Indigo – Louis Fischer
This story portraits Gandhiji’s struggle for the poor peasants of Champaran. The peasants were share croppers with the British planters. According to one old agreement, the peasants had to cultivate indigo on fifteen percent of the land and give as rent. The British didn’t need the indigo crop any more when Germany had developed synthetic indigo. Just to release the peasants from the fifteen percent agreement they demanded compensation. Some illiterate peasants agreed but others refused. Later lawyers were appointed .At that time Gandhiji went to Champaran. He managed to get justice after a year long battle for the peasants. He also made arrangements for the education, health, and hygiene for the families of the poor peasants. He gave them the lesson of self reliance.
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Summary Share cropping system in Champaran Champaran is part of the state of Bihar. It was famous for its indigo plantations owned by the British landlords and worked by the Indian peasants. The British forced the peasants to cultivate indigo in the 15% of their land and submit the entire harvest to the landlords as their rent. Good idea, was it not? Poor Indians, they had to obey the British because they were afraid of the British. They hated this agreement and wanted to be free. Synthetic indigo It was during this time that Germany developed synthetic indigo and the British knew that the peasants would be free from the agreement and that they would get no more income from them. Landlords’ trickery So the smart landlords freed them from the agreement by making them pay heavy amount for that. Most of the peasants were happy and paid and got their freedom from the landlords. But soon the news of the German indigo reached them and they realized that they were cheated. Indian lawyers fool the peasants The peasants went to the Indian lawyers and paid them heavily to get back their money. The lawyers knew that the peasants would never get their money back from a court controlled by the British, yet they pretended to be helping them. Who will help them? Soon the peasants realized that they needed a stronger and reliable help and they turned to Indian National Congress. Accordingly, a peasant, Raj Kumar Shukla reached Lucknow where the Congress convention was being held and happened to meet a young Congress member called Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhiji involving Mr. Gandhiji heard Shukla’s story was impressed but regretted his inability to help the peasants of Champaran. He tried to escape Shukla but Shukla was not ready to abandon his pursuit. Finally Gandhiji had to comply. He reached Champaran and learned the situation. He was moved by the way the poor Indian peasants had been exploited and fooled by the British landlords and the Indian lawyers. |
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