Class 12 Notes

Class 12 English Notes Prose 5 (Indigo) – Flamingo Book

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Philoid

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Detailed Notes with MCQs of Chapter 5 from your Flamingo textbook, 'Indigo' by Louis Fischer. This chapter is extremely important, not just for your board exams but also for various government exams, as it details a pivotal moment in India's freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi. It's an excerpt from Fischer's renowned biography, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi.

Detailed Notes: 'Indigo' by Louis Fischer

1. Introduction & Context:

  • Author: Louis Fischer, an American journalist and biographer of Gandhi.
  • Source: Excerpt from The Life of Mahatma Gandhi.
  • Subject: The Champaran Satyagraha (1917), Gandhi's first major non-violent civil disobedience movement in India.
  • Setting: Champaran district in Bihar.
  • Core Issue: Exploitation of poor peasant sharecroppers by British landlords under the indigo sharecropping system.

2. The Problem: The Sharecropping System in Champaran:

  • Most arable land in Champaran was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants.
  • Chief Commercial Crop: Indigo.
  • The 'Tinkathia' System: The landlords compelled all tenants (sharecroppers) to plant 15% (three-twentieths) of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was a long-term contract.
  • The Twist: Germany developed synthetic indigo. Natural indigo cultivation became unprofitable for British landlords.
  • Exploitation: Instead of releasing the peasants from the 15% agreement, the landlords demanded compensation (money) from the sharecroppers to be freed from this arrangement. Many peasants, unaware of synthetic indigo or pressured, signed these agreements and paid. Those who resisted hired lawyers. The landlords used thugs ('lathiyals') to intimidate them.

3. Rajkumar Shukla: The Catalyst:

  • A poor, illiterate but resolute sharecropper from Champaran.
  • He was determined to bring Gandhi to Champaran to fight the injustice.
  • He followed Gandhi persistently – to Lucknow (Congress session, 1916), Cawnpore (Kanpur), his ashram near Ahmedabad, Calcutta – until Gandhi agreed to visit Champaran.

4. Gandhi's Arrival and Investigation:

  • Calcutta: Shukla met Gandhi and they boarded a train to Patna.
  • Patna: Stayed briefly at the house of Rajendra Prasad (later India's first President), who was out of town. Gandhi was treated poorly by the servants who mistook him for another peasant.
  • Muzaffarpur: Gandhi decided to go here first to get more complete information. He stayed with Professor J.B. Kripalani. News of his arrival spread quickly. Sharecroppers gathered in large numbers.
  • Meeting Lawyers: Gandhi chided the Muzaffarpur lawyers for charging high fees from the poor sharecroppers. He concluded that taking cases to court was useless; the real need was to free the peasants from fear.
  • Gathering Facts: Gandhi began a detailed investigation into the sharecroppers' grievances. He visited the Secretary of the British landlords' association (who refused information) and the British official Commissioner of the Tirhut division (who bullied Gandhi and advised him to leave).

5. The Beginning of Civil Disobedience:

  • Motihari: Gandhi proceeded to Motihari, the capital of Champaran, setting up headquarters.
  • Investigating a Maltreated Peasant: While on his way to a nearby village to investigate a case of peasant maltreatment, Gandhi was served an official notice by the police superintendent's messenger, ordering him to leave Champaran immediately.
  • Gandhi's Defiance: Gandhi signed the receipt but wrote on it that he would disobey the order. This was a defining moment – the start of Civil Disobedience in India.
  • Summons to Court: Gandhi received a summons to appear in court the next day.
  • Spontaneous Demonstration: Thousands of peasants gathered spontaneously around the courthouse in Motihari, demonstrating in support of Gandhi. They had lost their fear of the British. The officials felt powerless.
  • Gandhi's Statement in Court: Gandhi pleaded guilty to disobeying the order. He stated he was faced with a "conflict of duties" – not wanting to be a lawbreaker, but obeying the higher law of his conscience and humanitarian duty. He was ready to accept the penalty.
  • Case Dropped: The magistrate postponed judgment. Later, under instructions from the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir Edward Gait), the case against Gandhi was dropped. Civil Disobedience had triumphed for the first time in modern India.

6. The Official Inquiry:

  • Gandhi and the lawyers now proceeded with a far-flung inquiry into the peasants' grievances. Depositions by about ten thousand peasants were written down.
  • Official Commission: Sir Edward Gait appointed an official commission of inquiry. Gandhi was nominated as the sole representative of the peasants.
  • Evidence: Gandhi presented overwhelming evidence against the landlords.
  • The Landlords' Agreement: The landlords, facing mounting evidence, agreed in principle to make refunds to the peasants. They expected Gandhi to demand full repayment.

7. The Settlement: The 25% Refund:

  • Gandhi's Demand: Gandhi asked for only 50% of the money extorted.
  • Landlords' Offer: The representative of the planters offered to refund only 25%.
  • Gandhi's Acceptance: To everyone's surprise, Gandhi agreed to the 25% refund.
  • Gandhi's Reasoning: The amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the landlords were forced to surrender part of the money and, with it, part of their prestige (izzat). It showed the peasants that they had rights and defenders, and it broke the morale and authority of the landlords. The peasants learned courage.

