Champaran is a region in Bihar, India. It is now divided into two districts: East Champaran and West Champaran.

Champaran is identified with the Champāraṇya mentioned in the Bheraghat inscription as a place "devastated" by the Kalachuri king Yashaḥkarṇa (11th/12th century).

In 1917, Mahatma Gandhi led a satyagraha movement in the Champaran district against the policies enforced by European landowners and the colonial government. These policies coerced local farmers into cultivating indigo at unfairly low prices. In response to Gandhi's leadership, the British authorities initially arrested him but later released him, subsequently amending the laws to alleviate the plight of the peasants. This marked Gandhi's first campaign in India and a significant triumph for the principles of civil disobedience.

• Manoj Bajpai – Indian film actor
• Dinesh Bhramar – poet and noted figure in Hindi and Bhojpuri literature
• Anuranjan Jha – Indian journalist
• Abdur Rahman (IPS), Former Indian police officer.
• Prakash Jha – Indian filmmaker
• Ramesh Chandra Jha – Indian poet, novelist and freedom fighter
• Abdullah Khan – novelist and screenwriter
• Ravish Kumar – Indian journalist
• Gopal Singh Nepali – Indian poet of Hindi literature, Bollywood lyricist
• George Orwell – English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic
• Kedar Pandey – Congress leader and ex-Chief Minister of Bihar
• Afroz Alam Sahil – Indian journalist
• Raj Kumar Shukla – indigo cultivator, activist
• Radha Mohan Singh – Indian politician
• Sanjeev K Jha – Indian script writer, filmmaker

• "Champaran Gramodyog Sansthan". Archived from the original on 1 June 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
• Singh, Shankar Dayal. Gandhi's first step: Champaran movement, by B.R. Pub. Corp., 1994. ISBN 81-7018-834-2.
• Chakrabarti D.K. (1996b). From Purnea to Champaran: The distribution of sites in the north Bihar plains. South Asian Studies, 12:pp. 147–158