Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/394

 Copy of the letter from the Commissioner, Tirhat Division, to the District Magistrate of Champaran, dated Muzaflarpur, the 13th April, 1917:

Sir.

Mr. M. K. Gandhi has come here in response to what he describes as an insistent public demand, to inquire into the conditions under which Indians work, on indigo plantations, and desires the help of the local administration. He came to see me this morning; and I explained that relations between the planters and raiyats had engaged the attention of the administration since the sixties, and that we were particularly concerned with a phase of the problem in Champaran now; but it was doubtful whether the intervention of a stranger in the middle of our treatment of the case would not prove an embarrassment. I indicated the potentialities of disturbance in Champaran, asked for credentials to show an insistent public demand for his enquiry, and said that the matter would probably need reference to Government.

I expect that Mr. Gandhi will communicate with me again before he proceeds to Champaran. but have been informed since our interview that his object is likely to be agitation, rather than a genuine search for knowledge, and it is possible that he may