“Dialogue and not violence can resolve …

Gandhiji met Raj Kumar Shukla, a poor peasant from Champaran, at Lucknow national conference of Congress. Shukla wanted Gandhiji to come to Champaran to help the sharecropper peasants who were forced to grow indigo on 15 percent of their land and part with it as rent. Since the development of synthetic indigo, cultivation of indigo had become useless as the profits dwindled. The landlords wanted the peasants to pay compensation. To understand the whole situation, Gandhiji wanted to meet the high officials.  He tried to meet the commissioner of Trihut but was bullied and asked to leave the city. He defied the orders. His refusal to obey the orders and subsequently to submit bail created a tricky situation.  The spontaneous demonstration of a mass movement to help Gandhiji compelled the officials to drop the case against him. Gandhiji agreed to 25 percent of refund to the peasants because he knew that by refunding even a part of compensation would lead to loss of prestige for the British. Finally, the British landlords abandoned their land which was returned to the peasants. This was the first success on the road to Indian freedom.