Indigo

1. Unit at a glance

• This unit contains a single prose excerpt from Louis Fischer’s The Life of Mahatma Gandhi titled “Indigo”.
• It narrates Gandhi’s 1917 Champaran campaign on behalf of indigo sharecroppers.
• The common theme is the use of non-violent civil disobedience and self-reliance to secure justice for the oppressed.
• Key focus areas include factual events, motives behind actions, and Gandhi’s method of working.
• The unit highlights the link between everyday peasant problems and the larger freedom movement.

2. Prose

Summary

Rajkumar Shukla, an illiterate but resolute Champaran sharecropper, persistently follows Gandhi until the latter agrees to visit the district in 1917. Gandhi gathers facts in Muzaffarpur, meets local lawyers, and proceeds to Motihari. Despite an official order to leave, he refuses, leading to a court summons. Thousands of peasants demonstrate spontaneously. Gandhi pleads guilty but is released. He organises a massive inquiry, forcing landlords to refund 25 % of illegal dues. The episode ends indigo sharecropping, establishes peasants’ rights, and marks Gandhi’s first major civil-disobedience victory in India. He also starts schools and sanitation work.

Setting

Champaran district (Bihar) in April 1917 and the following months; also brief stops in Lucknow, Calcutta, Patna and Muzaffarpur.

Main characters

• Rajkumar Shukla: illiterate yet determined sharecropper who brings Gandhi to Champaran.
• Mahatma Gandhi: central figure who leads the non-violent struggle and insists on self-reliance.
• Rajendra Prasad: lawyer who later becomes President of India; initially hosts Gandhi.
• British landlords & officials: exploit peasants through indigo contracts and attempt to expel Gandhi.
• Local lawyers & peasants: represent the sharecroppers and later show courage by offering to court arrest.

Sequence of key events

1. Shukla meets Gandhi at the 1916 Lucknow Congress session and follows him for months.
2. Gandhi arrives in Muzaffarpur (15 April 1917), learns conditions, then moves to Motihari.
3. Served notice to leave; refuses and receives court summons.
4. Spontaneous peasant gathering at Motihari courthouse.
5. Gandhi organises inquiry; 10,000 depositions collected.
6. Negotiates 25 % refund; indigo system collapses within years.
7. Gandhi opens schools and improves sanitation.

3. Poem

No poem is present in this unit.

4. Themes and messages

The writer shows that freedom from fear matters more than legal remedies for the poor. Gandhi states: “The real relief for them is to be free from fear.” The text also stresses self-reliance: “You should not seek a prop in Mr. Andrews because he happens to be an Englishman.”

5. Literary devices

• Imagery: “Morning found the town of Motihari black with peasants.”
• Metaphor: “a crushing mountain of evidence.”
• Irony: Servants refuse Gandhi water “lest some drops from his bucket pollute the entire source.”
• Personification: “The whole area throbbed with the activity of the investigators.”
• Contrast: “Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.”

6. Vocabulary

• sharecroppers: tenants who give part of their crop as rent
• emaciated: extremely thin and weak
• tenacity: persistent determination
• yeoman: small farmer
• irksome: annoying, troublesome
• satyagraha: non-violent resistance based on truth
• deposition: written statement given under oath
• protracted: lengthy, prolonged
• adamant: firm and unyielding
• conflict of duties: clash between two moral obligations

7. Exam pitfalls

• Confusing the 15 % indigo arrangement with the later compensation demand.
• Stating Gandhi demanded full refund (text shows he accepted 25 %).
• Forgetting that the peasants’ spontaneous demonstration, not Gandhi’s arrest, began their liberation from fear.
• Mixing up the sequence of places visited (Lucknow → Calcutta → Patna → Muzaffarpur → Motihari).
• Claiming Andrews stayed to help (Gandhi refused the “prop”).