelible mark on the evolution of Bihar as a state – a mark that we would do well to remember now that Bihar is in a resurgent phase and needs direction in its growth.

Admiration Guaranteed
Excerpts from the 'Proceedings of the Government of Bihar and Orissa, Political (Special) Department, 1917' show that even though the bureaucracy was openly hostile to Gandhi and friendly to the European planters, there was a fair amount of admiration too, for him, his associates and their cause:
* WH Lewis, the sub-divisional officer of Bettiah, wrote to the collector of Champaran: "Gandhi seems a curious mixture of the East and West. He owes a large part of his belief to Ruskin and Tolstoy, particularly the latter's, and couples these to the asceticism of a jogi. Were his ideas only those of the East, he would have been content to have applied them to his personal existence in a life of his meditative seclusion. It is only the teachings of the West that have made him an active social reformer."
* J T Whitty, manager, Bettiah Raj, wrote to the commissioner of Tirhut: "He is a man who is prepared to go to any length to carry through an idea. He can easily be made into a martyr and cannot be easily suppressed."
* A C Ammon, manager of Belwa factory, had consistently harassed and tortured Raj Kumar Shukla, but upon Shukla's death, he sent Rs 500 to his home for preparation of last rites. When people asked him the reason behind the change of heart, Ammon replied, "You won't understand. He was a great man."