9. GANDHIAN ERA BEGINS: EARLY SATYAGRAHAS (1917–1918)

9. GANDHIAN ERA BEGINS: EARLY SATYAGRAHAS (1917–1918)

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in January 1915 (landed at Bombay); guided initially by Gokhale's advice to tour India for a year before taking up any movement. His first three satyagrahas in India were all local, specific-grievance movements, testing the technique of Satyagraha (truth-force/non-violent civil resistance) developed in South Africa.

9.1 Champaran Satyagraha (1917) — Bihar

• First Satyagraha by Gandhi in India.
• Cause: Tinkathia system — indigo planters (mostly European) in Champaran district forced peasants to grow indigo on 3/20th (tin kathia) of their land and sell it at low fixed prices.
• Gandhi invited by local peasant leader Raj Kumar Shukla to investigate.
• Gandhi conducted a detailed inquiry despite an order to leave the district (he refused to comply, courting arrest — early example of civil disobedience).
• Result: Government appointed the Champaran Agrarian Committee; Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918 abolished the Tinkathia system.
• Associates: Rajendra Prasad, J.B. Kripalani, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh.

9.2 Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918) — Gujarat

• Gandhi intervened in a labour dispute between Ahmedabad textile mill owners and workers over the withdrawal of a "plague bonus."
• Gandhi undertook his first hunger strike in India to support workers' demand for a 35% wage hike (mill owners offered 20%); the strike/fast pressured mill owners to agree to arbitration; workers got a 35% increase.
• Led to formation of the Textile Labour Association (Majoor Mahajan Sangh), an early trade union, in 1920.

9.3 Kheda Satyagraha (1918) — Gujarat

• Peasants of Kheda district, Gujarat, faced crop failure/famine but the government refused to remit land revenue.
• Gandhi organised a no-revenue-payment campaign; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a key organisational role here — this is where Patel first rose to prominence as a Gandhian mass leader.
• Government eventually agreed to suspend revenue collection for the poorest cultivators.

Key Facts / Quick Revision Points — Early Satyagrahas

• Champaran (1917, Bihar) — indigo/Tinkathia system; first Gandhian satyagraha in India.
• Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918) — labour dispute; Gandhi's first hunger strike in India.
• Kheda Satyagraha (1918, Gujarat) — no-revenue campaign; Sardar Patel's rise.
• Common thread: all three were local, specific, non-political-in-the-national-sense movements — training ground before Gandhi entered all-India politics.