NCERT Textbook - Indigo | English Class 12 PDF Download

 Page 1


46/Flamingo
Indigo
About the author
Louis Fischer (1896-1970) was born in Philadelphia.
He served as a volunteer in the British Army between
1918 and 1920. Fischer made a career as a journalist
and wrote for The New York Times, The Saturday Review
and for European and Asian publications. He was also
a member of the faculty at Princeton University. The
following is an excerpt from his book- The Life of Mahatma
Gandhi. The book has been reviewed as one of the best
books ever written on Gandhi by Times Educational
Supplement.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— urge the departure — harbour a man like me
— conflict of duties — seek a prop
When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in
Sevagram, in central India, he said, “I will tell you how it
happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British.
It was in 1917.”
He had gone to the December 1916 annual convention
of the Indian National Congress party in Lucknow. There
were 2,301 delegates and many visitors. During the
proceedings, Gandhi recounted, “a peasant came up to me
looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated,
and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran,
and I want you to come to my district’!’’ Gandhi had never
heard of the place. It was in the foothills of the towering
Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal.
Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran
peasants were sharecroppers. Rajkumar Shukla was one
of them. He was illiterate but resolute. He had come to the
5
Reprint 2024-25
Page 2


46/Flamingo
Indigo
About the author
Louis Fischer (1896-1970) was born in Philadelphia.
He served as a volunteer in the British Army between
1918 and 1920. Fischer made a career as a journalist
and wrote for The New York Times, The Saturday Review
and for European and Asian publications. He was also
a member of the faculty at Princeton University. The
following is an excerpt from his book- The Life of Mahatma
Gandhi. The book has been reviewed as one of the best
books ever written on Gandhi by Times Educational
Supplement.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— urge the departure — harbour a man like me
— conflict of duties — seek a prop
When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in
Sevagram, in central India, he said, “I will tell you how it
happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British.
It was in 1917.”
He had gone to the December 1916 annual convention
of the Indian National Congress party in Lucknow. There
were 2,301 delegates and many visitors. During the
proceedings, Gandhi recounted, “a peasant came up to me
looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated,
and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran,
and I want you to come to my district’!’’ Gandhi had never
heard of the place. It was in the foothills of the towering
Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal.
Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran
peasants were sharecroppers. Rajkumar Shukla was one
of them. He was illiterate but resolute. He had come to the
5
Reprint 2024-25
Indigo/47
Congress session to complain about the injustice of the
landlord system in Bihar, and somebody had probably said,
“Speak to Gandhi.”
Gandhi told Shukla he had an appointment in
Cawnpore and was also committed to go to other parts of
India. Shukla accompanied him everywhere. Then Gandhi
returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed
him to the ashram. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side.
“Fix a date,” he begged.
Impressed by the sharecropper’s tenacity and story
Gandhi said, ‘‘I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a
date. Come and meet me and take me from there.”
Months passed. Shukla was
sitting on his haunches at the
appointed spot in Calcutta when
Gandhi arrived; he waited till Gandhi
was free. Then the two of them
boarded a train for the city of Patna
in Bihar. There Shukla led him to
the house of a lawyer named
Rajendra Prasad who later became
President of the Congress party and
of India. Rajendra Prasad was out
of town, but the servants knew
Shukla as a poor yeoman who
pestered their master to help the
indigo sharecroppers. So they let
him stay on the grounds with his
companion, Gandhi, whom they took
to be another peasant. But Gandhi
was not permitted to draw water
from the well lest some drops from his bucket pollute the entire
source; how did they know that he was not an untouchable?
Gandhi decided to go first to Muzzafarpur, which was
en route to Champaran, to obtain more complete
information about conditions than Shukla was capable of
imparting. He accordingly sent a telegram to Professor
J.B. Kripalani, of the Arts College in Muzzafarpur, whom
he had seen at Tagore’s Shantiniketan school. The train
1. Strike out what is not true in
the following.
a. Rajkumar Shukla was
(i) a sharecropper.
(ii) a politician.
(iii) delegate .
(iv) a landlord.
b. Rajkumar Shukla  was
(i) poor .
(ii) physically  strong.
(iii) illiterate.
2. Why is Rajkumar Shukla
described as  being ‘resolute’?
3. Why do you think the
servants thought Gandhi to be
another peasant?
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Page 3


