CBSE Class 12 English HOTs Indigo Set 05

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

Question. Why did Rajkumar Shukla follow Gandhiji everywhere he went?
Answer: Rajkumar Shukla was determined to have Gandhiji visit Champaran to look into the problems of the sharecroppers. Since Gandhiji was busy with pre-scheduled appointments, Shukla followed him patiently for weeks until Gandhiji finally agreed to accompany him.

Question. Was Gandhiji correct in chiding the lawyers? Why?
Answer: Yes, Gandhiji was correct because the lawyers were charging high fees from poor, destitute sharecroppers who were already being exploited by the British landlords. Gandhiji felt that charging high fees from those who were "crushed and fear-stricken" was unjust.

Question. What was the ‘ancient arrangement' in Champaran district?
Answer: The ‘ancient arrangement' was the sharecropping system where Indian tenants were forced by British landlords to plant 15% of their land with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent to the landlords.

Question. Why did Rajkumar Shukla want to take Gandhiji to Champaran? 
Answer: Rajkumar Shukla was one of the poor impoverished sharecroppers of the Champaran district. He had gone to the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress to take Gandhiji to Champaran to fight the injustice and the exploitation of the sharecroppers.

Question. Why did Gandhiji decide to go to Muzaffarpur before going to Champaran?
Answer: Muzaffarpur was en route to Champaran. Gandhiji decided to first go to Muzaffarpur because he wanted more complete information about the conditions in Champaran than Shukla was capable of imparting. It did prove helpful as the lawyers in Muzaffarpur, who frequently represented the peasant groups in the courts, briefed Gandhiji about their cases.

Question. How did the Champaran peasants react when they heard that a Mahatma had come to help them? 
Answer: Gandhi received a summon to appear in court. The next day thousands of peasants had assembled in Motihari. They didn't know much about Gandhi. But they knew that he had come there only to take up their cause. Thousands of them held a demonstration.

Question. Why did Gandhiji feel that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless? 
Answer: When Gandhiji got to know about the plight of the peasant groups in Champaran from his discussion with the lawyers, he came to the conclusion that the poor peasants were so crushed and fear-stricken that law courts were useless in their case. Going to courts overburdened the sharecroppers with heavy litigation expenses. What really needed to be done was to make them free from fear.

Question. What were the terms of the indigo contract between the British landlords and the Indian peasants? (All India 2015) or What did the peasants pay to the British landlords as rent? 
Answer: The terms of the indigo contract between the British and the peasants were that the peasants were sharecropper tenants and had to plant 15% of the land holding with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest to the British landlords as rent.

Question. What made the Lieutenant-Governor drop the case against Gandhiji? 
Answer: Thousands of peasants held a spontaneous demonstration in Motihari. The officials felt helpless and the government was baffled. The pressure of the people was mounting. The judge didn't want to aggravate the situation. He held up the sentence for several days and finally released Gandhi without bail, thus dropping the case against Gandhiji.

Question. Why did Gandhi tell the court that he was involved in a 'conflict of duties'?
Answer: Gandhi told the court that he was involved in a 'conflict of duties', i.e. he must not set a bad example by breaking the law (by refusing to comply with the eviction order), but he must also render humanitarian and national service for which he had come to Champaran.

Question. Though the sharecroppers of Champaran received only one-fourth of the compensation, how can the Champaran struggle still be termed a huge success and victory? 
Answer: The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of a large number of poor peasants. Gandhiji admits that what he had done was a very ordinary thing. He declared that the British could not order him about his own country. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. The efforts of Gandhiji and support of people made Champaran struggle a huge success and victory.

Question. 'The battle of Champaran is won!' What led Gandhiji to make this remark?
Answer: Gandhiji asked the lawyers what they would do if he was arrested. The lawyers first replied that they would return home, but when Gandhiji asked them for a solution about the injustice to the sharecroppers, they realised their mistake. They thought that when a total stranger was ready to go to jail for the poor peasants, their going home would be utterly shameful. They decided to follow Gandhiji into jail. This made Gandhiji exclaim, 'The battle of Champaran is won,' as he was happy to have convinced the lawyers and won their trust.

Question. How did Gandhi show that he cared for the cultural and social backwardness of Champaran villages? (Foreign 2015) or How did Gandhiji help the peasants of Champaran?
Answer: The peasants of Champaran's villages were culturally and socially backward, besides being crushed and fear-stricken by the British due to the sharecropper agreement. Gandhiji freed them from exploitation by teaching them that they had rights and also supporters of their cause. The backwardness was tackled by opening primary schools, improving the healthcare facilities and teaching the villagers personal cleanliness and community sanitation.

