Champaran and Gandhi: Planters, Peasants and Gandhian Politics

This book studies the indigo plantation economy and its impact on agrarian society in colonial Bihar. It shows how the indigo business, though in part a capitalist speculation tied to the world market, relief methodically on inexpensive, age-old techniques and on the social and institutional constraints of the rural power structure to produce dye at the lowest possible cost. The history of indigo is traced from its beginnings in the late eighteenth century to its decline in the early twentieth century. This sets the stage for understanding the chronic peasant agitations which emerged during the 1860s, culminating in the Champaran movement of 1917-18, the first experiment in Gandhian mass mobilization. This book will interest all students of social and economic history as well as Gandhian politics.