Image: Mahatma Gandhi during the Kheda Movement, 1918. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
The Kheda Satyagraha of 1918 was one of Gandhi’s early campaigns after his return to India. The dispute centred on land revenue and the difficulties faced by cultivators after poor harvest conditions.
What was the Kheda dispute?
Farmers in Kheda district, Gujarat, argued that crop failure and economic hardship made it difficult to pay the full land revenue demanded by the colonial administration.
Gandhi and other leaders supported the farmers’ demand for relief and organised a campaign based on non-payment under specified conditions.
Gandhi’s method
The campaign relied on organisation, pledges and nonviolent resistance. Farmers were encouraged to remain united and avoid violence while facing the consequences of refusing payment.
The Gandhi Heritage Portal maintains a detailed chronology of Kheda from February through June 1918.
Vallabhbhai Patel’s role
Vallabhbhai Patel played an important organisational role in the campaign. His work in Kheda became part of the wider political partnership between Patel and Gandhi.
What the campaign demonstrated
Kheda showed how Gandhi’s methods could be applied to a rural economic dispute. The campaign also demonstrated the importance of local leadership and disciplined collective action.
The movement was not simply a symbolic protest. Its focus was a specific administrative and economic issue: the relationship between agricultural conditions and revenue demands.
Kheda in the larger Gandhi story
Kheda followed the Champaran campaign of 1917 and the Ahmedabad mill workers’ dispute of 1918. Together, these early campaigns helped establish Gandhi’s reputation in Indian public life before the nationwide movements of the 1920s.
See the Gandhi Heritage Portal chronology and NewsNationOnline’s related Champaran Satyagraha article.
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