Indigo by Louis Fischer C.B.S.E. book flamingo.

 Louis Fischer was a Jewish-American journalist, who wrote the book 'Life of Mahatma Gandhi'. this story 'Indigo' is an excerpt from the book.This story describes how Gandhiji struggled for the poor peasants of Champaran. This is a true incident in that took place in Gandhi's life in the year 1967.

the story takes us to the phase of the British Rule in India, when Gandhiji attended the Annual Convention of the Indian Congress in 1916, a poor peasant named Rajkumar Shukla approached Gandhiji. he requested Gandhi to accompany him to Champaran to solve the miseries of the poor farmers living there.

Rajkumar Shukla was one of the share-croppers of Champaran, who had come to appeal against the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar. the peasant accompanied Gandhi wherever he went and begged him to visit Champaran. In due course Gandhiji got impressed with his determination, so he asked the peasant to meet him in Calcutta. 

At the decided date/day both of them boarded the train to Patna. they first went to Rajendra Prasad's house, who was a lawyer and later became the first president of India under the congress party.

His servants allowed them to stay as, Rajendra Prasad was not available then, but did not allow to take out water from the well as the servants doubted them to be the untouchables. 

Gandhiji stopped at Muzzafarpur to gather more information about the sharecroppers of Champaran. When Gandhiji and Rajkumar Shukla arrived at the station, they were recaived by Professor J.B. Kripali and his students. Gandhiji stayed at professor Malkami's house, who was a school teacher. It was a daring and a greatful act made by him as it wasn't safe for indians as homerule advocates. When Gandhi reached Muzzafarpur all the sharecroppers gathered to meet him. and the lawyers breifed him with the case. Gandhiji chided the lawyers for charging high fees from the poor farmers. Gandhiji then decided to change the way things were done. He planned to stop going to the law courts as the fear stricken farmers did not get much help from there. There was a need for the farmers to be fearless. 

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the farmers were forced to grow indigo on 15% of their land. they had no claim over the the indigo they cultivated, as the entire indigo had to be given as rent. Meanwhile, the evolution of the German-synthetic indigo were growing its importance due to which the value of natural indigo had gone down. the landlords exempted the tenants from the 15% agreement only after a paid compensation.

The peasants realised that they had been the prey of the unjust for which they engaged lawyers. Later, when they came to know the real behind the exemption, farmers who had signed wanted their money back. 

Gandhiji visited the Secretary of the British Landlord Association. but, no information could be derived from there. So, he went to meet the British Official Commissioner of Tirhut division, where he was bullied and asked to leave. He then gathered few lawyers and went to Motihari, the capital of Champaran to carry on the further investigations. During his investigation he got a message/notice to return. Gandhiji wrote back that he would disobey this order issued to him and would not go back. As a result, he was asked to appear before the court the next day.

Gandhiji immediately, wired Rajendra Prasad to reach Bihar with his influential freinds and also wired Ashram and sent a detailed report the Viceroy. Next day, thousand of peasants taking the first initiative of being fearless gathered outside the court. The court requested Gandhiji to control the crowd  and sought to postpone the hearing, to which Gandhiji objected. he read out a statement that he disobeyed not to break the law but to render hummanitarian and national service. He also claimed to have no disrespect for the law, but greater respect for law of conscience. 

Gnadhiji was asked to furnish bail in two hours to which he refused. So, the court had to release without bail. Prominent lawyers discussed with Gandhiji what they would do if  he was sentenced for prison. Eventually, on Gandhiji's arrest the lawyers went to their native place. Gandhiji  questioned them that what would happen to the sharecroppers if they all would return. After contemplating they decided if Gandhiji as a stranger, can go to the court they should also get arrested as they were the residents of the nearby districts and knew very well the case. Several days later, the case against Gandhiji was dropped Civil Disobedience won for the first time in modern India.

Gandhiji and the lawyers prepared cases for about ten thousand peasants and collected relevant documents. The next few days the landlords at Champaran protested violently. Meanwhile, Gandhiji was summoned by Lt. Governor, Sir Edward Gait, who appointed commission of inquiry after four interviews with Gandhiji. The commission consisted of the landlords, Government offiacials and Gandhiji. Numerous evidences had been collected against the landlords. Since, they were left with no option, the landlords agreed to make the refund. Gandhiji was asked to quote the amount, where he demanded only 50% in contrary to the landlords' expectations. landlords' proposal of 25% refund was approved by Gandhiji. 

Gandhiji later justified his stand to peasants. he told that more than the refund amount, what mattered most was the the surrender of the prestige by the landlords. the victory infused courage in the peasants. Later, the British landlords abandoned the estates and the land was reverted to the peasants. Through this case, Gandhiji wanted the Indians to stand on their feet fearlessly with dignity. he wanted the people to become self-reliant. Patience, preservance and constant efforts are sure to pay off one day.