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Champaran Satyagraha [1917] , Ahmadabad mill strike, Kheda Strike

Champaran Satyagraha [1917] Gandhiji’s first great experiment in Satyagraha came in 1917 in Champaran, a district in Bihar. The peasantry on the indigo plantation in the district was excessively oppressed by the European planters. They were compelled to grow indigo and to sell it at prices fixed by the planters. Gandhiji reached in Champaran in 1917 and began to conduct a detailed enquiry into the condition of the peasantry. The district officials ordered him to leave Champaran, but he defied the order and was willing to face trial and imprisonment. This forced the government to cancel its earlier order and to appoint a committee of enquiry on which Gandhiji served as a peasantry was suffering were reduced. This was the first triumph of Gandhiji new technique of Satyagraha in India. Ahmadabad mill strike In 1918, Gandhiji’s intervened in a dispute between the workers and mill owners of Ahmadabad. He advised the workers to go on strike and to demand a 35% increase in wages. He under took a fast into death to strengthen the workers revolve to continue the strike. It put pressure on the mill owners and a settlement was reached between the workers and mill owners. They agreed to give workers a 35% increase in wages. Kheda Strike Immediately after Ahmadabad, Gandhiji played himself into a Satyagraha in Kheda in Gujarat. Here the peasant proprietors called the ‘Patidars’ were subjected to immense suffering due to an increase in the tax assessment on them by the British Govt. The increase in the tax came at a time when there had been a failure of crops due to excessive rainfall. Gandhiji advised the peasants to withhold payment of revenue till their demand was met. The strike was withdrawn when it was learnt that the govt had raised instruction to collect revenue from peasants who could afford to pay.

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