Kheda Satyagraha (1918)

In 1918 the harvest failed in Kheda, and plague spread. The government still wanted full tax. The farmers said no, and they stayed calm while officers seized their cattle.

This was the Kheda Satyagraha. It was Gandhi’s second big campaign on Indian soil, and it made a national leader out of a Gujarat lawyer named Vallabhbhai Patel.

1Why did Kheda rebel?

Kheda lay in the Bombay Presidency, in today’s Gujarat. In 1917 and 1918 its crops failed. Plague and cholera followed. Many families had little to eat.

The British authorities had also raised the land tax by about 23 percent. Farmers saw this as cruel. They asked for the tax to be waived for the year. Without a good harvest, they could not pay and also feed their children.

They pointed to the Anavari rule. It allowed relief when a crop fell far below normal. Officials refused to apply it. The Nadiad collector held that the crop was good enough.

• District: Kheda, also called Kaira.
• Trouble: crop failure, plague and cholera.
• Tax rise of about 23 percent.
• Farmers cited the Anavari relief rule.
• Read about British land revenue systems.

2How did the pledge work?

The movement began under Mohanlal Pandya and Narhari Parikh. The Gujarat Sabha and Congress backed it soon after. Gandhi visited the villages and looked at the ruined fields himself.

Accounts give 22 March 1918 for a pledge at Nadiad. Farmers vowed not to pay the tax. They also vowed to bear the loss that followed. The vow was open, not secret.

The government threatened to seize land, cattle and household goods. Officers did seize them. The farmers did not fight back. They gave money to the Gujarat Sabha, which ran the campaign.

• Began under Mohanlal Pandya and Narhari Parikh.
• Pledge at Nadiad, 22 March 1918, per accounts.
• Property seized, but the farmers stayed non-violent.
• Donations went to the Gujarat Sabha.
• Read about Mohanlal Pandya.

3Who ran the campaign?

Gandhi was the spiritual head. Local lawyers did the daily work. Vallabhbhai Patel had just joined the cause. Others included Indulal Yagnik, Shankarlal Banker, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya and Ravishankar Vyas.

They toured the villages. They gave political direction to farmers. Accounts say Patel gave up his legal practice to work full time.

The revolt drew many castes. Patidar farmers formed its core. The movement stayed focused on Kheda. Gandhi and Patel rejected calls to spread it to other regions.

• Gandhi: spiritual head.
• Vallabhbhai Patel: chief organiser.
• Helpers: Indulal Yagnik, Shankarlal Banker, Mahadev Desai.
• Kept local, not spread to other regions.
• Read about Mahadev Desai and Ravishankar Maharaj.

4How did it end?

The government wanted an honourable way out. By about June 1918 an agreement came. Sources differ on its exact terms. One account says tax was suspended for that year and the next, with the rate cut. Another says only well-off farmers had to pay.

Both accounts agree on one point. Seized land and goods went back to their owners. Some buyers of seized land were pressed to return it. The British had said they would stand by such buyers.

Historians call it a partial win. Farmers got practical relief. The government admitted no defeat. The real gain was confidence among Gujarat’s peasants.

• Agreement around June 1918.
• Terms differ across sources.
• Seized property returned.
• Seen as a partial victory.
• Read about Gandhi’s philosophy.

5What came after Kheda?

Kheda made Patel a leading organiser in Gujarat. Ten years later he led the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928. It was another tax revolt in the same region. After Bardoli he earned the title Sardar.

Kheda also showed a new method. In Champaran in 1917 Gandhi used an inquiry into indigo farming. In Kheda he used a mass no-tax pledge. Both used open, peaceful resistance.

The same year, Gandhi also supported the Ahmedabad mill strike. That was a labour dispute, not a tax revolt. Keep the two separate.

• Patel led Bardoli in 1928; title Sardar.
• Champaran: an inquiry. Kheda: a no-tax pledge.
• The Ahmedabad mill strike was a labour dispute.
• Read about Sardar Patel.

6What are the exam traps?

Keep the places, the methods and the leaders straight. Examiners like to swap Kheda with Champaran or Bardoli. Check the year and the district first.

• Kheda is in Gujarat; Champaran is in Bihar.
• Kheda was 1918; Bardoli was 1928.
• Kheda used a no-tax pledge, not an inquiry.
• Kheda was a peasant campaign; the mill strike was labour.
• The Anavari rule was about crop failure.
• See the Rowlatt Satyagraha, the next big campaign.