Exam-useful questions from this chapter, grouped by marks, each with a full model answer. Try writing the answer yourself first, then check it against this one.
1 1-Mark Questions
Q. Who was Rajkumar Shukla?
Answer: An illiterate but resolute sharecropper from Champaran who approached Gandhi at the Lucknow Congress session and persuaded him to visit Champaran.
Q. Where is Champaran located?
Answer: In the foothills of the Himalayas, near Nepal, in Bihar.
Q. What was the chief commercial crop of Champaran, and what percentage of land had to be planted with it?
Answer: Indigo; tenants were compelled to plant 15 per cent (three-twentieths) of their holdings with it.
Q. Why did the landlords want to be released from the 15 per cent indigo arrangement?
Answer: Because the landlords learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo; they then obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement.
Q. What did the Tirhut commissioner tell Gandhi?
Answer: Gandhi reports that the commissioner “proceeded to bully me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut.”
Q. What order was Gandhi served at Motihari, and how did he respond?
Answer: An official notice to quit Champaran immediately; Gandhi signed the receipt but wrote that he would disobey the order.
Q. What percentage refund did Gandhi finally accept from the planters?
Answer: 25 per cent, though he had asked for 50 per cent.
Q. Name the three medicines available for the Champaran health programme.
Answer: Castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment.
2 2-Mark Questions
Q. How did Rajkumar Shukla’s persistence finally bring Gandhi to Champaran?
Answer: Shukla accompanied Gandhi everywhere after the Congress session, and then followed him to his ashram near Ahmedabad, staying by his side for weeks and begging him to “fix a date.” When Gandhi finally named one, Shukla waited faithfully at the appointed spot in Calcutta until Gandhi arrived, and only then did the two travel on together towards Champaran.
Q. Why did the servants at Rajendra Prasad’s house not let Gandhi draw water from the well?
Answer: The servants knew Shukla as a poor peasant who pestered their master about the indigo sharecroppers, and took his companion Gandhi for just another peasant. They therefore did not let him draw water, fearing that drops from his bucket might pollute the whole source, not knowing he was not an untouchable.
Q. Why did Gandhi go to Muzzafarpur before going to Champaran itself?
Answer: He wanted to obtain more complete information about conditions in Champaran than Shukla alone was capable of imparting, so he sent for Professor J.B. Kripalani and gathered facts from local lawyers before proceeding further.
Q. What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of home rule?
Answer: In smaller localities, the Indians were afraid to show sympathy for advocates of home-rule. That is why Gandhi commented that it was an extraordinary thing “in those days” for a government professor, Malkani, “to harbour a man like me”.
Q. How did the peasants’ demonstration at Motihari affect the officials?
Answer: The officials felt powerless without Gandhi’s cooperation, and he helped them regulate the crowd. He was polite and friendly, and he was giving the officials concrete proof that their might, hitherto dreaded and unquestioned, could be challenged by Indians.
Q. Why did the lawyers who had come to advise Gandhi decide to stay and go to jail with him?
Answer: Gandhi asked them what they would do if he was sentenced to prison; they said they would go home, and he demanded, “What about the injustice to the sharecroppers?” The lawyers consulted and realised that, while a total stranger was prepared to go to prison for the sake of the peasants, going home would be “shameful desertion” for those who lived nearby and claimed to have served these peasants. So they told Gandhi they were ready to follow him into jail.
Q. Why did Gandhi settle for 25 per cent instead of the 50 per cent he had asked for?
Answer: Gandhi explained that the amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the landlords had been obliged to surrender part of the money and, with it, part of their prestige. The planters had behaved as lords above the law; now the peasant saw that he had rights and defenders, and he learned courage.
Q. What reason does Gandhi give for refusing Charles Freer Andrews’s help in Champaran?
Answer: Gandhi tells his lawyer-friends that wanting an Englishman on their side shows “the weakness of your heart,” and that since their cause is just, they must rely upon themselves rather than seek a prop in Andrews simply because he happens to be English.
