Ndians were supposed to work seven hours each day, and to be paid a set fee for each day's work. But the planters instead preferred to pay by the "task''—they insisted that they wouldn't pay a worker until he had completed a specific job. Of course the owner would pick a job that took much more than seven hours, so a worker's day stretched from sunup to sundown. Bechu showed that this was illegal and unfair: "There are lots of indentured men who work by time and have drivers at their backs all day long." Yet, even then, they "do not earn'' the amount specified in their contracts.

Several planters wrote back to the paper, furious at the suggestion that they were cheating the coolies. The letters were black with rage—at the Indian who dared to speak up and question the ethics of Englishmen. When a commission was convened in 1897 to investigate the conditions on the estates, Bechu—the Indian the planters hated—came before the judges to share his evidence.

What is the authors’ purpose in this passage?

to inform the reader about the daily routines and tasks of workers on the sugar plantations
to inform the reader about Bechu’s role in proving that the plantation owners’ tactics were illegal
to inform the reader that certain jobs on the plantation took too long to be finished in one day
to inform the reader that Bechu was powerless over his bosses, despite sharing his evidence