Indigo

By Louis Fischer

Why do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be the turning point of his life?

150 word answer:

The Champaran episode became the turning point for Gandhiji for it showed him the way to free India from the British. Gandhiji had gone to Champaran at the persuasion of Rajkumar Shukla, a poor peasant, to look into the exploitation of the poor indigo sharecroppers by the British landlords. They were bound in an unfair long-term agreement and were being cheated for being released from it. Gandhiji realized that the law courts could not help peasants for they needed to be freed from fear first. He began investigations and defied British orders to leave Tirhut. It was his clear declaration that the British could not order him in his own country. On being summoned to the court, he telegraphed Rajendra Prasad to come with influential friends. The word spread. The next morning thousands of peasants gathered outside the court in Motihari to support their savior. The officials felt helpless and were compelled to seek his help. Thus, he established that the might of the British could be challenged.  Through his own example, he urged the lawyers to court arrest for the humanitarian cause. Civil disobedience triumphed for the first time and became the precursor of the freedom movement. He further won compensation for the peasants and made them realize they had rights and defenders. The battle of Champaran became a moral victory.  

Short answer: (40 words) What began as an attempt to fight injustice against poor helpless peasants in Champaran became Gandhi’s clear declaration that British couldn't order him, an Indian in his own country. It freed the oppressed peasants from fear of seeking their rights and established the power of civil disobedience as a means to gain freedom.

Gandhi’s loyalty was not to abstractions; it was a loyalty to living human beings. Discuss with reference to the lesson ‘Indigo’.

Points

- Champaran episode exemplifies Gandhi’s loyalty to human beings and not ideologies. His politics was entwined with practical day-to-day problems of the millions

-had gone there at the persistent plea of a peasant Rajkumar Shukla, not to defy the British but to alleviate the distress of indigo farming sharecroppers who were being cheated by them.

- he realized that courts could not bring justice to them as they were so crushed and fear–stricken.

-won them compensation - proved to them that they had rights and defenders, thus gave them courage to stand up for their rights.

- was not contented with political and economic victory. He immediately set about addressing the social and cultural backwardness in Champaran.

-under his leadership Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh, their wives and others including his son  volunteered for work-  opened primary schools in six villages, and his wife Kasturbai taught personal cleanliness and community sanitation. A volunteer doctor dispensed basic medicines.

- His mission was to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and free India. He discouraged them from using Charles Freer- an Englishman as a prop for their cause. Self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.