3 4-Mark Questions
Q. Why do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning point in his life?
Answer: Gandhi himself called it “a very ordinary thing”: he simply declared that the British could not order him about in his own country, by disobeying the notice to quit and accepting the legal consequence. But the episode was far more significant than that. The peasants’ spontaneous demonstration was “the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British”, and when the Lieutenant-Governor ordered the case dropped, “Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.” Gandhi also told Fischer that it was in 1917, the year of Champaran, that he decided to “urge the departure of the British”. And it showed what the book calls “the typical Gandhi pattern”: his politics were intertwined with the practical, day-to-day problems of the millions.
Q. How was Gandhi able to influence lawyers? Give instances.
Answer: Gandhi first chided the Muzzafarpur lawyers for collecting big fees from the sharecroppers, saying that where the peasants are “so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless” and that the real relief for them is to be free from fear. Later, when Rajendra Prasad, Brij Kishor Babu, Maulana Mazharul Huq and other prominent lawyers arrived from Bihar, Gandhi asked them what they would do if he was sentenced to prison. They said they had come to advise and help him, and would go home. “What about the injustice to the sharecroppers,” Gandhi demanded. The lawyers consulted and decided that going home while a total stranger was prepared to go to prison for the peasants would be “shameful desertion”, so they told Gandhi they were ready to follow him into jail. “The battle of Champaran is won,” he exclaimed.
Q. How do we know that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement?
Answer: Rajkumar Shukla, an illiterate but resolute sharecropper, is the one who brings Gandhi to Champaran at all, through months of persistence. The peasants who gather in their thousands around the Motihari courthouse do so spontaneously, without even knowing Gandhi’s record in South Africa; they had merely heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them was in trouble with the authorities. Their spontaneous demonstration was, in the book’s words, “the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British.” Later, depositions by about ten thousand peasants were written down in the inquiry. This is the book’s own sub-theme: “Contributions made by anonymous Indians to the freedom movement.”
Q. Explain the indigo-sharecropping system in Champaran and how synthetic indigo changed it.
Answer: Most of Champaran’s arable land was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants. The chief commercial crop was indigo. Under a long-term contract, tenants were compelled to plant three-twentieths or 15 per cent of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. Presently, the landlords learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo, and they obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The arrangement was irksome to the peasants, and many signed willingly; those who resisted engaged lawyers, and the landlords hired thugs. Meanwhile, the information about synthetic indigo reached the illiterate peasants who had signed, and they wanted their money back. (The book does not state the landlords’ motive; it asks students to think about the impact of synthetic indigo on the prices of natural indigo.)
Q. Describe the trial scene at Motihari and its outcome.
Answer: Gandhi, having disobeyed the notice to quit Champaran, is summoned to court. Morning finds Motihari “black with peasants”, whose spontaneous demonstration around the courthouse the book calls “the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British”; the officials feel powerless without Gandhi’s cooperation, and he helps them regulate the crowd. The government is baffled and the prosecutor asks the judge to postpone the trial. Gandhi protests against the delay, reads a statement describing his “conflict of duties”, and pleads guilty, asking for the penalty due. The magistrate asks him to furnish bail for a two-hour recess; Gandhi refuses, and the judge releases him without bail and later says he will not deliver the judgment for several days. Several days later, the Lieutenant-Governor orders the case dropped: “Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.”
Q. Discuss the qualities of a good leader as shown by Gandhi in this chapter.
Answer: Gandhi shows patience and humility by allowing an illiterate peasant, Shukla, to draw him into an unfamiliar cause, and he investigates the facts himself, going first to Muzzafarpur “to obtain more complete information”. He shows courage by openly disobeying an official order and pleading guilty. He leads by example: because a total stranger was prepared to go to prison for the peasants, the Bihar lawyers decided going home would be “shameful desertion”. He shows firmness in refusing Andrews’s help so that his followers rely on themselves, and practical sense in accepting 25 per cent. Finally, he shows care beyond politics: he “never contented himself with large political or economic solutions” and arranged schools, a doctor and sanitation work in the villages.
