Indigo

Louis Fischer
1. Who was Rajkumar Shukla ? Why did he request Gandhiji to go to Champaran ?
Ans. Rajkumar Shukla was poor and emaciated peasant from Champaran. Under an ancient
arrangement, the Champaran peasants were sharecroppers. Rajkumar Shukla was one of them.
He was illiterate but resolute. He had come to the Congress session to complain about the
injustice of the landlord system in Bihar, and somebody had probably said, “Speak to Gandhi.” So
he wanted Gandhiji to come to his district to solve their problems.
2. Why did Gandhi not agree to visit Champaran immediately?
Ans. Gandhi had never heard of the place. It was in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, near
the kingdom of Nepal. On the other hand he had an appointment in Cawnpore and was also
committed to go to other parts of India.
3. Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being resolute ?
Ans. Rajkumar Shukla was illiterate but resolute. He wanted Gandhiji to come to his district. But
Gandhiji did not agree to visit Chamaparn immediately. Shukla accompanied him everywhere.
Then Gandhi returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed him to the ashram. For
weeks he never left Gandhi’s side.
4. How did Gandhi agree to visit Champaran?
Ans. Gandhi told Shukla he had an appointment in Cawnpore and was also committed to go to
other parts of India. Shukla accompanied him everywhere. Then Gandhi returned to his ashram
near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed him to the ashram. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side.
“Fix a date,” he begged.
Impressed by the sharecropper’s tenacity and story Gandhi said, ‘‘I have to be in Calcutta on
such-and-such a date. Come and meet me and take me from there.”
5. Why did the servants of Rajendra Prasad think Gandhi to be another peasant ?
[Link] Prasad was out of town, but the servants knew Shukla as a poor yeoman who
pestered their master to help the indigo sharecroppers. So they let him stay on the grounds with
his companion, Gandhi, whom they took to be another peasant. They had not heard of Gandhi.
6. Why did Gandhi decide to go to Muzzafarpur?
Ans. Gandhi decided to go rst to Muzzafarpur, which was en route to Champaran, to obtain more
complete information about conditions than Shukla was capable of imparting.
7. Why did Gandhi chide the lawyers?
Ans. Gandhi chided the lawyers for collecting big fee from the sharecroppers. He said, ‘‘I have
come to the conclusion that we should stop going to law courts. Taking such cases to the courts
does little good. Where the peasants are so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The
real relief for them is to be free from fear.’’
8. Why were the Indian sharecroppers compelled to plant indigo?
Ans. Because most of the arable land in the Champaran district was divided into large estates
owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants. The chief commercial crop was indigo. The
landlords compelled all tenants to plant three twentieths or 15 per cent of their holdings with
indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent.
9. What was the indigo problem? Or Why did Gandhi arrive in Champaran?
Ans. Most of the arable land in the Champaran district was divided into large
estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants. The chief commercial crop was
indigo. The landlords compelled all tenants to plant three twentieths or 15 per cent of their
holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done by long-term
contract. Presently, the landlords learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo. They,
thereupon, obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being
released from the 15 per cent arrangement.
The sharecropping arrangement was irksome to the peasants, and many signed willingly. Those
who resisted, engaged lawyers; the landlords hired thugs. Meanwhile, the information about
synthetic indigo reached the illiterate peasants who had signed, and they wanted their money
back. At this point Gandhi arrived in Champaran.

10. What was the ancient arrangement between the peasants and landlords at Champaran?
Ans. Most of the arable land in the Champaran district was divided into large estates owned by
Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants. The chief commercial crop was indigo. The landlords
compelled all tenants to plant three twentieths or 15 per cent of their holdings with indigo and
surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done by long-term contract.

11. What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of
‘home-rule’?
Ans. In smaller localities, the Indians were afraid to show sympathy for advocates of home-rule.
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 12. What happened when Gandhi did not comply with the o cial notice?
Ans. Gandhi signed a receipt for the notice and wrote on it that he would disobey the order.
In consequence, Gandhi received a summons to appear in court the next day.
All night Gandhi remained awake. He telegraphed Rajendra Prasad to come from Bihar with
in uential friends. He sent instructions to the ashram. He wired a full report to the Viceroy.
Morning found the town of Motihari black with peasants. The government was ba ed.
13. How did the civil disobedience come out triumphant ?
14. How did the big planters get ready to make refunds to the peasants ?
Ans. The o cial inquiry assembled a crushing mountain of evidence against the big planters, and
when they saw this they agreed, in principle, to make refunds to the peasants.
15. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 % refund to the farmers ?
Ans. Gandhi explained that the amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the
landlords had been obliged to surrender part of the money and, with it, part of their prestige.
Therefore, as far as the peasants were concerned, the planters had behaved as lords above the
law. Now the peasant saw that he had rights and defenders. He learned courage.
16. How did indigo sharecropping disappear? Or How did Gandhi break the deadlock about
the refund of money to the peasants ?
Ans. The o cial inquiry assembled a crushing mountain of evidence against the big planters, and
when they saw this they agreed, in principle, to make refunds to the peasants. “But how much
must we pay?” they asked Gandhi. He asked only 50 per cent. The representative of the planters
o ered to refund to the extent of 25 per cent, and to his amazement Mr. Gandhi took him at his
word, thus breaking the deadlock. Events justi ed Gandhi’s position. Within a few years the British
planters abandoned their estates, which reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping
disappeared.
17. How did the episode change the plight of the peasants? Or What change did the
Champaran episode bring about in lives of peasants?
18. What type of politics did Gandhi follow?
Ans. Gandhi’s politics were intertwined with the practical, day-to-day problems of the millions. His
was not a loyalty to abstractions; it was a loyalty to living, human beings. He tried to mould a new
free Indian who could stand on his own feet
19. Why do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning point in his
life ?
Ans. The Champaran episode was a turning-point in Gandhi’s life. ‘‘What I did,” he explained,
“was a very ordinary thing. I declared that the British could not order me about in my own
country.”
But Champaran did not begin as an act of de ance. It grew out of an attempt to alleviate the
distress of large numbers of poor peasants. This was the typical Gandhi pattern — his politics
were intertwined with the practical, day-to-day problems of the millions. His was not a loyalty to
abstractions; it was a loyalty to living, human beings.
In everything Gandhi did, moreover, he tried to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his
own feet and thus make India free.
20. Describes the di culties faced by Gandhi at Champaran.
21. What did Gandhi do about the cultural and social backwardness of the Champaran
villages at that time?
Ans. Gandhi saw the cultural and social backwardness in the Champaran villages and wanted to
do something about it immediately. He appealed for teachers. Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh,
two young men who had just joined Gandhi as disciples, and their wives, volunteered for the
work. Several more came from Bombay, Poona and other distant
parts of the land. Devadas, Gandhi’s youngest son, arrived from the ashram and so did Mrs.
Gandhi. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturbai taught the ashram rules on
personal cleanliness and community sanitation.
Health conditions were miserable. Gandhi got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months.
Three medicines were available — castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment. Anybody who showed
a coated tongue was given a dose of castor oil; anybody with malaria fever received quinine plus
castor oil; anybody with skin eruptions received ointment plus castor oil.

………..by R.K. Chaudhary………

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