Prose Chapter 5 - Indigo

Gandhi soon travelled to Motihari to gain complete knowledge over the Indigo contract. On his way to meet a farmer, he witnessed the cruelty and brutality of the Indigo planters on the peasants. He was asked to leave the plantation yet he disobeyed their order. Soon, he was arrested and put behind bars. Seeing this, other peasants soon joined in a violent revolt against the planters.

When the revolt soon got out of hand, Gandhiji helped the officers to control the oppressed. A commission was set up to check the misuse of powers by the indigo planters, who were soon found guilty. However, they only agreed to pay 25 per cent of the compensation to the farmers. Gandhiji soon opened six schools in Champaran to spread the message of self-reliance.

Characters

Louis Fischer

Mahatma Gandhi

Rajkumar Shukla

Rajendra Prasad

Professor JB Kirplani

Class 12 English Prose Chapter 5: Indigo

Written by Louis Fischer, the story is based on the interview of Mahatma Gandhi taken by the author. The author visited Mahatma Gandhi at his ashram in Sevagram. Details about the famous Indigo movement started by Gandhiji, his struggle along with other prominent Indian freedom fighters to protect the sharecroppers from the tyranny of the British. For more on this story, read on. Also, the summary is given below and Indigo Class 12 Questions and Answers can help you understand this chapter better.

Summary

Louis Fischer met Gandhiji for an interview in his ashram at Sevagram in the year 1942. In this interview, Gandhiji recalls how he started the Indian Independence movement in the year 1917. In that very year, a sharecropper by the name of Rajkumar Shukla from the village of Champaran told Gandhi to meet him and attend of the Indian National Congress in 1916.

Rajkumar went to the Indian National Congress meeting to seek help from Mahatma Gandhi to safeguard his harvest from the greedy hands of the British. Initially, Gandhi was too busy to listen to his pleas, but Rajkumar travelled with him to many places until he was influenced to reach Champaran.

Gandhi told him that he needs to go to Calcutta, from where Rajkumar can escort him to Champaran. However, after meeting each other in Calcutta, they boarded the train to Patna. To understand the situation in Champaran, they visited the lawyer Rajendra Prasad’s house.

After the meeting with the lawyer, they went to Muzaffarpur in 1917. Professor JB Kirplani and his students welcomed them to the city. Gandhiji was impressed by the amount of support he has received from an advocate like JB Kirplani. After meeting with other lawyers, it was found that the British law dictates that 15 per cent of the overall land of the farmers were to be used for the cultivation of Indigo.

This Indigo was then supposed to be given to the landlord for rent. Everyone, including Gandhi, resented this oppressive system. He soon went to British Landlord Association to plead to the authority about this oppressive regime but was not given any information regarding this matter, as he was an outsider.

Themes

The theme of this story is self-reliance, as Gandhi wants all the farmers to be self-sufficient. Till that incident, Gandhiji used to believe that the British Rule was a blessing and was required to govern the people. However, it all changed after this fateful incident.

For more details on this chapter refer to Indigo Important Questions and Answers PDF available here at UrbanPro.