Bhairab Lal Das. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Nov. 23: The very mention of indigo planters conjures up bitter memories of the time during the Raj when they heaped torture on farmers in north Bihar districts, where the plant used to be grown.

But a new book would make on pause before painting all indigo planters with the same brush. For, there were some planters, who, even after fighting acrimonious legal battles with farmers, exhibited an unexpected humane face.

Take the case of A.C. Ammon, an indigo planter from Britain, who was based at Belwa in then Champaran district, now divided into West and East Champaran districts.

Ammon was the bête noire of Rajkumar Shukla, the Champaran farmer who persuaded Gandhiji to come to the boondocks of Bihar to take up cudgels on behalf of the harried farmers, a movement that became Gandhi’s first experiment in mass movement against British rule in India. And yet, it was Ammon who ensured dignity for Shukla after his death.

Waging a sustained battle against indigo planters since the first decade of the 20th century, Shukla had sold all his landed property by the time he died in 1929. Most of his court cases were against Ammon under whose jurisdiction Shukla’s land fell.

After learning of Shukla’s death and the economic condition of his family, Ammon, sent Rs 300 through one of his staff members, for Shukla’s post-death rituals. The British planter also visited Shukla’s native place in Satbaria village for his shraadh.

When Rajendra Prasad, who went on to become the first President of independent India, taunted Ammon by saying he must be a happy soul now that his arch enemy was no more, Ammon came up with a reply very few had expected. “He was the only Man in the crowd of these farmers. And take it from me that I am not going to live for long after his death,” Ammon replied.

As was destined, Ammon died just three months after Shukla breathed his last on May 20, 1929. But before he died, Ammon helped Shukla’s family through his influence in the British government. He helped one of Shukla’s grandsons get a police job.

This unheard-of episode finds mention in a book, Gandhi Ke Champaran Andolan Ke Sutradhar — Rajkumar Shukla Ki Diary, to be released on November 28.

Edited by Bhairab Lal Das, a project officer in the Bihar Legislative Council, this 161-page book is being published on the initiative of Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh Kalyani Foundation. This is its 19th book under the Bihar Heritage Series.

Set up in 1989, the foundation started the Bihar Heritage Series in 1996. Under this series only those books are published which have very significant account of Bihar and are not available in markets or libraries any more.

The book also answers why Shukla approached Mahatma Gandhi and no other Congress leader even though there were many better-known faces in the party at that time.

“Editing this book was a very enriching experience because while collecting material for it, I came across some unheard-of aspects of Shukla’s life,” Das said.