Q. What constructive work did Gandhi undertake in Champaran besides the legal victory, and why?
Answer: The book says Gandhi “never contented himself with large political or economic solutions.” He saw the cultural and social backwardness in the Champaran villages and wanted to do something about it immediately. He appealed for teachers: Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh and their wives volunteered, more came from Bombay, Poona and other distant parts, and Devadas and Mrs. Gandhi arrived from the ashram. Primary schools were opened in six villages, and Kasturbai taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation. Health conditions were miserable, so Gandhi got a doctor to volunteer for six months, with only three medicines: castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment. Noticing the filthy state of women’s clothes, he asked Kasturbai to talk to them about it. One reading of this is that, for Gandhi, legal rights were not the whole solution: his loyalty was to “living, human beings.”
Q. “Freedom from fear is more important than legal justice for the poor.” Do you agree? Discuss with reference to the chapter.
Answer: The chapter supports this view. Gandhi tells the Muzzafarpur lawyers that where the peasants are “so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless”, and that “the real relief for them is to be free from fear.” The case against Gandhi was not won by a court judgment; it was dropped by order of the Lieutenant-Governor, and the peasants’ spontaneous demonstration at Motihari is called “the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British.” After the settlement, “the peasant saw that he had rights and defenders. He learned courage,” and within a few years indigo sharecropping disappeared. One can argue from this that legal justice achieves little without freedom from fear, while freedom from fear lets people claim their rights.
4 6-Mark Questions
Q. Trace, in detail, Gandhi’s method of working through the Champaran episode, and explain how it reflects his ideas of satyagraha and non-violence.
Answer: Gandhi’s method can be studied in five stages (a study grouping, not a list in the book). First, fact-finding: he goes first to Muzzafarpur to obtain more complete information than Shukla could give, hears the lawyers about their cases, and then visits the landlords’ secretary and the Tirhut commissioner himself. Second, peaceful defiance: when served an official notice to quit Champaran, he signs the receipt, writes on it that he will disobey the order, and in court pleads guilty, explaining his “conflict of duties” and his obedience to “the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience”, and asks for the penalty due. Third, mass support: thousands of peasants gather spontaneously around the Motihari courthouse, having merely heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them was in trouble; Gandhi stays polite and friendly and helps the officials regulate the crowd. Fourth, negotiation: four protracted interviews with the Lieutenant-Governor lead to an official commission of inquiry, and once the landlords agree in principle to refunds, he asks only 50 per cent and accepts 25 per cent, since the landlords’ surrender of money and prestige mattered more than the amount. Fifth, constructive work: schools, a doctor and sanitation work follow. Every stage avoids violence and coercion; its strength comes from truth (the facts), open acceptance of the penalty, and peaceful mass support. This matches satyagraha, insistence on truth through non-violent resistance, which is what the book’s margin question asks you to link it to.
Q. Give a detailed account of Gandhi’s efforts to secure justice for the Champaran sharecroppers, from his first meeting with Shukla to the final settlement.
Answer: Gandhi first hears of Champaran when Rajkumar Shukla, an illiterate but resolute sharecropper, approaches him at the December 1916 Lucknow Congress session. Shukla accompanies Gandhi everywhere and follows him to his ashram, begging him to “fix a date”; Gandhi tells him to meet him in Calcutta, and from there they go to Patna. Gandhi then goes to Muzzafarpur to obtain more complete information than Shukla was capable of imparting. Under the indigo system, tenants had to plant 15 per cent of their holdings with indigo and surrender the harvest as rent; on learning of synthetic indigo, the landlords had obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for release from this arrangement. Refused information by the landlords’ secretary, and bullied and advised to leave Tirhut by the commissioner, Gandhi proceeds to Motihari, where he is served an official notice to quit; he writes that he will disobey it, is summoned to court, and pleads guilty, while thousands of peasants gather around the courthouse. The government is baffled and the trial is postponed. Several days later, the Lieutenant-Governor orders the case dropped. After four interviews with him, an official inquiry commission is appointed with Gandhi as the peasants’ sole representative. Faced with depositions from about ten thousand peasants, the planters agree in principle to a refund; Gandhi asks only 50 per cent, and when their representative offers 25 per cent, Gandhi takes him at his word. Now the peasant “saw that he had rights and defenders. He learned courage.” Within a few years, indigo sharecropping disappeared.
