1. Organized by Gandhiji in 1916 to protest against the oppressive plantation system in indigo plantations in Bihar.2. Champaran movement was started as a protest against the tortures and the exploitations of the indigo planters in Bihar as well as other parts of the country.3. This movement had quite a long lasting effect.4. Mahatma Gandhi was firm in his efforts to bring good days in Champaran of Bihar.5. The British Government was at last compelled to establish a Committee of Inquiry.6. The committee was entrusted with the responsibility of examination and submission of report on the conditions of the farmers in Champaran.7. Mahatma Gandhi was himself a member of that Committee8. It signed the report on the 3rd of October 1917.9. This was forwarded to the Government of Bihar.10. It was then that the Champaran Agrarian Act was passed in March 1918.11. This brought an end to the exploitation of the indigo planters.

M "Resurgence in the history of Bihar came during the struggle for India's independence. It was from Bihar that Mahatma Gandhi launched his civil-disobedience movement, which ultimately led to India's independence. At the persistent request of a farmer, Raj Kumar Shukla, from the district of Champaran, in 1917 Gandhiji took a train ride to Motihari, the district headquarters of Champaran. Here he learned, first hand, the sad plight of the indigo farmers suffering under the oppressive rule of the British. Alarmed at the tumultuous reception Gandhiji received in Champaran, the British authorities served notice on him to leave the Province of Bihar. Gandhiji refused to comply, saying that as an Indian he was free to travel anywhere in his own country. For this act of defiance he was detained in the district jail at Motihari. From his jail cell, with the help of his friend from South Africa days, C. F. Andrews, Gandhiji managed to send letters to journalists and the Viceroy of India describing what he saw in Champaran, and made formal demands for the emancipation of these people.

When produced in court, the Magistrate ordered him released, but on payment of bail. Gandhiji refused to pay the bail. Instead, he indicated his preference to remain in jail under arrest. Alarmed at the huge response Gandhiji was receiving from the people of Champaran, and intimidated by the knowledge that Gandhiji had already managed to inform the Viceroy of the mistreatment of the farmers by the British plantation owners, the magistrate set him free, without payment of any bail. This was the first instance of the success of civil-disobedience as a tool to win freedom. The British received, their first "object lesson" of the power of civil-disobedience. It also made the British authorities recognize, for the first time, Gandhiji as a national leader of some consequence. What Raj Kumar Shukla had started, and the massive response people of Champaran gave to Gandhiji, catapulted his reputation throughout India. Thus, in 1917, began a series of events in a remote corner of Bihar, that ultimately led to the freedom of India in 1947.

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