Question. Why did Gandhiji oppose when his friend Andrews offered to stay in Champaran and help the peasants? (Foreign 2014) or Why was Gandhiji opposed to CF Andrews helping him in Champaran? (Delhi 2016) or Why did Gandhiji object to CF Andrews' stay in Champaran? 
Answer: Gandhiji was opposed to CF Andrews helping him in Champaran because he wanted the lawyers to be self-reliant and know their own strengths. He told them that their cause was just and they must rely upon themselves to win the battle. He did not want them seek a prop in Mr Andrews because he happened to be an Englishman.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

Question. Who was Rajkumar Shukla and why did he meet Gandhiji? Why did Gandhiji decide to accompany him to Patna?
Answer: Rajkumar Shukla was a peasant sharecropper from Champaran district in Bihar. He met Gandhiji at the December 1916 annual convention of the Indian National Congress in Lucknow. Illiterate but resolute, Shukla had come to seek Gandhiji's help for bringing justice to the peasants of his region who were exploited by their British landlords. Gandhiji told him that he had an appointment in Kanpur and also had prior engagements in other parts of India. Shukla was patient. When Gandhiji returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad, Shukla followed him. Impressed by his steadfast attitude, Gandhiji asked him to be in Calcutta on a particular date and to take him to his district from there. Many months passed but Shukla remembered to meet Gandhiji on the appointed day and spot. He waited till Gandhiji was free and then the two of them boarded a train to Patna.

Question. "Civil disobedience had triumphed the first time in modern India". How? Explain with reference to the chapter 'Indigo'.
Answer: When Gandhiji visited Champaran to look into the grievances of the peasants, he was served with an official notice to quit Champaran immediately. Gandhiji returned the notice with the remark that he would disobey the order. This was the beginning of civil disobedience. As a result, Gandhiji was ordered to appear in the court next day. Thousands of peasants put up a demonstration at the courthouse. The powerless officials appealed to Gandhiji to help them manage the crowd, which he no doubt did. The magistrate demanded Gandhiji to furnish bail, but Gandhiji did not comply with the orders. Then he released Gandhiji without bail. After several days, the case was dropped by the Lieutenant- Governor. This was the start of the triumph of civil disobedience in India.

Question. Gandhiji's was not a loyalty to abstractions; it was loyalty to living, human beings. Why did Gandhiji continue his stay in Champaran even after indigo sharecropping disappeared? (All India 2014)
Answer: After the Champaran battle was won and the land reverted to the peasants, Gandhiji continued to stay in the region. His loyalty was to living human beings and he realised that a lot needed to be done for the upliftment of the peasants in the villages of Champaran. Gandhiji took the initiative and began the work of eradicating their cultural and social backwardness. Primary schools were started so that the poor peasants and their children could be educated. Gandhiji appealed to teachers, and many of his disciples, including his wife and son, volunteered for the work. Health conditions in the area were also miserable. Gandhiji got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months. All this goes to prove that Gandhiji's loyalty was not to abstractions; his politics was always intertwined with the practical day-to-day problems of the millions.

Question. 'The visit, undertaken casually on the entreaty of an unlettered peasant in the expectation that it would last a few days, occupied almost a year of Gandhiji's life." Comment.
Answer: Gandhiji undertook the visit to Champaran on the insistence of Rajkumar Shukla, a sharecropper peasant. On reaching Muzaffarpur, he obtained complete information about the conditions prevailing there. He met the lawyers who acquainted him with the situation and the sharecropping arrangement. When Gandhiji arrived in Champaran, he found that the grievances of the peasants were really of a serious nature. He continued with the investigation and documentation about the whole issue, which was very time consuming. From April to June, Gandhiji worked incessantly. Finally the Lt Governor constituted a commission of inquiry where Gandhiji agreed to the compensation of 25% for the farmers. After this Gandhiji took up the work of eradicating cultural and social backwardness in the villages of Champaran. All these engagements and commitments took much time and occupied almost a year of Gandhiji's life.

Question. Why did Gandhiji agree to a settlement of 25% refund to the farmers? How did it influence the peasant-landlord relationship in Champaran? 
Answer: Gandhiji fought the case on behalf of the sharecroppers and the evidence that he collected was so overwhelming that the landlords were asked to repay. When Gandhiji asked for 50% repayment, the landlords offered to pay only 25% as they wanted to create a deadlock and thus prolong the dispute. To everybody's surprise, Gandhiji agreed to a refund of 25%. Gandhiji explained that the amount of refund was not important. What mattered was that the landlords were obliged to surrender a part of their money and with it, part of their prestige. The peasants saw that they had rights and persons to support them in upholding their rights. They learned courage. Gradually, indigo sharecropping disappeared from the area and the land came back to the poor peasants.

