• ABOUT THE AUTHOR • BACKGROUND • EXPLANATION • SUMMARY About the Author: Louis Fischer (1896-1970) was born in Philadelphia in 1896. He served as a volunteer in the British Army between 1918-1920. Fischer made a career as a journalist and wrote for The New York Times, The Saturday Review and for European and Asian publications. He was also a member of the faculty of Princeton University. BACKGROUND OF INDIGO • Mahatma Gandhi set about organising peasants, farmers and urban labourers. • Fischer came to India in May 1942 during World War I, wrote a book on him. • Detailed account of Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle for the poor peasants of Champaran • He tells the reasons that led him to ask the British to leave India, hence, initiating the freedom struggle. December 1916, at the annual convention of the Indian National Congress Party in Lucknow. A peasant from Champaran, Raj Kumar Shukla met Mahatma Gandhi and requested him to accompany him to his district, Champaran in Bihar. They worked as “sharecroppers:. Raj Kumar Shukla was illiterate but determined to complain about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar. INDIGO CULTIVATION • On the date fixed Shukla waited eagerly for Mahatma Gandhi, when Gandhi got free, they took a train to Patna, Bihar. • In Patna, Shukla took Gandhiji to the house of Rajendra Prasad, a prominent lawyer, who went on to become the first President of Independent India. • Gandhi decided to go first to Muzzafarpur, which was en route to Champaran. • He accordingly sent a telegram to Professor J.B. Kriplani. • Indians feared the British and so, did not provide shelter to those involved in the freedom struggle. • The news of Gandhi’s advent and of the nature of his mission spread quickly through Muzzafarpur and to Champaran. • Sharecroppers from Champaran began arriving on foot and by conveyance to see their Champion. Lawyers called on Gandhi to brief him; they frequently represented peasant groups in court; they told him about their cases and reported the size of their fee. Gandhi chided the lawyers for collecting big fee from the sharecroppers. Most of the arable land in the Champaran district was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants. • When Gandhi arrived in Champaran first, he visited the secretary of the British landlord’s association. The secretary refused to give information to an outsider to which Gandhi answered that he was no outsider. • Next, Gandhi called on the British official commissioner of the Tirhut division in which the Champaran district lay. • Instead he proceeded to Motihari, the capital of Champaran along with several lawyers. • At the railway station, a vast multitude greeted Gandhi. • A peasant had been maltreated in a nearby village, he proceeded to look into the matter but a police superintendent’s messenger overtook his carriage and ask him to return • He complied, the messenger dropped him home and served him a notice to leave Champaran. Gandhi disobeyed the order. • Gandhi received summons to appear in the court the next day • Mahatma Gandhi remained awake the entire night. • He sent a telegraph to Rajendra Prasad to come with some of his ‘influential’ friends. • He instructed at the Ashram about the summon. • Also reported to Viceroy. • In the morning, the place was full of peasants who were unaware of who Gandhiji was and his accomplishments. • Gandhi protested against the delay. He read a statement pleading guilty. • He told the court that he was caught in a conflict of duties, disregard the order to leave and asked for penalty. • Rajendra Prasad, Brij Kishor Babu, Maulana Mazharul Huq and several other prominent lawyers had arrived from Bihar. • They conferred with Gandhi. What would they do if he was sentenced to prison, Gandhi asked. • They decided to court arrest. • Gandhi received a written communication from the magistrate informing him that the Lieutant- Governor of the province had ordered the case to be dropped.

• Civil Disobedience had triumphed for the first time in modern India. • Gandhiji conducted an in-depth inquiry, took statements of about 10,000 peasants, collected supporting documents. • Upon being summoned by Sir Edward Gait, the Lieutenant Governor, he made plans for civil disobedience in case he did not return. • After a few years the British planters abandoned their estates, which reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared. • Gandhi never contented himself with large political or economic solutions. • He worked for the social and cultural backwardness of the people also. • This was turning point in Gandhi’s life. • It was an attempt to alleviate the distress of large number of poor peasants. This was the typical Gandhi pattern – his politics were intertwined with the practical, day- to-day problems of millions. • His was not a loyalty to abstractions; it was a loyalty to living human beings. • An Englishman, C.F.Andrew, who was a supporter of non-violence and admired Gandhiji was willing to support their cause and lawyers also considered having an Englishman with them to be a good idea. • Gandhiji asked his group not to seek help of him as he is an Englishman. Rajendra Prasad recollecting that in this way, he taught them to be self- reliant. THANK YOU