The Chapter “Indigo” from Class 12th NCERT Flamingo, the CBSE board. Below you can find Indigo Question Answers. Let’s get started.
Indigo: Short Question Answers
Ans: Rajkumar Shukla was a poor and emaciated peasant of Champaran. He had come to Lucknow in congress session to complain about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar.
Ans: Gandhi had an appointment in Cawnpore and was also committed to going to other parts of India. In spite of this, Shukla accompanied him everywhere. Then Gandhi returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed him to the ashram. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side.
Ans: Gandhi Ji was an unknown personality to them. Due to Gandhi’s simple clothing and appearance, the servants considered him as one of the peasants who accompanied Rajkumar Shukla.
Ans: Gandhi Ji was not permitted to draw water from the well because they did not know Gandhi Ji and whether he was touchable or not. He was not permitted to draw water from the well least some drops from his bucket pollute the entire source.
Ans: Gandhi Ji decided to go to Muzzafarpur first to obtain more complete and detailed information about the condition than Shukla was capable of imparting Professor. Kripalani with a large body of students received him there.
Ans: Gandhi Ji stayed in the home of Professor Malkani who was a teacher in a government school. It was extraordinary because, in smaller localities, Indians were afraid to show sympathy for advocates of home rule.
Ans: Gandhi Ji chided the lawyers for collecting the big fee from sharecroppers. According to him, they should stop going to law courts. The peasants are so crushed and fear-stricken law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear.
Ans: All night Gandhi Ji remained awake to do the planning. He telegraphed Rajendra Prasad to come from Bihar with influential friends. He sent instructions to the ashram and he wired a full report to the viceroy.
Ans: The peasants came in large numbers. The town of Motihari was found black with peasants. They stated a spontaneous demonstration in thousands around the courthouse which was the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British.
Ans: The officials felt powerless without Gandhi’s cooperation. He helped them regulate the crowd. He was polite and friendly. He was giving them concrete proof that their might, hitherto dreaded and unquestioned could be challenged by Indians.
Ans: Gandhi Ji read a statement pleading guilty. He was involved. He told the court, in a “conflict of duties:- not to set a bad example as a lawbreaker, but to render the humanitarian and national service for which he had come. He disregarded, the order to leave, not for want of respect for lawful authority but in obedience to the higher law of our being the voice of conscience.
Ans: Gandhi Ji agreed to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers because Gandhi Ji explained that the amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the landlords had been obliged to surrenders part of the money and their prestige.
Ans: The episode changed the plight of peasants. As far as the peasants were concerned the planters had behaved as lords above the law. After this episode peasants saw that they had rights and defenders. They learned courage. Within a few years, the British planters abandoned their estates which reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.
Ans: Gandhi Ji opposed to C.F. Andrews helping him in Champaran because of his lawyer friends thaught that in an unequal fight, it would be helpful if they had an Englishmen on their side and this shows the weakness of their heart. He told that the cause is just and they must rely upon themselves to win the battle.
Indigo: Long Question Answers
Question: What did the peasants pay the British landlord as rent?
Ans: Most of the arable land in the Champaran district was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and Worked by tenants. The Chief commercial crop was indigo. The landlords compelled all the tenants to plant three twentieths or 15 per cent of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done by long term contract. The landlord learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo. They obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being released from 15 per cent arrangement.
Question: How did Gandhi Ji began his mission in Champaran?
Ans: Gandhi JI began his mission in Champaran by trying to get the facts. First, he visited the secretary of British landlord’s association where the secretary told him that they could give no information to an outsider Gandhi answered that he was no outsider. Next, Gandhi Ji called on the British official commissioner of the Tirhut division in which the Champaran Lay where the commissioner proceeded to bully him and advised him forthwith to leave Tirhut.
Question: “In consequence, Gandhi Ji received a summons to appear in court next day “Which event of the previous day let to this state of affairs?
Ans: A report came in that a peasant had been maltreated in a nearby village. Then Gandhi Ji decided to go there. He had not proceeded far when the messenger of superintendent overtook him and ordered him to return to town. Gandhi compiled the messenger drove Gandhi home where he served him with an official notice to quit Chamapran immediately. Gandhi signed the notice and wrote on it that he would disobey the order.
Question: ‘The battle of Champaran is won’ when and why did Gandhi uttered these words?
Ans: The eminent lawyers from the nearby areas came to advice Gandhi Ji. Decided to go back in case Gandhi Ji was arrested at this, Gandhi made them realize their duty towards the peasants. They realized that it would be shameful for them to leave these peasants at that time when a stranger was ready even to go to jail for them. So they all approached Gandhi Ji and assured they would accompany him to jail. At this point, Gandhi Ji said that “The battle of Champaran is won”. In this way, Gandhi Ji taught them if they remain together they could fight any injustice.
Question: What was the outcome of the four protracted interviews Gandhi Ji had with Lieutenant Governer?
Ans: The outcome of four protracted interviews when Gandhi Ji had with Lieutenant Governor was that an official commission of inquiry appointed into the indigo sharecropper’s situation. The commission consisted of landlords, government officials and Gandhi Ji as a sole representative of peasants. This official inquiry assembled and trashing mountains of evidence against the big planters were collected.
Question: What did Gandhi Ji do to remove social and cultural backwardness in Champaran?
Ans: To remove social and cultural backwardness in Chamaparan Gandhi Ji appealed for the teacher. Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh, two young men who had just joined Gandhi Ji of disciples and their wives volunteered for the work and several more come from many places. Devdas, Gandhi Ji’s youngest son and Mrs Gandhi arrived from the ashram. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Gandhi Ji got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months. These medicines were available castor oil, quinine, sulphur ointment and told them how to use it. Rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation were also taught.
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