Question. Give an account of Gandhiji's efforts to secure justice for the poor indigo sharecroppers of Champaran. 
Answer: When Gandhiji visited Muzaffarpur and was briefed on the situation by the lawyers who represented the peasants in the courts, he concluded that going to law courts was useless. The real relief for the peasants would be to be free from fear. Gandhiji was ordered to leave Tirhut, but he instead proceeded to Motihari. Gandhiji disobeyed the order to leave Champaran. He didn't mind going to jail for the peasants. Gandhiji influenced the lawyers to fight for a just cause. They together collected depositions by about ten thousand peasants. Investigations were conducted. Evidence collected by them was so overwhelming that Gandhiji managed to get 25% refund from the landlords, who considered themselves above the law. He showed the poor peasants that they had rights and also defenders to protect them and fight for their cause.

Question. Why is the Champaran episode considered to be the beginning of the Indian struggle for Independence? 
Answer: The Champaran episode was one of the major events in the struggle for independence. It was in the course of this small but significant movement that Gandhiji decided to spur the exit of the British from India. A close examination of the problem of the Champaran peasants opened up Gandhiji's eyes to the unjust policies of the British. He realised that people had to be made free from fear and only then could they be freed from foreign oppression. The spontaneous demonstration of the people proved that Gandhiji had the people's support in his fight against the Britishers. The triumph of the civil disobedience at Champaran motivated the launching of the movement on a large scale during the freedom movement. Gandhiji's winning the case of the sharecroppers proved that British authority could be challenged. Hence, the Champaran episode served as a stepping stone to the Indian struggle for independence.

Question. Describe how, according to Louis Fischer, Gandhiji succeeded in his Champaran campaign.
Answer: The objective of Gandhiji in his Champaran campaign was to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free. He succeeded because, as Rajendra Prasad said, "Gandhi in this way taught us a lesson in self-reliance". The peasants did not take the help of any specialist lawyers or any Englishmen like CF Andrews to fight their case. This gave them a new-found confidence in fighting their own battles and they were liberated from fear of the British. The fact that the British planters agreed to refund some of the money paid by the peasants was the crucial point that made the Champaran campaign successful. It showed that both the British and Indians could be treated equally. This ultimately led them in the freedom struggle and gave India its freedom.

Question. Give an account of the problems faced by the indigo sharecroppers. What was Gandhiji's role in solving the problem?
Answer: Most of the arable land in Champaran was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and worked on by Indian tenants. The chief commercial crop was indigo. The landlords compelled all the tenants to plant 15% of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done through a long-term contract. When the landlords learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo, they obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being released from the 15% arrangement. Gandhiji, with the lawyers of Muzaffarpur, conducted an inquiry into the grievances of the farmers. The investigations, documentation and evidence collected favoured the peasants. Hence, Gandhiji asked for only 50% of the money as compensation as opposed to the landlord's thinking that he might demand the whole amount they had extorted. However, an agreement was reached at 25% of the money to be compensated to the peasants. Gandhiji accepted the settlement because he did not want a deadlock between the landlords and the peasants. Thus, Gandhiji played a very proactive role in resolving the issue.

Question. The Champaran episode was a turning point in Gandhiji's life. Elucidate. 
Answer: The success of the Champaran episode made Gandhiji decide to speed up the exit of the British from India. Gandhiji concluded that the root cause of the problem was fear, so going to law courts to solve the dispute was useless. It brought him face to face with reality and he became aware of the miserable condition of the poor, illiterate farmers. He also realised the exploitation that lay beneath the policies of the Britishers. The spontaneous demonstration by the peasants was the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British. Civil disobedience had triumphed for the first time in modern India. Gandhiji declared that the British could not order him about in his own country. Thus, it was a turning point in his life, which also served as a source of strength and motivation for his future movements.

Question. How did Gandhiji use satyagraha and non-violence at Champaran to achieve his goal?
Answer: Gandhiji wished to obtain more information about the conditions in Champaran than Shukla could impart. He visited Muzaffarpur to inquire from the lawyers there about the issue. He collected all the facts and met the Commissioner, but he was advised to leave Champaran. Gandhiji did not leave, as he was fighting for truth, and decided to launch a peaceful 'satyagraha' and non-violent movement. Next morning, there was a spontaneous demonstration by the peasants. Gandhiji helped the officials in regulating the crowd, as he did not want any form of violence. After showing some early hesitation, prominent lawyers declared their unqualified support, which resulted in dropping of the case. On the basis of the evidence collected after a thorough investigation, Gandhiji succeeded in making the landlords agree to refund 25% of the compensation money. Thus, Gandhiji's peaceful and non-violent civil disobedience and satyagraha brought about the desired result.

