What traumatic event does Zitkala-Sa describe at the school?

The forcible cutting of her long hair

Why was the cutting of her hair so humiliating to Zitkala-Sa?

Among her people, shingled hair was worn by cowards and mourners

Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being 'resolute'?

Though poor and illiterate, he doggedly followed Gandhi everywhere for weeks, refusing to leave his side until Gandhi agreed to visit Champaran.

Why did Gandhi consider the Champaran episode a turning-point in his life?

It was the first successful instance of civil disobedience in modern India and showed that the British could not order Indians about in their own country.

What did the peasants pay the British landlords, and what did the British now want instead?

They paid indigo grown on fifteen per cent of their land as rent; when synthetic indigo appeared, the landlords wanted compensation to release them from the arrangement.

How did the peasants' demonstration at Motihari begin their liberation?

Their spontaneous gathering in thousands around the courthouse showed they could challenge British authority, marking the beginning of their freedom from fear.

Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of only 25 per cent refund?

He felt the amount mattered less than the fact that the landlords had been made to surrender part of the money and, with it, part of their prestige.

How did the Champaran episode change the plight of the peasants?

The peasants learnt courage and that they had rights and defenders; within a few years the planters left, the land reverted to the peasants and indigo sharecropping disappeared.

How did Gandhi influence the lawyers who came to help him?

He chided them for charging the poor heavy fees and, by his readiness to go to jail for strangers, shamed them into resolving to follow him into prison.

Why did Gandhi refuse the help of Charles Freer Andrews?

He said that relying on an Englishman in this unequal fight showed weakness of heart, and that the Indians must win the battle themselves — a lesson in self-reliance.

What work did Gandhi do beyond the legal and economic issues?

He attacked the cultural and social backwardness of the villages by opening primary schools and improving health, cleanliness and sanitation.

What does the Champaran episode reveal about Gandhi's method of working?

His satyagraha grew from practical, day-to-day problems of ordinary people; he gathered facts, defied unjust orders peacefully, and aimed at freeing the poor from fear.

Indigo

Class 12 English · Flamingo · Chapter 5

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The story in short

An excerpt from Louis Fischer's 'The Life of Mahatma Gandhi', this prose piece recounts the Champaran episode of 1917, a turning-point in Gandhi's life and in the Indian freedom struggle. A poor, illiterate but resolute sharecropper named Rajkumar Shukla follows Gandhi everywhere and persuades him to visit Champaran in Bihar, where peasants were forced under a long-term arrangement to plant indigo on fifteen per cent of their land and surrender the harvest as rent. When the landlords learnt that Germany had developed synthetic indigo, they extorted compensation from the sharecroppers to release them from the arrangement, and those who had already paid wanted their money back. Gandhi began by gathering facts, defied an order to leave the district, and was summoned to court — where thousands of peasants demonstrated in his support, beginning their liberation from fear. The case was dropped, and Gandhi conducted a far-reaching inquiry that produced overwhelming evidence against the planters; he secured a refund of part of the illegally extorted money, the significance being that the landlords had to surrender part of their prestige. Within a few years indigo sharecropping disappeared. Gandhi also worked on the cultural and social backwardness of the villages, opening schools and improving health and sanitation. The episode taught self-reliance: Gandhi refused the help of the Englishman Charles Andrews, insisting the Indians must win the battle themselves. The story shows how Gandhi's politics were rooted in the day-to-day problems of ordinary people.

Gandhi's leadership and satyagrahaFreedom from fearExploitation of peasantsSelf-relianceContribution of ordinary Indians to freedom

Characters & key ideas

Rajkumar ShuklaThe resolute sharecropper who brought Gandhi to Champaran.

ChamparanThe Bihar district where indigo sharecroppers were exploited.

Indigo sharecroppingThe system forcing peasants to grow indigo as rent.

Synthetic indigoThe German invention that made natural indigo unprofitable.

Civil disobedienceGandhi's method that triumphed for the first time in India.

Self-relianceThe lesson Gandhi taught by refusing English help.

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