When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in Sevagram, in central India, he said, "I will tell you how it happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British. It was in 1917." He had gone to the December 1916 annual convention of the Indian National Congress party in Lucknow. There were 2,301 delegates and many visitors. During the proceedings, Gandhi recounted, "a peasant came up to looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated, and said, I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran. and I want you to come to my district'!" Gandhi had never heard of the place. It was in the foothilis of the towering Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal. Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran peasants were sharecroppers. Rajkumar Shukla was one of them. He was illiterate but resolute. He had come to the
Congress session to complain about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar, and somebody had probably said Speak to Gandhi." Gandhi told Shukla he had an appointment in Cawnpore and was also committed to go to other parts of Indla. Shukla accompanted him everywhere. Then Gandhi returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed him to the ashram. For weeks he never left Gandhi's side Fix a date," he begged Impressed by the sharecropper's tenacity and story Gandhí said, "I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a date. Come and meet me and take me from there." Months passed. Shukla was sitting on is haunches at the Think as you read appointed spot in Calcutta when Gandhi arrived; he watted till Gandhi 1. Stike out what is not true in was free. Then the two of them boarded a train for the city of Patna In Bihar. There Shukla led him to the house of a lawyer named Rajendra Prasad who later became President of the Congress party and of Indla. Rajendra Prasad was out of town, but the servants knew Shukla as a poor yeoman who pestered their master to help the 2. Why is Rajkumar Shuka indigo sharecroppers. So they let the following a Rajkumar Shukla was () a politician () delegate (v) a landlord. b Rakumar Shukla was (0 poor O physically strong () iliterate descnibed as being 'resolute? him stay on the grounds with his 3. Why do you think the companion, Gandhi, whom they took to be another peasant. But Gandhi was not permitted to draw water from the well lest some drops from his bucket pollute the entire source: how did they know that he was not an untouchable? servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant? Gandhi decided to go first to Muzzafarpur, which was en route to Champaran, to obtain more complete information about conditions than Shukla was capable of Imparting. He accordingly sent a telegram to Professor J.B. Kripalani, of the Arts College in Muzzafarpur, whom he had seen at Tagore's Shantiniketan school. The train arrived at midnight, 15 April 1917. Kripalani was wat at the station with a large body of students. Gandhi staved there for two days in the home of Professor Malkani, a teacher in a government school "It was an extraordinaryy thing 'in those days," Gandhi commented, "for a government professor to harbour a man like me". In smaller localities the Indians were afraid to show sympathy for advocates of home-rule ing 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. Muzzafarpur lawyers called on Gandhi to brief him; n 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. He said, "I have come to the conclusion that we should stop going to law courts Taking such cases to the courts does litte good. Where the peasants are so crushed and fear-stricken law courts are useless. The real relief for them to be free from fear." Most of the arable land in the Champaran district was divided into large
