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European landlords to repress them, he set up voluntary organizations to open schools and teach them ways to improve their economic, educational and sanitation conditions. He invited eminent teachers from all over India to teach and have a common kitchen with vegetarian simple food, even though most of them were non vegetarians. He asked his friend, Dr Pranjivan Mehta, who offered all monetary help that Gandhi wanted.' Gandhi says, 'Champaran inquiry was a bold experiment with Ahimsa and Truth'. He emphasized observance of Satyagraha, or insistence for the Truth against unfair laws while respecting the fair laws and to direct the struggle against tyranny and not against the tyrant, to win government functionaries.
On November 2, 1917 the Champaran Agrarian Bill was passed in accordance with the recommendations of the committee of which he was also a member. The government accepted the Law in March of 1918." It gave great relief to the cultivators and land tenants.
Mill Dispute: In 1918, Gandhi advised the mill workers in Ahmedabad to go on strike to demand a thirty-five percent increase in wages against the mill owners who were his good acquaintances and well wishers. The strike was planned as a Satyagraha. It lasted 21 days. He explained to the workers and their leaders pre-requisites for a successful strike", namely: never to resort to violence, never to molest blacklegs, never to depend upon alms, and to remain firm no matter how long the strike continued, and to earn bread during the strike by any other honest labour. So he asked them to stay firm to their oath. "Starve but keep your vow” as he also fasted against the weakening of strikers. Gandhi explained that he did not fast for coercing neither the workers not the mill owners." Finally the workers achieved their demands of a thirty-five percent increase
Gandhi & Jainism
Pg.77
