Eric Frank Russell's "... And Then There Were None": Astrix as a novel - only "magic potion" is replaced with "Gandhigiri"

This lovely piece of humor details the adventures of colonists on a planet where the natives have taken Mahatma Gandhi very seriously.

Full text of the story is available online.

Summary.
Story is set sometime in 27th century.

Four centuries ago, Blieder-drive was invented - a kind of engine that made faster-than-light travel possible. Within a few years, a lot of ships of colonists left earth. Many worlds were populated - sometimes with people sharing specific eccentricities.

Now there are 1600 of them. And Earth believes it ought to rule them all; something called Terran Empire exists. And earth is militarily & materially the most powerful world among the lot.

Story is set on an unnamed & underpopulated world. All is peaceful on the morning the story begins, just like in the well known village in Gaul. Then a Terran battleship with 2000 soldiers, administrators, & an unnamed Ambassador land - to make it a Terran colony.

Things begin going wrong immediately after landing. Locals refuse to notice colonists. Attempts to force natives meet Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagrah-style resistance. In fact, local folks of the little town where most of story is set call themselves "Gands" (short for Gandhians); & colonists "Antigands".

We are often presented with two pieces of local slang: "ob" stands for "obligation". This is the local currency based on an honor system; no printed or plastic money. And a word of insult - "myob" - "Mind Your Own Business" - kind of, don't poke into other people's affairs.

There is much adventure & fun - very like Romans vs Gauls in Asterix.

As ordinary soldiers come into contact with locals, rebellion of authority spreads like a virus through the ranks. Hundreds of soldiers desert. Fearing they will not be left with enough to go back home, colonists leave in a bit of a hurry!

Collected in.

1. "Major Ingredients" (ed Rick Katze). 

Fact sheet.
First published: Astounding Science Fiction, June 1951
Rating: A
Related: All stories of Eric Frank Russell.
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.

See also.

1. Arthur Clarke's "Trouble With The Natives": This humorous piece describes the frustration of alien colonizers when they landed near an English village.
2. "Lage Raho Munnabhai": Movie released in 2006. Original in Hindi; English dubbed or subtitled versions are available; may be in other languages too. Gandhism applied to issues of modern India - good humor. And one of the most influential movies ever made - added a new word "Gandhigiri" to Hindi vocabulary; spawned dozens of experiments across the country for fixing every conceivable human problem with gandhigiri.