8. Social and Cultural Upliftment:

  • Gandhi saw the cultural and social backwardness in Champaran villages and wanted to address it.
  • Volunteers: He appealed for teachers. Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh, along with their wives, volunteered. Several others joined from different parts of India. Devdas (Gandhi's youngest son) and Kasturbai (Gandhi's wife) also arrived.
  • Education: Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturbai taught ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation.
  • Health: Gandhi got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months. Basic medicines were made available.

9. The Lesson of Self-Reliance:

  • Charles Freer Andrews, a devoted English pacifist follower of Gandhi, was leaving for Fiji. Gandhi's lawyer friends wanted Andrews to stay and help them.
  • Gandhi's Opposition: Gandhi strongly opposed this idea. He told them they must rely on themselves to win the battle, not seek support from an Englishman just because he was a good man. "Our cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves to win the battle."
  • Key Takeaway: This episode taught a crucial lesson in self-reliance (Atmanirbharta).

10. Significance of the Champaran Episode:

  • It was the first successful large-scale application of Satyagraha (truth force) and Civil Disobedience in India.
  • It liberated the peasants of Champaran from the exploitative Tinkathia system and, more importantly, from fear.
  • It established Gandhi's method of non-violent resistance as a potent tool against oppression.
  • It demonstrated Gandhi's holistic approach – linking political freedom with social and economic upliftment.
  • It was a turning point in Gandhi's life and the Indian freedom struggle. It showed that the British could be challenged effectively through organised, non-violent mass action.

Key Themes for Exam Focus:

  • Injustice and Exploitation
  • Leadership and Strategy (Gandhi's methods)
  • Courage and Overcoming Fear
  • Civil Disobedience and Non-Violent Protest
  • Self-Reliance
  • Social Reform and Rural Upliftment

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) for Practice:

  1. Who is the author of the chapter 'Indigo'?
    (a) Jawaharlal Nehru
    (b) Louis Fischer
    (c) Rajendra Prasad
    (d) J.B. Kripalani

  2. What was Rajkumar Shukla's primary identity mentioned in the chapter?
    (a) A lawyer from Patna
    (b) A British landlord
    (c) A poor, resolute sharecropper from Champaran
    (d) A government official in Motihari

  3. The 'Tinkathia' system forced peasants in Champaran to grow indigo on what portion of their land?
    (a) 10% or two-twentieths
    (b) 15% or three-twentieths
    (c) 20% or four-twentieths
    (d) 25% or five-twentieths

  4. Why did the British landlords start demanding compensation from peasants for releasing them from the indigo agreement?
    (a) They wanted to switch to growing cotton.
    (b) The government ordered them to free the peasants.
    (c) Germany had developed synthetic indigo, making natural indigo unprofitable.
    (d) The peasants themselves requested release from the agreement.

  5. What was Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience in Champaran?
    (a) Organising a peasant rally in Motihari
    (b) Refusing to pay fees to lawyers
    (c) Refusing to obey the official order to leave Champaran
    (d) Setting up primary schools without permission

  6. Why did Gandhi agree to the landlords' offer of a 25% refund to the peasants?
    (a) He felt the peasants did not deserve more.
    (b) He was pressured by the British officials.
    (c) The amount was less important than the landlords losing prestige and admitting wrongdoing.
    (d) The lawyers advised him to accept the offer quickly.

  7. In which city did Gandhi stay at the house of Professor J.B. Kripalani upon arriving to investigate the Champaran issue?
    (a) Patna
    (b) Motihari
    (c) Calcutta
    (d) Muzaffarpur

  8. What was Gandhi's main criticism of the lawyers assisting the sharecroppers in Champaran?
    (a) They were not knowledgeable enough.
    (b) They were charging high fees from the poor peasants.
    (c) They were collaborating with the British.
    (d) They did not believe in non-violence.

  9. What lesson did Gandhi teach the lawyers through the episode involving Charles Freer Andrews?
    (a) The importance of international support
    (b) The need for more British helpers
    (c) The lesson of self-reliance
    (d) The strategy of delaying tactics

  10. The Champaran episode is considered a turning point primarily because:
    (a) It led to immediate independence for India.
    (b) It was the first time Gandhi used violence.
    (c) It marked the first triumph of civil disobedience in modern India and freed peasants from fear.
    (d) It resulted in Rajkumar Shukla becoming a national leader.

Answer Key:

  1. (b) Louis Fischer
  2. (c) A poor, resolute sharecropper from Champaran
  3. (b) 15% or three-twentieths
  4. (c) Germany had developed synthetic indigo, making natural indigo unprofitable.
  5. (c) Refusing to obey the official order to leave Champaran
  6. (c) The amount was less important than the landlords losing prestige and admitting wrongdoing.
  7. (d) Muzaffarpur
  8. (b) They were charging high fees from the poor peasants.
  9. (c) The lesson of self-reliance
  10. (c) It marked the first triumph of civil disobedience in modern India and freed peasants from fear.

Make sure you understand not just the facts but the significance behind each event, especially Gandhi's reasoning and the impact on the peasants and the freedom movement. Good luck with your preparation!

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