Summary

Context: The chapter is an excerpt from Louis Fischer's biography The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, focusing on his 1917 intervention in the Champaran indigo dispute in Bihar. British planters forced peasants to grow indigo on three-twentieths (fifteen per cent) of their land under a long-term contract and, when synthetic dyes from Germany made indigo unprofitable, demanded compensation to release them from the arrangement.

Story: Gandhi comes to Champaran at the request of a persistent peasant, Rajkumar Shukla. He faces resistance from local authorities, is ordered to leave, and chooses to face trial — a deliberate act of civil disobedience. Thousands of peasants gather spontaneously at Motihari; the case is dropped. Gandhi then collects detailed statements from about ten thousand peasants, and an official commission is appointed with him as the sole representative of the peasants. The planters agree to refund the extorted money; Gandhi accepts a twenty-five per cent settlement, and in time the tinkathia indigo system disappears.

Themes: The power of non-violent resistance and moral courage over brute force; a leader who empowers the oppressed to shed their fear; the clash between colonial injustice and grassroots awakening; the importance of self-reliance and of everyday welfare (Gandhi opens schools, arranges a doctor, and teaches cleanliness and sanitation in the villages).

Characters: Mahatma Gandhi — patient, principled, strategic, using the legal process as a stage for moral truth; Rajkumar Shukla — persistent, illiterate but resolute peasant who brings Gandhi to Champaran; the indigo peasants — fearful at first, then awakened to courage; the British landlords and officials — exploitative and finally forced to retreat. …