Chapter-5. INDIGO Louis Fischer(PROSE)

Suggest a possible settlement.

Present your arguments.

Find out the facts of the case.

Notice the use or non-use of the comma in the following sentences.

1. When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in Sevagram, he told me what happened in Champaran.
2. He had not proceeded far when the police superintendent's messenger overtook him.
3. When the court reconvened, the judge said he would not deliver the judgment for several days.

Choose an issue that has provoked a controversy like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy or the Narmada Dam Project in which the lives of the poor have been affected.

• List the words used in the text that are related to legal procedures.

For example: deposition

• List other words that you know that fall into this category.

Discuss the following.

1. "Freedom from fear is more important than legal justice for the poor."

Do you think that the poor of India are free from fear after Independence?

2. The qualities of a good leader.

Notice the sentences in the text which are in 'direct speech'.

Why does the author use quotations in his narration?

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

What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of 'home rule'?

How was Gandhi able to influence lawyers? Give instances.

Why do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning-point in his life?

How did the episode change the plight of the peasants?

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

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?

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?

List the places that Gandhi visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at Champaran.

Why do you think the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant?

Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being 'resolute'?

 Strike out what is not true in the following.

b. Rajkumar Shukla was 

(i) poor.

(ii) physically strong.

(iii) illiterate.

1. Strike out what is not true in the following.

a. Rajkumar Shukla was

(i) a sharecropper.

(ii) a politician.

(iii) a delegate.

(iv) a landlord.