Class XII

Flamingo
Chapter 5
Indigo
Page no 47
Q:2 Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being resolute?
Ans. Rajkumar Shukla is described as being resolute because he followed Gandhiji everywhere until he
agreed to help him. He was adamant to take Gandhiji to Champaran to solve the problems of
sharecroppers. Gandhi ji became impressed by his resolution and agreed to go Champaran.

Q:3 Why do you think servants thought Gandhiji to be another peasant?

Ans. Gandhi ji went to Rajendra Prasad’s house with Rajkumar Shukla. The servants knew Rajkumar
Shukla as a poor peasant who had visited the house several times earlier to ask Rajendra Prasad to help
sharecroppers of Champaran. When the servants saw Gandhiji with Rajkumar Shukla, they thought that
Gandhiji was also a peasant who came to seek help from Rajendra Prasad.

Page no 49
Q:1 List the places that Gandhiji visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at
Champaran.
Ans. At first, Rajkumar Shukla met Gandhiji in Lucknow where Gandhiji came to attend annual
convention of the Indian National Congress in December 1916. Rajkumar had come to the Congress
session to complain about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar. Someone told Shukla to talk to
Gandhiji regarding this matter. So Rajkumar Shukla requested Gandhiji to come to Champaran. But
Gandhiji had another appointment in Kanpur and other parts of India so he refused to go with Rajkumar
Shukla.
Rajkumar Shukla was adamant and followed Gandhiji everywhere, he went. After visiting Kanpur,
Gandhiji went to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Gandhiji went to Culcutta from where with Rajkumar
Shukla he boarded a train to Patna, Bihar to meet Rajendra Prasad. Before reaching Champaran he
stayed in Muzzafarpur for two days at a government teacher’s house named Professor Malkani to gather
more detailed information about conditions of sharecroppers in Champaran.

Q:2 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 indigo?
Ans. The British landlords forced all the tenants to plant 15% of their holdings with indigo and surrender
the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done on a long term contact.
When the landlords learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo, they wanted to dissolve the
agreement. However, they asked the sharecropper to pay them compensation for being resolved from
the arrangement. Synthetic indigo must be cheaper than natural indigo that would bring down the price
of natural indigo.

Page no 51
Q:1 The events in the 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. Before reaching Champaran, Gandhihi wanted to know complete truth about the condition of
sharecroppers. He refused to quit Champaran. He compelled the British landlords to refund 25% to the
farmers. All these incidents show his principle of satyagraha. Gandhiji was in the favour of truth and
justice. He also helped the British officials to regulate the crowd during demonstration and was ready to
go to jail. This shows his non-violent method.

Page 53
Q:1 Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25% refund to the farmers?
Ans. Gandhiji agreed to settlement of 25% refund to the farmers to break the deadlock which the
landlords were trying to create to prolong the dispute. Gandhiji said that the amount of the refund was
less important than the fact that the landlords had been obliged to surrender part of their money and,
with it, part of their prestige.

Q:2 How did the episode change the plight of the peasants?
Ans. This episode brought courage to the sharecroppers. They were aware of their rights and ready to
fight for them.
Within a few years, the British landlords left their estates and these estates went back to the farmers.
The system of indigo sharecropping completely disappeared from Champaran.

Page no 54
Q:1 Why do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning point in his life?
Ans. Gandhihi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning point in his life because it was the first
successful civil disobedience movement for him which wiped out fear of the Britishers from the hearts of
the farmers.

Q:2 How was Gandhiji able to influence lawyers?

Ans. Gandhiji scolded the lawyer for charging high fee from the peasants for fighting their cases.
Gandhiji was ready to go jail for the sake of the peasants which made the lawyers realize their moral
duty and they decided to accompany Gandhiji to jail if he was arrested.
The lawyers wanted CF Andrew, an Englishman and Gandhi’s follower, to stay in Champaran and help
them. But Gandhiji opposed this idea as Andrew was an Englishman. Gandhihi wanted Indians to be
self-reliance.

Extra Questions
Q:1 How did Gandhi show that he cared for the cultural and social backwardness of Champaran village?
Ans. The peasants of Champaran village were culturally and socially backward. They were crushed and
fear- stricken because of sharecropping system and Britishers. Gandhiji made them aware about their
rights and taught them to fight for them. In this way, he infused in them the sense of self- reliance.
Gandhiji arranged some teachers and opened six schools in the villages of Champaran. He also arranged
a doctor for six months to improve the villagers’ health conditions. Kasturbai, Gandhiji’s wife’ taught the
rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation.

Q:2 Give an account of Gandhiji’s efforts to secure justice for the poor indigo sharecroppers of
Champaran.
Ans. When Gandhiji went to Muzaffarpur and knew about the real situation by the lawyers who were
representing the poor peasants in the court, Gandhiji concluded that going to the court was useless.
The real relief for the peasants would be to be free from fear. He also scolded the lawyers for charging
high fee from the poor peasants.
Gandhiji was ordered to leave Tirhut, but he disobeyed the order and move forward towards Motihari.
He also disobeyed the ordered to leave Champaran. He was ready to go to jail for the peasants.
Gandhiji influenced the lawyers to fight for the peasants. They collected depositions by about ten
thousand peasants, sincerely investigated into the matter and collected evidences in the support of the
peasants. Because of all these activities Gandhiji could compel the landlords to refund 25% of the
amount which they had illegally and deceitfully extorted from the sharecroppers. He showed the poor
peasants that they had rights and also defenders to protect them and flight for them.
Q:3 Why is the Champaran episode considered to be the beginning of the Indian struggle for
Independence?
Ans. The Champaran episode was one of the major events in the struggle for independence. After close
examination of the problems of the sharecroppers of Champaran , Gandhiji decided to spur the exit of
the British from India. Looking at the unjust policies of the Britishers, he realized that people had to be
made free from foreign oppression. The triumph of the civil disobedience at Champaran motivated
Gandhiji and other Indians to fight for their rights and made them realize that the British authority could
be challenged. hence, the Champaran episode served as a stepping stone to the Indian struggle for
independence.
Worksheet

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that fellow:-
1. Several days later, Gandhi received a written communication from the magistrate informing him that
the Leiutenant Governer of the province had ordered the case to be dropped.
Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.
Gandhiji and the lawyers now proceeded to conduct a far–flung inquiry into the grievances of the
farmers. Depositions by about ten thousand peasants were written down, and notes made on other
evidences. Documents were collected. The whole area throbbed with the activity of investigation and
the vehement protess of the landlords.
Questions:-
1. How had the civil disobedience triumphed?
2. For what did Gandhi and the lawyers proceed?
3. What activity was witnessed in the whole area?
4. …………… in the extract means ‘resonated’.
2. During his long stay in Champaran, Gandhi kept a long distance watch on the ashram. He sent regular
instructions by mail and asked for financial accounts. Once he wrote to the residents that it was time to
fill in the old latrine trenches and dig new ones otherwise the old ones would begin to smell bad.
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.
Questions:-
1. How did Gandhi control ashram being in Champaran?
2. Why did he once write to the residents of the ashram to fill the old latrine trenches and dig new
ones?
3. Which medicine given to one having a coated tongue?
4. ‘discharge’ is the synonym of …………………… in the extract.