Motihari is a city and the administrative headquarters of the East Champaran district in the Indian state of Bihar. Located in the northern part of Bihar near the border with Nepal, it is historically significant as the birthplace of the English author George Orwell and as the launching point of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha of 1917, the first major civil disobedience movement in colonial India.
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| State | Bihar |
| District | East Champaran (Purbi Champaran) |
| Status | District headquarters; municipal council |
| Region | Tirhut Division |
| Languages | Hindi, Bhojpuri, Urdu |
Motihari lies in the Gangetic plains of north Bihar, on the banks of Motijheel, a horseshoe-shaped lake from which the town is believed to derive its name (moti, meaning pearl, and jheel or hari, an old water body). The terrain is flat and alluvial, drained by tributaries of the Gandak and Burhi Gandak rivers. The city is situated relatively close to the Indo-Nepal border, with Raxaul and the Nepalese town of Birgunj lying to its north.
The Champaran region historically formed part of the ancient territory associated with the Videha and Vajji confederacies. Local traditions link parts of Champaran to episodes from the Ramayana, and the area later came under successive Magadhan, Mauryan, and Mughal administrations before passing to the British East India Company in the late 18th century.
Under British rule, Champaran became a centre of indigo plantations operated under the tinkathia system, by which tenant cultivators were compelled to grow indigo on a fixed share of their land for European planters. The exploitative conditions associated with this system made Motihari a focal point of agrarian unrest in the early 20th century.
In April 1917, Mahatma Gandhi visited Motihari at the invitation of the cultivator Raj Kumar Shukla to investigate the grievances of indigo ryots. Gandhi's refusal to leave the district when ordered by the local administration, and the subsequent withdrawal of the prosecution against him, marked the beginning of organised satyagraha in India. The inquiry led to the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1918, which abolished the tinkathia system. A memorial dedicated to the satyagraha stands in Motihari.
Eric Arthur Blair, who later wrote under the pen name George Orwell, was born in Motihari in 1903, where his father served in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service. The bungalow associated with his birth still stands in the town and has been the subject of preservation efforts.
Motihari functions as the headquarters of East Champaran district, which was carved out of the larger Champaran district in 1972 when the latter was bifurcated into East and West Champaran. The city hosts the offices of the District Magistrate, the District and Sessions Court, and the Superintendent of Police, and is governed at the urban level by a municipal council (Nagar Parishad).
Motihari is the seat of the Mahatma Gandhi Central University, established by an Act of Parliament in 2014 and named in commemoration of Gandhi's association with Champaran. The city also hosts Munshi Singh College and several other institutions affiliated with B. R. Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur.
Bhojpuri is the dominant language of everyday communication, and the city observes major Hindu festivals such as Chhath, Holi, and Durga Puja with particular prominence.
Motihari's importance derives from a combination of its administrative role in north Bihar, its place in the history of the Indian freedom movement as the site where Gandhi first applied satyagraha on Indian soil, and its literary association with George Orwell. The surrounding Champaran region remains predominantly agrarian, with sugarcane, paddy, wheat, and pulses as principal crops.