Question. Exploitation is a universal phenomenon. The poor indigo farmers were exploited by the British landlords to which Gandhiji objected. Even after our independence we find exploitation of unorganised labour. What values do we learn from Gandhiji's campaign to counter the present day problems of exploitation? The weak have always and at all times been the victims of injustice and exploitation. 
Answer: We see two real examples of exploitation in our text book. One is of the indigo sharecroppers at the hands of the British and the other is of the bangle workers of Firozabad. Numerous such incidents are also reported in the newspapers. Gandhiji taught us a very wonderful way to counter the problems of exploitation. The exploited are fear-stricken. The real relief comes for them when they get free from fear. Next is the path of non-violence and civil disobedience. Not bowing to the demands of the oppressor can do wonders for the exploited. Finally, Gandhiji's lesson of self-reliance is most important to curb the menace of exploitation. Until one is self-reliant, one cannot fight against injustice.

Question. "Self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together." How did Gandhiji manage to do this? Explain in the context of the chapter 'Indigo'.
Answer: Self-reliance was a virtue which was of utmost importance to Gandhiji. He wanted to “mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free". During the Champaran episode, when the lawyers wanted to take CF Andrews, an Englishman, into their fold to uphold their cause, Gandhiji vehemently opposed the move. He made them understand that they should rely on themselves to win the battle. In this way Gandhiji taught them a lesson of self-reliance. Gandhiji proved that the British authority, hitherto dreaded and unquestioned, could be challenged by Indians. The success of Champaran marked the triumph of civil disobedience in India. It was another stepping stone to the beginning of India's freedom movement. In a similar manner, the sharecroppers' episode in Champaran was connected to the above two themes. Gandhiji went to Champaran to fight for the cause of the peasants who were deceived and cheated by the British landlords. Thus, Louis Fischer has rightly said that self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.

Question. Gandhiji, Father of our nation, is a great leader whose values have been admired by one and all. Describe at least three characteristics of Gandhiji you get to know from 'Indigo', which you wish to adopt into your own life quoting suitable instances from the story. 
Answer: Characteristics of Gandhiji we get to know from 'Indigo' and which we can adopt into our own lives are
(i) Humility and Simplicity: Gandhiji did not object to being treated as a peasant at Rajendra Prasad's house by the servants.
(ii) Non-violent Attitude: He used peaceful means to bend the British law. He was prepared to go to jail for subverting the order for his eviction from the district.
(iii) Fellow Feeling: Gandhiji worked for the people of Champaran even though he did not belong to the area and was not familiar with them.
(iv) Humanitarian Approach: He called his wife and children to work for medical upliftment and literacy of the peasants of Champaran.
(v) Determination: He stayed in Champaran for about a year to ensure that justice for the peasants there was accomplished.
(vi) Self-reliance: He did everything himself and taught the lawyers there also to be self-reliant. He did not take help from CF Andrews, a British pacifist, despite the lawyers requesting him to do so.

Question. 'Freedom from fear is more important than legal justice for the poor.' Do you think that the poor of India are free from fear after Independence?
Answer: When Gandhiji learned about the conditions of the peasants of Champaran, he concluded that the peasants were so crushed and fear-stricken that going to law courts was useless. The real relief would come if they were free from fear. The conclusion that Gandhiji reached is still true in every sense. The Indian poor are very much like the Champaran peasants. The peasants of Champaran were exploited by the foreign rulers, while the poor of India today are victimised by the bureaucrats, money lenders and corrupt politicians. Years of exploitation have destroyed all hopes and dreams of the poor. They don't try to challenge injustice. They fear that the oppressors will find some way to prove them guilty. This fear prevents them from taking any action or step which would help them alleviate their misery and poverty. There is no leader among them who can encourage them to fight against their tormentors. They live miserably and will continue to do so until they are free from fear itself.

Question. What weapons did Gandhiji use to fight against the injustice done to the sharecroppers? Why was he successful?
Answer: Gandhiji used the weapons of Satyagraha (truth-force), non-violence, and civil disobedience. He began by systematically collecting evidence and testimonials from thousands of peasants. He chose to openly disobey an unjust official order to leave the district, preferring to go to jail rather than compromise on justice. He combined legal strategy with social reform, addressing the fear of the peasants and their cultural backwardness. He was successful because his cause was just, his methods were peaceful yet firm, and he managed to unite the masses, showing the British that their authority could be challenged by the collective power of the people. His transparency and moral integrity eventually forced the authorities to yield and accept a compromise.

Question. Gandhiji was a great leader. What according to you are the qualities a leader must possess?
Answer: A great leader, as exemplified by Gandhiji, must possess selfless dedication to a cause, unwavering integrity, and the ability to empathize with the common people. Humility is essential; Gandhi lived as simply as the peasants he represented. A leader must have the courage to stand up against injustice, even at great personal risk, and the wisdom to use methods that unite rather than divide. Resilience and patience are key, as seen in Gandhi's long stay in Champaran. Furthermore, a leader should inspire self-reliance in their followers, teaching them to stand on their own feet. A true leader does not just address the immediate political or economic problem but also works for the long-term social and cultural upliftment of the community. Compassion and the ability to listen to all sides while remaining firm on principles are the hallmarks of great leadership.