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Champaran: Gandhi's Turning Point

Gandhi considered the Champaran episode a turning point because it began as an attempt to ease peasant suffering and gained spontaneous support from thousands of people, showing Gandhi that ordinary Indians could support challenging the British government in India. The lawyers were initially unwilling to support Gandhi but he convinced them the injustice faced by sharecroppers meant it would be shameful not to follow him. Ordinary people, including sharecroppers, students, and lawyers contributed to the freedom movement by demonstrating support for Gandhi in Champaran. Sharecropping involved peasants being forced to grow indigo and surrender their harvest as rent, which was irksome. After Gandhi's involvement, an inquiry was held that concluded landlords had to refund

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Sakshham Vijay Jhaa
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2K views2 pages

Champaran: Gandhi's Turning Point

Gandhi considered the Champaran episode a turning point because it began as an attempt to ease peasant suffering and gained spontaneous support from thousands of people, showing Gandhi that ordinary Indians could support challenging the British government in India. The lawyers were initially unwilling to support Gandhi but he convinced them the injustice faced by sharecroppers meant it would be shameful not to follow him. Ordinary people, including sharecroppers, students, and lawyers contributed to the freedom movement by demonstrating support for Gandhi in Champaran. Sharecropping involved peasants being forced to grow indigo and surrender their harvest as rent, which was irksome. After Gandhi's involvement, an inquiry was held that concluded landlords had to refund

Uploaded by

Sakshham Vijay Jhaa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Indigo Q&A Session

INDIGO

[Link] do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning-


point in his life?
Ans: The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of large number
of poor peasants. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. Gandhi admits that
what he had done was a very ordinary thing. He declared that the British could not order him
about in his own country. Hence, he considered the Champaran episode as a turning- point
in his life.

Q2. How was Gandhi able to influence lawyers? Give instances.

Ans: Gandhi asked the lawyers what they would do if he was sentenced to prison.
They said that they had come to advise him. If he went to jail, they would go home.
Then Gandhi asked them about the injustice to the sharecroppers. The lawyers held
consultations. They came to the conclusion that it would be shameful desertion if
they went home. So, they told Gandhi that they were ready to follow him into jail.

Q3. “What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards
advocates of ‘home rule’?

Ans: The average Indians in smaller localities were afraid to show sympathy for the
advocates of home-rule. Gandhi stayed at Muzaffarpur for two days at the home of
Professor Malkani, a teacher in a government school. It was an extraordinary thing in
those days for a government professor to give shelter to one who opposed the
government.

Q4. How do we know that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom
movement?

Ans: Professor J.B. Kriplani received Gandhi at Muzaffarpur railway station at


midnight. He had a large body of students with him. Sharecroppers from Champaran
came on foot and by conveyance to see Gandhi. Muzaffarpur lawyers too called on
him. A vast multitude greeted Gandhi when he reached Motihari railway station.
Thousands of people demonstrated around the court room. This shows that ordinary
people too contributed to the freedom movement in India.

Q5. Why was share cropping irksome? What was its fate?

Ans: Most of the cultivating land of Champaran district was divided into large
estates owned by the Englishmen. It was worked by Indian tenant peasants, for
which they paid rent. Indigo was the chief commercial crop. The English
planters compelled all peasants to grow indigo in three-twentieths or 15 per
cent of their land holdings. The entire indigo harvest was to be surrendered as
rent to the British landowners. The landlords came to know that Germany had
developed synthetic indigo. Thereupon they obtained agreement, from the
share-croppers to pay them the compensation. This share-cropping
arrangement was irksome to the peasants. Some signed it willingly and those
who opposed engaged lawyers. The landowners hired thugs who forcefully
collected the compensation amount.

It was at this point Gandhi reached Champaran. Gandhi’s civil disobedience


and peasants’ spontaneous demonstration compelled the Lieutenant Governor
to appoint a commission of inquiry into the share-croppers situation. The official
inquiry concluded that the landlords had to refund the part of the money to the
peasants. After a few years they abandoned their estates. The indigo share-
cropping disappeared completely.

INDIGO Q1.Why do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning- point in his life? Ans: The Champaran ep
developed synthetic indigo. Thereupon they obtained agreement, from the share-croppers to pay them the compensation. This sh

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