Q. Write a character sketch of Mahatma Gandhi as he appears in “Indigo.”
Answer: Gandhi appears here not as a distant historical figure but as a practical, approachable leader. He is humble enough to let an unlettered peasant, Shukla, draw him into a cause he knows nothing about, and careful enough to investigate the facts himself before acting; he does not leave Tirhut even when the commissioner bullies him and advises him to go. He is courageous, disobeying the notice to quit openly and pleading guilty. The peasants who gather in thousands at the Motihari courthouse had merely heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them was in trouble with the authorities. He is also a practical negotiator, willing to accept 25 per cent after asking for 50 per cent, because the landlords’ surrender of money and prestige mattered more than the amount. His firm refusal of Charles Freer Andrews’s help shows a leader building his followers’ self-reliance. Finally, his work on schools, health and sanitation shows that political rights and the practical problems of ordinary life were never separate for him. As the book itself says, “His was not a loyalty to abstractions; it was a loyalty to living, human beings.”
Q. “Champaran did not begin as an act of defiance. It grew out of an attempt to alleviate the distress of large numbers of poor peasants.” Explain this statement and its significance for understanding Gandhi’s politics.
Answer: The book is careful to say how the Champaran episode started. Gandhi did not travel to Bihar planning a confrontation with the British government; he went because an illiterate peasant would not stop asking him to look into the injustice of the indigo-sharecropping system. It was only in the course of investigating this practical, local distress that Gandhi found himself served an unjust notice, and only then that defiance and civil disobedience became necessary. This sequence matters because it captures what the book calls the “typical Gandhi pattern”: his politics were always intertwined with the everyday, practical problems of millions of ordinary people, not with abstract political theory or a wish to defy authority for its own sake. His loyalty, in the book’s own words, was “not a loyalty to abstractions” but “a loyalty to living, human beings,” and this fits the way the campaign did not stop at the legal settlement but continued into schools, healthcare and sanitation, because Gandhi “never contented himself with large political or economic solutions”.
5 Case Studies
(A) 1 mark According to the passage, what percentage of their land were Champaran tenants compelled to plant with indigo?
Answer: 15 per cent (three-twentieths) of their holdings.
(B) 2 marks According to the passage, why did the landlords seek compensation agreements from the sharecroppers instead of continuing the old arrangement?
Answer: Because the landlords learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo. They thereupon obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The passage gives no other reason.
(C) 3 marks Based on the passage, explain why the peasants later wanted their money back, and how the peasants had responded to the landlords’ agreements.
Answer: The peasants had signed agreements to pay the landlords compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The passage says the arrangement was irksome to the peasants, and many signed willingly; those who resisted engaged lawyers, and the landlords hired thugs. Meanwhile, the information about synthetic indigo reached the illiterate peasants who had signed, and they wanted their money back. One reading is that they felt they had paid to be released from an arrangement whose value was about to fall.
(A) 1 mark According to the passage, what did the planters agree to do once they saw the evidence against them?
Answer: They agreed, in principle, to make refunds to the peasants.
(B) 2 marks According to the passage, what did the planters expect Gandhi to demand, and what did he actually ask for?
Answer: They expected him to demand repayment in full of the money they had illegally and deceitfully extorted from the sharecroppers, but he asked only for 50 per cent.
(C) 3 marks Based on the passage and your knowledge of the chapter, why did Gandhi accept 25 per cent after asking for 50 per cent?
Answer: Gandhi explained that the amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the landlords had been obliged to surrender part of the money and, with it, part of their prestige. As far as the peasants were concerned, the planters had behaved as lords above the law; now the peasant saw that he had rights and defenders. The book does not say why Gandhi first asked for 50 per cent.