Consider the following statements :1. Mahatma Gandhi was assisted inCh...
- Mahatma Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the problems of the farmers in the context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar. Gandhi went to Champaran with Rajkumar early in 1917 accompanied by Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani.
- Whereas, Indulal Yajnik assisted Gandhi in Kheda satyagraha. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
- Mahatma Gandhi was assisted in Kheda Satyagraha by Sardar Vallabhai Patel and other local lawyers and advocates such as Indulal Yagnik, Shankarlal Banker, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravi Shankar Vyas. Anasuya Sarabhai also played a major role in the Kheda satyagraha and was also one of the first signatories of the ‘Satyagraha Pledge’ created by Gandhi to oppose the Rowlatt Bill. So, Statement 2 is correct.
- Gandhi organized the third campaign in Ahmedabad where he intervened in a dispute between the mill owners and workers. Gandhi knew Ambalal Sarabhai, a millowner, as the latter had financially helped Gandhi’s Ashram. Moreover, Ambalal’s sister Anasuya Sarabhai had reverence for Gandhi. He was assisted by Anasuya Sarabhai organized daily mass meetings of workers, in which he delivered lectures and issued a series of leaflets on the situation. So, Statement 3 is correct.
Additional Information:
MAHATMA GANDHI
Champaran Satyagraha
- The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was the first Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi in India and is considered a historically important revolt in the Indian Independence Movement.
- It was a farmer's uprising that took place in the Champaran district of Bihar, India, during the British colonial period. The farmers were protesting against having to grow indigo with barely any payment for it.
- When Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915 and saw peasants in northern India oppressed by indigo planters, he tried to use the same methods that he had used in South Africa to organize mass uprisings by people to protest against injustice.
- Champaran Satyagraha was the first popular satyagraha movement.
- Other popular leaders associated with Champaran Satyagraha were Brajkishore Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Ramnavmi Prasad, and Shambhusharan Varma.
Kheda Satyagraha
- Because of the drought in 1918, the crops failed in the Kheda district of Gujarat.
- According to the Revenue Code, if the yield was less than one-fourth of the normal
- production, the farmers were entitled to remission.
- The Gujarat Sabha, consisting of the peasants, submitted petitions to the highest governing authorities of the province requesting that the revenue assessment for the year 1919 be suspended.
- The government, however, remained adamant and said that the property of the farmers would be seized if the taxes were not paid.
- Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay taxes.
- Gandhi, however, was mainly the spiritual head of the struggle.
- It was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a group of other devoted Gandhians, namely, Narahari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages, organized the villagers and told them what to do, and gave the necessary political leadership.
- Patel, along with his colleagues, organized the tax revolt which the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda supported.
- The revolt was remarkable in that discipline and unity were maintained.
- Even when, on non-payment of taxes, the government seized the farmers’ personal property, land, and livelihood, a vast majority of Kheda’s farmers did not desert Sardar Patel.
- Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were socially ostracised.
- Ultimately, the government sought to bring about an agreement with the farmers.
- It agreed to suspend the tax for the year in question, and for the next; reduce the rate increase, and return all the confiscated property.
- The struggle at Kheda brought a new awakening among the peasantry.
- They became aware that they would not be free of injustice and exploitation unless and until their country achieved complete independence.
Ahmedabad mill strike
- In March 1918, Gandhi intervened in a dispute between cotton mill owners of Ahmedabad and the workers over the issue of discontinuation of the plague bonus.
- The mill owners wanted to withdraw the bonus.
- The workers were demanding a rise of 50 percent in their wages so that they could manage in the times of wartime inflation (which doubled the prices of food grains, cloth, and other necessities) caused by Britain’s involvement in World War I.
- The mill owners were ready to give only a 20 percent wage hike.
- The workers went on strike. The relations between the workers and the m ill owners worsened with the striking workers being arbitrarily dismissed and the mill owners deciding to bring in weavers from Bombay.
- The workers of the mill turned to Anusuya Sarabhai for help in fighting for justice.
- Anusuya Sarabhai was a social worker who was also the sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, one of the mill owners and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association (founded in 1891 to develop the textile industry in Ahmedabad), for help in fighting for justice.
- Though Gandhi was a friend of Ambalal, he took up the workers’ cause.
- Gandhi asked the workers to go on a strike and demand a 35 percent increase in wages instead of 50 percent.
- Gandhi advised the workers to remain non-violent while on strike.
- When negotiations with mill owners did not progress, he undertook a fast unto death (his first) to strengthen the workers’ resolve.
- But the fast also had the effect of putting pressure on the mill owners who finally agreed to submit the issue to a tribunal.
Consider the following statements :1. Mahatma Gandhi was assisted inCh...
Explanation:
Champaran Satyagraha:
- Mahatma Gandhi was indeed assisted by Indulal Yajnik in Champaran Satyagraha, where the farmers were protesting against the oppressive indigo plantation system imposed by the British.
Kheda Satyagraha:
- Vallabhbhai Patel and Anasuya Sarabhai assisted Mahatma Gandhi in Kheda Satyagraha, which was a protest against the high taxation imposed by the British on farmers during a famine.
Ahmedabad mill workers strike:
- Mahatma Gandhi was also assisted by Anasuya Sarabhai in the Ahmedabad mill workers strike, where the workers were demanding better working conditions and higher wages.
Therefore, statement 2 and 3 are correct as Vallabhbhai Patel and Anasuya Sarabhai assisted Mahatma Gandhi in Kheda Satyagraha, and Anasuya Sarabhai assisted Mahatma Gandhi in the Ahmedabad mill workers strike. So, option B is the correct answer.
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