The Champaran Andolan of 1917 was India’s first civil disobedience movement spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi in the Champaran district of Bihar. This movement marked Mahatma Gandhi’s first attempt of implementing his satyagraha mode of protest which was a passive non-violent civil resistance of the masses against the British colonizers.

The main focus of the Champaran movement for Mahatma Gandhi was to address the plight of the farmers of Champaran. The British directed the tenant farmers of the Champaran region to grow crop of indigo on a large scale by force. Mahatma Gandhi mobilized the people of the Champaran district with his band of capable lawyers where he played an active role in educating the masses as well as established them economically by teaching them the various methods of self-sustaining livelihood. The movement was a resounding success not only in terms of revoking the forceful cultivation of indigo by the British colonizers but also in terms of being India’s first landmark civil disobedience movement along with the effectiveness of Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha mode of protest.

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