Chapter 5 Indigo Solutions
Question - 11 : - How was Gandhi able to influence lawyers? Give instances.
Answer - 11 : -
The Muzzafarpur lawyers called on Gandhi in Champaran to brief him about their cases and talked about the fees they charged the sharecroppers. Gandhi reprimanded the lawyers for charging the poor sharecroppers hefty sums of money. He also said that freedom from fear would help the sharecroppers more than merely taking such cases to court.
When Gandhi courted arrest, he assembled Rajendra Prasad, Brij Kishor Babu, Maulana Mazharul Hut and several other prominent lawyers from Bihar. He asked them what they would do if he was sentenced to prison. A senior lawyer replied that they had come to him for advise and help, and if he went to jail, there would be nobody to advise them. They felt that if Gandhi being a complete stranger was prepared to go to prison for the sake of the peasants, then it would be a shameful desertion if they, not only as residents of the adjoining districts but also as those who claimed to have served these peasants, should go home. They went back to Gandhi and told him they were ready to follow him into jail.
Question - 12 : - What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of тАЬhome ruleтАЭ?
Answer - 12 : -
Gandhi, on his way to Champaran, decided to meet J B Kripalani of the Arts College in Muzzafarpur, whom he had seen at TagoreтАЩs Shantiniketan school. The train reached there at midnight on 15 April 1917. Gandhi stayed there for two days in the home of Professor Malkani, a teacher in a government school. This was an extraordinary thing in those days. It was highly unlikely that a government professor would give shelter to a rebel like him, for fear of termination from service by the government. In smaller regions, the Indians were afraid to show compassion for the supporters of home-rule.
Question - 13 : - How do we know that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement?
Answer - 13 : -
On his way to Champaran, in Muzzafarpur, Gandhi stayed in Muzzafarpur for two days in the home of Professor Malkani, a teacher in a government school. For a government servant, Malkani, showed a great deal of courage by giving shelter to a person who was fighting for home-rule.
In Champaran, at the railway station, there was a crowd to greet Gandhi. Motihari was also teeming with peasants, though they did not know about GandhiтАЩs achievements. But, their gathering in huge numbers was the beginning of their freedom from fear of the British. This was the proof that the power of the British could be challenged by Indians. The lawyers, after meeting Gandhi, assured him that they would court arrest. Civil disobedienceтАФa movement of the peopleтАФwon for the first time in modem India.
Gandhi and the lawyers then conducted a detailed enquiry into the grievances of the farmers. They prepared cases for about ten thousand peasants and collected relevant documents. The masses helped Gandhi, who was not satisfied with only political or economic solutions. What concerned him was the cultural and social backwardness in Champaran. He requested teachers to educate the masses. Two young men Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh and their wives, volunteered to do this work. Several more including Devadas, GandhiтАЩs youngest son, joined in. Kasturba Gandhi, too, taught personal cleanliness and community sanitation. Volunteers from amongst the masses rendered unflinching support.
тАЬFreedom from fear is more important than legal justice for the poor.тАЭ Do you think that the poor of India are free from fear after Independence?
Answer - 14 : -
As the rich and well-heeled made preparations to ring in the new year in style across a new, shining India, a wave of revulsion swept through the country after the report of mass killings in a sleepy, poor housing area. This was in Nithari, no more than eighteen miles from the capital, Delhi, and in one of IndiaтАЩs most prosperous and upcoming districts, Noida. Violent death involving such larger numbers is not so rare in India, especially where the poor are concerned. Nithari provoked a different response, because this case illustrates best the most barbaric and basic truth about the Indian state.
The incident reveals how the countryтАЩs poor is still under the threat of injustice. It is one example of how the poor and weak have just no place in the Indian system. It also deeply concerns how the Indian media has been sucked into covering the relatively more mundane, but sensational issues. The media had heard of reports of children disappearing but no one took the trouble to take up the issue. The inefficiency of the police is just a cover- up as this could never have happened if the victims belonged to a rich or middle-class neighbourhood.
Speaking to a BBC Hindi service show, one of IndiaтАЩs most celebrated police officers, Kiran Bedi, said that the Nithari case was an example of how, for the common man in the country, there is no police or justice system. тАЬThe system needs to be completely overhauled and wide-ranging reforms are needed in the police structure,тАЭ she said.
But only police reforms are insufficient, the entire system and attitudes desperately need to be reformed. IndiaтАЩs economic prowess and potential is much talked about but can we say with the same degree of optimism that there will not be another Nithari, when India does realise its dreams?
The qualities of a good leader.
Answer - 15 : -
- Integrity
- Self knowledge
- Commitment
- Consistency of purpose
- Willingness to admit a mistake
- Ability to listen
- Openness to change
- Decisiveness
- Ability to go the extra mile
- Enthusiasm
- Awareness
- Positive Communication
- Dynamism
- Impartial approach
Question - 16 : - List the words used in the text that are related to legal procedures.
Answer - 16 : -
For example: deposition
List other words that you know that fall into this category.
Answer
The words used in the text that are related to legal procedures are:
proceedings, brief, cases, agreements, notice, summons, prosecutor, pleading, pronounce sentence, bail, court, reconvened, judgment, sentenced, entreaty, evidence, defenders, trial, deposition, etc.
When and where did Louis Fischer first meet Gandhi? What did they talk about?
Answer - 17 : -
Louis Fischer served as a volunteer in the British Army between 1918 and 1920. He wrote a book on Gandhi named тАШThe Life of Mahatma GandhiтАЩ. He met Gandhi when he first visited him, in 1942, at his ashram in Sevagram, in central India. That was the time when Gandhi told him how he had decided to urge the departure of the British from India, in 1917.
Question - 18 : - Why was Gandhi in Lucknow in 1916? What happened there that was to change the course of Indian history?
Answer - 18 : -
In December 1916, Gandhi had gone to the annual convention of the Indian National Congress in Lucknow, where there were 2,301 delegates and many visitors. There, he met with a poor peasant, Rajkumar Shukla from Champaran. Shukla pleaded with Gandhi to visit his hometown and brought to GandhiтАЩs notice the miserable plight of the indigo farmers. This fuelled his campaign in 1917 to drive out the British from India.
Question - 19 : - How did Rajkumar Shukla decide to meet Gandhi?
Answer - 19 : -
Rajkumar Shukla was one of the many sharecroppers of Champaran. He was illiterate but resolute. He had been advised to go to the Congress session to complain to Gandhi about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar. He was told that Gandhi could help them. He followed Gandhi through his travels and stayed with him in the ashram till Gandhi promised to accompany him for the cause of the poor peasants.
Question - 20 : - What episode in Patna showed Gandhi the existence of a rigid caste system?
Answer - 20 : -
Shukla took Gandhi to Patna. He led him to the house of a lawyer, Rajendra Prasad, who was out of town, but the servants recognized Shukla as a poor indigo peasant. They let him and his companion, Gandhi, stay on his premises but forbade them to draw water from the well. They presumed Gandhi to be another peasant and treated him as an untouchable. Gandhi was made aware of the menace of the caste system.