As Nitish govt plans Champaran Satyagrah celebrations, family of Mahatma’s saviour Battak Mian hope promises will be fulfilled

Now that Nitish Kumar government is preparing for grand celebrations in the centenary year of Champaran Satyagrah starting this April, Battak Mian’s family’s hopes are rekindled, more so after the Bihar CM issued fresh instructions to East Champaran administration to allot land to Mian’s family, now living at his paternal village of Siswa Ajgari under Banjaria block of East Champaran and also at Ekwa Parsauni village neat Narkatiyaganj, West Champaran.

The year long-celebration will coincide with important dates of Gandhi’s visit from Patna to Motihari via Muzaffarpur when he was called by a farmer to take up the cause of indigo planters.

The Bihar government had promised to give the family 32 acres of land in acknowledgement of Mian’s contributions to 1917 freedom struggle and also because Mian had lost a huge portion of his landed property during Champaran Satyagrah.

Though the East Champaran administration claims the family had been given about 12 acres of land, Mian’s grandson Kalam Ansari said they were given only six acres of land in West Champaran and of which most land had been swept away by Gandak river, forcing a large part of Mian family to live in thatched houses on Gandak banks. The extended family of Mian has over over 60 members from his three sons who are now dead.

What the family today has as proof of government promise for land is a bunch of recommendation letters written by Dr Rajendra Prasad to Congress leader A Q Ansari and some Bihar government letters. The family has got all of them laminated, and now

This is what then Dr Rajendra Prasad wrote for Battak Mian on November 17, 1962 on a letter pad under header “To those who it may concern”: “Shri Muhammed Jan Ansari, son of late Battak Mian of Siswa Ajgari, a village in the district of Champaran, is known to me. His father took active part in the agrarian movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1917 in Champaran to stop the tyrannical ways of European indigo planters, and was sent to jail by then government three times, losing large landed properties.” Dr Prasad also wrote that he had visited Mian’s family and offered them financial help off and on. He concluded the letter saying: “His son Muhammed Jan deserved help and sympathetic consideration from all quarters”.

Battak Mian has been moving from one office to another and wrote even to then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to intervene. The home (special) department of Bihar governnent had responded to PMO letter by referring the matter to East Champaran administration. Battak Mian’s grandson Kalam Ansari (65), who has been taken up the arduous job of corresponding with the government after his father Muhammed Jan Ansari died years ago. Ansari said: “It is so ironical that the state government that is now going all for Champaran centenary celebrations could not dispose one file in last 50 years”. Records say it was first Congress leader AQ Ansari who first wrote to then minister for land revenue and labour on September 22,1960 reminding him of pending application of Mian family since 1948.

Ever since Battak Mian died in 1957, , there have been dozens of correspondence among various departments of Bihar government. “It has been 69 years and my four generations from my father to my grandson, who have been hearing about government promise of giving us 32 acres land. The district administration neither says yes nor no but keeps moving file. A few years ago, then East Champaran DM Narmadeshwar Lal took up the matter seriously but nothing happens”, said Ansari, who has 10 sons. Talking about his family lineage, Kalam Ansari said his grandfather Battak Mian had three sons – Rashid Mian, Sher Muhammed Mian and Mohammed Jan Ansari. While Rashid had one son, Sher two sons, Jan had six sons. All three sons of several grandsons of Mian are dead. Kalam Ansari and several other of his cousins and grandnephews live at Ekwa Parsauni village, 50 km of Betiah, district headquarters of West Champaran.

Kalam Ansari says: “I have grown up with my father and uncles recounting story of how my grandfather, then a cook employed by Britishers, had been asked to give Gandhiji to offer him goat milk that was poisoned. But my grandfather started crying when he took milk to Gandhiji and revealed the conspiracy. My grandfather turned a rebel and joined Champaran Satyagrah.” Battak Mian’s story finds mention in Bihar board’s Class three text “Paryavaran aur hum” and also in a book, Chak Par Ret, by former Bihar Legislative Council chairman Zabir Hussain.

East Champaran Additional District Magistrate Arshad Ali, who has been assigned to submit a report on Battak Mian family lineage and family’s demand, told The Indian Express: “I have been asked to conduct a fresh survey by DM following instructions from the chief minister’s office, It is true that the Mian family had been promised 32 acres of land but as most part of land had been under forest department, previous government could give them only 12 acres – about six acres now washed away by Gandak river. We have prepared a family lineage and trying to habitate the entire family at one place. We have identified a land plot at Chiraiya, 15 km from Motihari, I will be submitting my report soon following which land allotment process may begin”.