Sardar Patel was a practical man. He did not like the talk of extreme idealism and extreme fantasy. Because of this he was disliked by Gandhi's speeches.
Vallabhbhai felt that the British should be spoken to in the language of the British. In 1917, Gandhiji reached Champaran on the call of the farmers of Champaran in Bihar province. The white merchants there, who were called Neel Saheb, used to commit terrible atrocities on the farmers cultivating indigo.
They forced the merchants to cultivate indigo and snatched their crops by paying them a very small amount. These farmers were being subjected to such terrible atrocities for the last three hundred years. Gandhiji did Satyagraha in protest against the atrocities on the farmers.
When the news of this Satyagraha appeared in the newspapers, Vallabhbhai's attention turned towards Gandhi. Vallabhbhai liked this program of Gandhi.