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NCERT Class 12 English Chapter 5 Indigo
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Indigo
Chapter: 5
PROSE SECTION
TEXTUAL QUESTIONS ANSWERS
THINK AS YOU READ
Q. 1. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers?
Ans. The official Inquiry Commission agreed, in principle, to make refunds of the money illegally extorted from the sharecroppers. The landlords feared that Gandhi would demand the refund of the full money. But to their amazement he demanded only 50 per cent. He remained firm on his stand. Then the representatives of the big planters offered to pay 25 per cent, to which Gandhi agreed breaking the deadlock.
Gandhi explained that the amount of the refund was less important. More important to him was that the landlords were confronted to surrender part of the money and with it the part of indigo-their prestige. The peasants realized their rights and it boosted their courage.
Q. 2. Why do you think the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant?
Or
Why did the servants think Gandhiji to be another peasant?
Ans. From Calcutta both, Gandhi and Raj Kumar Shukla reached the city of Patna. He led Gandhi to the house of a lawyer, Rajendra Prasad. He was out of town. His servants knew Shukla as a poor sharecropper from Champaran who troubled Prasad to take up the cause of indigo. Gandhi went there with Shukla for the first time. So they took him to be another peasant. The servants allowed both of them to stay on the ground.
Q. 3. Why is Raj Kumar Shukla described as being ‘resolute’?
Or
Give an example from the essay ‘Indigo’ to show that Raj Kumar Shukla was a resolute man.
Ans. Raj Kumar Shukla is described as being ‘Resolute’ because he was fully determined to take Gandhi to Bihar. Being an illiterate and poor share-cropper from Champaran, he had come to apprise and complain Gandhi about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar. He met Gandhi in Lucknow session of the Congress. He was too committed to accompany Gandhi everywhere. Gandhi was very much impressed by his tenacity and fixed time for Calcutta. Months passed in waiting, Shukla was sitting on his haunches at the fixed place in Calcutta, till Gandhi was free. Finally both boarded a train to Patna.
Q. 4. How did the episode change the plight of the peasants?
Ans. Till the agreement the British planters were behaving like lords above law. They were deceitfully and illegally extorting money from the planters. With the settlement they were obliged to surrender part of the money and part of their indigo prestige By now the peasants gained courage and confidence. They knew their rights. By and by the British planters left their estates and the share-cropping disappeared forever.
Q. 5. List the places that Gandhi visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at Champaran.
Ans. Shukla called on Gandhi at Lucknow. Then Gandhi had an appointment in Kanpur and was committed to go to the other parts of India. When Gandhi returned to his Ashram in Sevagram at Ahmedabad, Shukla followed him. Then, Gandhi went to Calcutta Shukla was sitting on his haunches at the appointed date. When Gandhi was free, both boarded a train to the city of Patna in Bihar. Then Gandhi went to Muzaffarpur enroute to Champaran. From there he went to Motihari and the nearby village. Finally he returned to Champaran.
Q. 6. What did the peasants pay the British landlords as rent? What did the British now want instead and why? What would be the impact of synthetic indigo on the prices of natural indigo?
Ans. The peasants planted 15 per cent of their holdings with indigo. The entire indigo harvest was to be paid as rent to the landlords. In the meanwhile, the British landlords, learnt that Germany had developed synthetic indigo. So they obtained agreements from the share-croppers to pay them the compensation for the 15 per cent arrangement. It was because the price of natural indigo would fall with the arrival of synthetic indigo. It will diminish or block the demand of the indigo.
Q. 7. The events in this part of the text illustrate Gandhi’s method of working. Can you identify some instances of this method and link them to his ideas of satyagraha and non-violence?
Ans. Gandhi was a man of principles and did not want to set a bad example as a law-breaker but he wanted to render the humanitarian and national service. Gandhi was asked to quit Champaran. He received the notice but wrote on it to disobey. Next day he had to appear in the court. The peasants came to know about it and the town of Motihari became cloud with peasants in the morning. They demonstrated around the courthouse. It was the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British. The authorities failed to control the situation and they sought Gandhi’s cooperation to regulate the crowd. His idea of non-violence and satyagraha came into operation. For him the ‘voice of conscience’ was above any law. Mean-while Gandhi was allowed to remain at liberty. These instances link them to his ideas of non-violence and satyagraha.
His basic theories of fighting for a just cause, self-reliance and non-violence through satyagraha became the greatest challenge to the might of Britishers ruling India.
Q. 8. Strike out what is not true in the following:
(a) Rajkumar Shukla was:
(i) a share-cropper.
(ii) a politician.
(iii) delegate.
(iv) a landlord.
Ans. a politician, delegate and a landlord.
(b) Rajkumar Shukla was:
(i) poor.
(ii) physically strong.
(iii) illiterate.
Ans. Physically strong.
