Indigo
Louis
Fischer
 |
| Indigo (www.hikha.in) |
QUESTIONS FROM INDIGO SOLVED
YOU READ THINK AS YOU
READ
Q1. Strike out what is
not true in the following:
(a)Rajkumar
Shukla was: (i)a sharecropper (ii)a politician (iii)delegate (iv)a landlord.
Ans: (a) (ii) a politician
(b)
Rajkumar Shukla was: (i) poor (ii) physically strong (iii) illiterate.
Ans: (b) (ii) physically strong
Q2. Why is Rajkumar
Shukla described as being ‘resolute’?
Ans: Rajkumar Shukla had come all the way
from Champaran district in the foothills of Himalayas to Lucknow to speak to
Gandhi. Shukla accompanied Gandhi everywhere. Shukla followed him to the ashram
near Ahmedabad. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side till Gandhi asked him to
meet at Calcutta.
Q3. Why do you think
the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant?
Ans: Shukla led Gandhi to Rajendra Prasad’s
house. The servants knew Shukla as a poor yeoman. Gandhi was also clad in a
simple dhoti. He was the companion of a peasant. Hence, the servants thought
Gandhi to be another peasant.
THINK AS YOU READ
Q1. List the places
that Gandhi visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at
Champaran.
Ans: Gandhi’s first meeting with Shukla
was at Lucknow. Then he went to Cawnpore and other parts of India. He returned
to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Later he went to Calcutta, Patna and Muzaffarpur
before arriving at Champaran.
Q2. What did the
peasants pay the British landlords as rent? What did the British now want
instead and why? What would be the impact of synthetic indigo on the prices of
natural instead and why?
Ans: The peasants paid the British
landlords indigo as rent. Now Germany had developed synthetic indigo. So, the
British landlords wanted money as compensation for being released from the 15
per cent arrangement. The prices of natural indigo would go down due to the
synthetic Indigo.
THINK AS YOU READ THINK AS YOU READ
Q1. The events in this
part of the text illustrate Gandhi’s method of working. Can you identify some
instances of this method and link them to his ideas of Satyagraha and
non-violence?
Ans: Gandhi’s politics was intermingled
with the day-to-day problems of the millions of Indians. He opposed unjust
laws. He was ready to court arrest for breaking such laws and going to jail.
The famous Dandi March to break the ‘salt law’ is another instance. The
resistance and disobedience was peaceful and a fight for truth and justice.
This was linked directly to his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence.
Q2. Why did Gandhi
agree to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers?
Ans: For Gandhi the amount of the refund
was less important than the fact that the landlords had been forced to return
part of the money, and with it, part of their prestige too. So, he agreed to
settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers.
Q3. How did the episode
change the plight of the peasants?
Ans: The peasants were saved from spending
time and money on court cases. After some years the British planters gave up
control of their estates. These now reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping
disappeared.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
Q1. Why do you think
Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning-point in his life?
Ans: The Champaran episode began as an
attempt to ease the sufferings of large number of poor peasants. He got spontaneous
support of thousands of people. Gandhi admits that what he had done was a very
ordinary thing. He declared that the British could not order him about in his
own country. Hence, he considered the Champaran episode as a turning- point in
his life.
Q2. How was Gandhi able
to influence lawyers? Give instances.
Ans: Gandhi asked the lawyers what they
would do if he was sentenced to prison. They said that they had come to advise
him. If he went to jail, they would go home. Then Gandhi asked them about the injustice
to the sharecroppers. The lawyers held consultations. They came to the
conclusion that it would be shameful desertion if they went home. So, they told
Gandhi that they were ready to follow him into jail.
Q3. What was the
attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of ‘home
rule’?
Ans: The average Indians in smaller
localities were afraid to show sympathy for the advocates of home-rule. Gandhi
stayed at Muzaffarpur for two days at the home of Professor Malkani, a teacher in
a government school. It was an extraordinary thing in those days for a
government professor to give shelter to one who opposed the government.
Q4. How do we know that
ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement?
Ans: Professor J.B. Kriplani received
Gandhi at Muzaffarpur railway station at midnight. He had a large body of
students with him. Sharecroppers from Champaran came on foot and by conveyance
to see Gandhi. Muzaffarpur lawyers too called on him. A vast multitude greeted
Gandhi when he reached Motihari railway station. Thousands of people
demonstrated around the court room. This shows that ordinary people too
contributed to the freedom movement in India.
Additional Q&A of INDIGO
Q1. Who was Rajkumar
Shukla? Why did he come to Lucknow?
Ans: Rajkumar Shukla was a poor peasant
from Champaran district in Bihar. He had come to Lucknow, where a Congress
session was being held, to complain about the injustice of the landlord system
in Bihar.
Q2. Where is Champaran
district situated? What did the peasants grow there? How did they use their
harvest?
Ans: Champaran district of Bihar is
situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal. Under an
ancient arrangement, the Champaran peasants were sharecroppers. They had to
grow indigo on 15 per cent of the land and give it to the English estate owners
as rent.
Q3. How did the
development of synthetic indigo affect the English estate owners and the Indian
tenants?
Ans: The English estate owners saw that
indigo cultivation was no longer profitable. They wanted money from the
sharecroppers as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent
arrangement. They obtained agreements from their tenants to this effect and
extorted money illegally and deceitfully.
