By Correspondent Kamal Kant Sahay
Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it – Mahatma Gandhi
The year 2016 marks the commencement of centenary celebrations of Bapu's Champaran Satyagarha. The memorialisation began on April 10and is scheduled to witness several events, including a series of lectures by eminent personalities, being organised by the Bihar government. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held an all-party meeting for making the celebrations a grand success. The decision vis-à-vis the memorialisation was taken by the city-based Gandhi Sangrahalaya.
Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh adopted ten villages that were visited by Gandhiji. The politician promised to transform the places -- christened ‘Gandhi-gram' -- by providing quality education, sanitation and self-employment. The villages are Chandrahiya, Gajpura, Piprakothi, Jasaulipatti, Rajpurkothi, Jalaha, Sirani, Malahi, Olaha and Rampur. “Every dwelling therein will have a toilet and potable water facilities under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The villages shall be linked with pucca roads and supplied electricity,” the Minister assured.
The leader laid the foundation stone for a Satyagraha Bhavan, on the Gandhi Smarak premises in Chandrahiya, which is to cost Rs. 15 lakh. The building will be utilised as a skill development training centre where rural artisans including dalits shall be provided guidance in bamboo and woodcraft with the objective of promoting cottage industry. They will receive help from banks. Efforts are underway to utilise funds allocated under centrally-sponsored schemes for all-round development of these villages within a year.
The Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. is preparing a Gandhi circuit as part of the celebrations. Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha announced a new express train between Motihari and Delhi.
However, the Motihari-based Gandhi Memorial Pillar and Museum’s Secretary Brajkishore Singh says that a lot remains to be done at Bhitiharwa Ashram.
Mahatma Gandhi launched his satyagraha against the British rule in Bihar’s Champaran district April 10, 1917. After his return from South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi chose to experiment with satyagraha in Champaran. It was Gandhi’s first mass agitation in India, where he had led a protest of peasants against forcible cultivation of indigo. The Champaran satyagarha turned out to be a new beginning in the course of Indian freedom struggle. His visit to Champaran followed persistent requests from Raj Kumar Shukla, a peasant. He was one of the thousands of farmers subjected to oppressive and rapacious measures taken by erstwhile British regime to force them for cultivation of Indigo on their fertile land in North region of Bihar. In 1916, Shukla met Mahatma Gandhi in Lucknow during Congress meeting and requested him to visit Champaran to take personal account of suffering of farmers there. Repeated requests from Shukla yielded result and Mahatma Gandhi ultimately gave his consent to visit Champaran. Gandhi was in Calcutta in first week of April 1916 to attend a conference and was prepared to go to Champaran. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Shukla boarded the train and reached Patna on April 10, 1916, a historic day for Bihar.