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    Indigo

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    amirthaa sri
    Champaran is a historic region in Bihar, India that was formerly part of Mithila under King Janak. The region was known for its indigo plantations owned by British landlords, who forced peasants to cultivate indigo on 15% of their land and surrender the harvest as rent. However, the development of synthetic indigo in Germany threatened the plantation profits. In response, the landlords tricked peasants into paying heavy fees to be released from their agreements. When the peasants realized they had been cheated, they turned to Indian lawyers for help but were further exploited. This led one peasant named Raj Kumar Shukla to bring their plight to Mohandas Gandhi, who traveled to Champaran to investigate.

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    Indigo

    Uploaded by

    amirthaa sri
    217 views2 pages
    Champaran is a historic region in Bihar, India that was formerly part of Mithila under King Janak. The region was known for its indigo plantations owned by British landlords, who forced peasants to cultivate indigo on 15% of their land and surrender the harvest as rent. However, the development of synthetic indigo in Germany threatened the plantation profits. In response, the landlords tricked peasants into paying heavy fees to be released from their agreements. When the peasants realized they had been cheated, they turned to Indian lawyers for help but were further exploited. This led one peasant named Raj Kumar Shukla to bring their plight to Mohandas Gandhi, who traveled to Champaran to investigate.

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    Champaran is a historic region in Bihar, India that was formerly part of Mithila under King Janak. The region was known for its indigo plantations owned by British landlords, who forced peasants to cultivate indigo on 15% of their land and surrender the harvest as rent. However, the development of synthetic indigo in Germany threatened the plantation profits. In response, the landlords tricked peasants into paying heavy fees to be released from their agreements. When the peasants realized they had been cheated, they turned to Indian lawyers for help but were further exploited. This led one peasant named Raj Kumar Shukla to bring their plight to Mohandas Gandhi, who traveled to Champaran to investigate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    217 views2 pages

    Indigo

    Uploaded by

    amirthaa sri
    Champaran is a historic region in Bihar, India that was formerly part of Mithila under King Janak. The region was known for its indigo plantations owned by British landlords, who forced peasants to cultivate indigo on 15% of their land and surrender the harvest as rent. However, the development of synthetic indigo in Germany threatened the plantation profits. In response, the landlords tricked peasants into paying heavy fees to be released from their agreements. When the peasants realized they had been cheated, they turned to Indian lawyers for help but were further exploited. This led one peasant named Raj Kumar Shukla to bring their plight to Mohandas Gandhi, who traveled to Champaran to investigate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Champaran is a historic region which now forms the East Champarana District and the West Champaran

    district in Bihar, India. Champaran was part of erstwhile Mithila (Nepal) under celebrated King Janak, probably
    the father of Sita.

    People mentioned in the extract

     Raj Kumar Shukla – A peasant from Champaran


     Gandhiji
     Rajendra Prasad – Later, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of India
     Professor Kripalani – A professor at Muzaffarpur
     Professor Malkani – A teacher who worked in a British school.
     Indian Lawyers – Tried to discourage Gandhiji. Gandhiji chided them for fooling the peasants.
     Police officer – He served Gandhiji with an official order to quit Champaran because his presence was
    becoming a concern for the authority.
     Motihari Court Judge
     Kasturbai – Gandhiji’s wife
     Devdas Gandhi – Gandhiji’s youngest son
     Lieutenant Governor Sir Edward Gait
     Charles Freer Andrews – A British social worker

    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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