Q4. How did the Indian peasants
react to the new agreement released them from sharecropping arrangement?
Ans: The sharecropping arrangement was
troublesome to the peasants. Many of them signed the new agreement willingly.
Some resisted and engaged lawyers. Then they came to know about synthetic
indigo. The peasants wanted their money back.
Q5. Why do you think
Gandhi was not permitted to draw water from Rajendra Prasad’s well at Patna?
Ans: The servants of Rajendra Prasad
thought Gandhi to be another peasant. They did not know him. They were not
certain whether he was an untouchable or not. They feared that some drops from
his bucket might pollute the entire well. So, he was not permitted to draw
water from the well.
Q6. Why did Gandhi
decide to go first to Muzaffarpur before going to Champaran?
Ans: Gandhi wanted to obtain more complete
information about conditions than Shukla was capable of imparting. Muzaffarpur
lawyers, who frequently represented peasant groups in courts, brief Gandhi
about their cases.
Q7. Why did Gandhiji feel
that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless?
Ans: Gandhiji felt that taking the
Champaran case to the court was useless. Because the real relief for the
peasants would come only when they become fearless. The peasants were in acute
panic.
Q8. Where did Gandhiji
want to go? What happened to him on the way?
Ans: Gandhiji wanted to go to a nearby
village where a peasant had been maltreated. He had not gone far when the
police superintendent’s messenger overtook him and ordered him to return to
town in his carriage. Gandhiji obeyed the order and returned with him.
Q9. How did Gandhi
teach his followers a lesson of self-reliance?
Ans: During the Champaran action, Gandhi’s
lawyer friends thought it would be good if C.F. Andrews stayed on in Champaran
and helped them. Gandhi opposed this idea as it showed the weakness of their
heart. Their cause was just and they must rely upon themselves to win this
unequal fight. They should not seek the support of Mr. Andrews because he
happened to be an Englishman.
Q10. HQW did the
refund-settlement influence the peasant-landlord relationship in Champaran?
Ans: Before the settlement of the refund,
the planters had behaved as lords above the law. Now the peasant saw that he
had rights and defenders. He learned courage. Within a few years, the British
planters abandoned their estates. The peasants became masters of the land.
There were no sharecroppers now.
Q11. Why did the big
planters agree in principle to make refund to the peasants?
Ans: The official inquiry assembled a huge
quantity of evidence against the big planters. The crushing evidence forced the
big planters to agree in principle to make refund to the peasants.
Q12. What was the
outcome of the four protracted interviews Gandhiji had with the Lieutenant
Governor?
Ans: An official commission of enquiry
into the sharecroppers’ situation was appointed. This commission consisted of
landlords, government officials and Gandhi as the sole representative of the
peasants.
Q13. What was the
reaction of Gandhi and his associates when he was summoned to the lieutenant
governor?
Ans: In June, Gandhiji was summoned to Sir
Edward Gait, the Lieutenant Governor. Anything could happen. Gandhi met his
leading associates before going. Detailed plans for civil
disobedience were chalked out in case
he should not return.
Q14. How did Gandhi and
the lawyers try to secure justice for the sharecroppers?
Ans: They started conducting a detailed enquiry into the
grievances of the peasants. Depositions by about ten thousand peasants were
written down. Notes were made on other evidence. Documents were collected. The
whole area came alive with the activities of the investigators. The landlords
raised loud protests.
Q15. What according to
Rajendra Prasad, was the upshot of the consultations of the lawyers regarding
the injustice to sharecroppers?
Ans: They thought that Gandhi was a total
stranger. Yet he was ready to go to prison for the sake of the peasants. On the
other hand, the lawyers were the residents of nearby districts. They also
claimed to have served these peasants. It would be shameful desertion if they
should go home then.
Q16. Who was Sir Edward
Gait?
Ans: Sir Edward Gait was the lieutenant
governor of British India.
Q17. What kinds of
members in the official commissioner that formed by lieutenant governor?
Ans: Landlords, government officials and
Gandhi were the members in the official commissioner that formed by lieutenant
governor.
Q18. What did Kasturbai
teach the people of Ashram?
Ans: Kasturbai taught the Ashram rules on
personal cleanliness and community sanitation.
Q19. How did Gandhi
serve on health condition in Champaran?
Ans: Gandhi tried to improve the miserable
health conditions of the people of Champaran by providing a doctor to
volunteers service for six months. There only three medicines were available –
Castor Oil, Quinine and Sulphur Ointment. Someone who showed a coated tongue was
given a dose of castor Oil; someone with malaria fever received Quinine plus
Castor Oil; and someone with skin eruptions received Ointment plus castor Oil.
Q20. Whom did Gandhi
and Shukla want to meet at Patna?
Ans: Gandhi and Shukla wanted to meet
Rajendra Prasad, the lawyer and the, at Patna.
Q21. What is the
capital of Champaran?
Ans: Motihari.
Q22. Who were Mahadev
and Narhari?
Ans: Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh were
the newly joined two disciples of Gandhi.
Q23. Who was Charles
Freer Andrews?
Ans: Charles Freer Andrews was an English
pacifist who had come a devoted follower of Gandhi in the Champaran.
(To be Continue….)
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