Memory Lapse

On the 100th anniversary of the Champaran Satyagraha, the family of the man who saved Gandhi says the country has forgotten him

- M.S. Anoop

The plot was hatched. And a poor Muslim cook was at the centre of it. The year was 1917. Mahatma Gandhi was visiting Champaran in Bihar to see for himself the plight of the farmers who were being forced by the landlords to grow indigo. During the visit, he got a dinner invitation from an Englishman, Erwin, who was the manager of an indigo plantation. Erwin had planned to eliminate Gandhi by serving him a glass of milk laced with poison, and the task was assigned to his cook, Batak Mian.

When the time came, Batak Mian presented the glass of milk to Gandhi, but he also warned him of its contents. Dr Rajendra Prasad witnessed the entire episode. Though Gandhi escaped the sinister plot and successfully led the Champaran Satyagraha, Batak Mian had to pay a heavy price for it. He was dismissed from work, put behind bars and tortured. His house and land in Siswa Ajgari, a village near Motihari, were auctioned and his family was forced to leave the village.