46/Flamingo
Indigo
About the author
Louis Fischer (1896-1970) was born in Philadelphia.
He served as a volunteer in the British Army between
1918 and 1920. Fischer made a career as a journalist
and wrote for The New York Times, The Saturday Review
and for European and Asian publications. He was also
a member of the faculty at Princeton University. The
following is an excerpt from his book- The Life of Mahatma
Gandhi. The book has been reviewed as one of the best
books ever written on Gandhi by Times Educational
Supplement.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— urge the departure — harbour a man like me
— conflict of duties — seek a prop
When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in
Sevagram, in central India, he said, “I will tell you how it
happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British.
It was in 1917.”
He had gone to the December 1916 annual convention
of the Indian National Congress party in Lucknow. There
were 2,301 delegates and many visitors. During the
proceedings, Gandhi recounted, “a peasant came up to me
looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated,
and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran,
and I want you to come to my district’!’’ Gandhi had never
heard of the place. It was in the foothills of the towering
Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal.
Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran
peasants were sharecroppers. Rajkumar Shukla was one
of them. He was illiterate but resolute. He had come to the
5
Reprint 2024-25
Indigo/47
Congress session to complain about the injustice of the
landlord system in Bihar, and somebody had probably said,
“Speak to Gandhi.”
Gandhi told Shukla he had an appointment in
Cawnpore and was also committed to go to other parts of
India. Shukla accompanied him everywhere. Then Gandhi
returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed
him to the ashram. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side.
“Fix a date,” he begged.
Impressed by the sharecropper’s tenacity and story
Gandhi said, ‘‘I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a
date. Come and meet me and take me from there.”
Months passed. Shukla was
sitting on his haunches at the
appointed spot in Calcutta when
Gandhi arrived; he waited till Gandhi
was free. Then the two of them
boarded a train for the city of Patna
in Bihar. There Shukla led him to
the house of a lawyer named
Rajendra Prasad who later became
President of the Congress party and
of India. Rajendra Prasad was out
of town, but the servants knew
Shukla as a poor yeoman who
pestered their master to help the
indigo sharecroppers. So they let
him stay on the grounds with his
companion, Gandhi, whom they took
to be another peasant. But Gandhi
was not permitted to draw water
from the well lest some drops from his bucket pollute the entire
source; how did they know that he was not an untouchable?
Gandhi decided to go first to Muzzafarpur, which was
en route to Champaran, to obtain more complete
information about conditions than Shukla was capable of
imparting. He accordingly sent a telegram to Professor
J.B. Kripalani, of the Arts College in Muzzafarpur, whom
he had seen at Tagore’s Shantiniketan school. The train
1. Strike out what is not true in
the following.
a. Rajkumar Shukla was
(i) a sharecropper.
(ii) a politician.
(iii) delegate .
(iv) a landlord.
b. Rajkumar Shukla  was
(i) poor .
(ii) physically  strong.
(iii) illiterate.
2. Why is Rajkumar Shukla
described as  being ‘resolute’?
3. Why do you think the
servants thought Gandhi to be
another peasant?
Reprint 2024-25
48/Flamingo
arrived at midnight, 15 April 1917. Kripalani was waiting
at the station with a large body of students. Gandhi stayed
there for two days in the home of Professor Malkani, a
teacher in a government school.
‘‘It was an extraordinary
thing ‘in those days,’’ Gandhi
commented, “for a government
professor to harbour a man
like me”. In smaller localities,
the Indians were afraid
to show sympathy for
advocates of home-rule.
The news of Gandhi’s
advent and of the nature of
his mission spread quickly
through Muzzafarpur and to
Champaran. Sharecroppers
from Champaran began
arriving on foot and by
conveyance to see their
champion. Muzzafarpur lawyers
called on Gandhi to brief him;
they frequently represented
peasant groups in court; they
told him about their cases and
reported the size of their fee.
Gandhi chided the lawyers for
collecting big fee from the
sharecroppers. He said, ‘‘I have
come to the conclusion that we
should stop going to law courts.
Taking such cases to the courts
does litte good. Where the peasants
are so crushed and fear-stricken,
law courts are useless. The real relief
for them is to be free from fear.’’
Most of the arable land
in the Champaran district
was divided into large
Reprint 2024-25
Page 4


46/Flamingo
Indigo
About the author
Louis Fischer (1896-1970) was born in Philadelphia.
He served as a volunteer in the British Army between
1918 and 1920. Fischer made a career as a journalist
and wrote for The New York Times, The Saturday Review
and for European and Asian publications. He was also
a member of the faculty at Princeton University. The
following is an excerpt from his book- The Life of Mahatma
Gandhi. The book has been reviewed as one of the best
books ever written on Gandhi by Times Educational
Supplement.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— urge the departure — harbour a man like me
— conflict of duties — seek a prop
When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in
Sevagram, in central India, he said, “I will tell you how it
happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British.
It was in 1917.”
He had gone to the December 1916 annual convention
of the Indian National Congress party in Lucknow. There
were 2,301 delegates and many visitors. During the
proceedings, Gandhi recounted, “a peasant came up to me
looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated,
and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran,
and I want you to come to my district’!’’ Gandhi had never
heard of the place. It was in the foothills of the towering
Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal.
Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran
peasants were sharecroppers. Rajkumar Shukla was one
of them. He was illiterate but resolute. He had come to the
5
Reprint 2024-25
Indigo/47
Congress session to complain about the injustice of the
landlord system in Bihar, and somebody had probably said,
“Speak to Gandhi.”
Gandhi told Shukla he had an appointment in
Cawnpore and was also committed to go to other parts of
India. Shukla accompanied him everywhere. Then Gandhi
returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed
him to the ashram. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side.
“Fix a date,” he begged.
Impressed by the sharecropper’s tenacity and story
Gandhi said, ‘‘I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a
date. Come and meet me and take me from there.”
Months passed. Shukla was
sitting on his haunches at the
appointed spot in Calcutta when
Gandhi arrived; he waited till Gandhi
was free. Then the two of them
boarded a train for the city of Patna
in Bihar. There Shukla led him to
the house of a lawyer named
Rajendra Prasad who later became
President of the Congress party and
of India. Rajendra Prasad was out
of town, but the servants knew
Shukla as a poor yeoman who
pestered their master to help the
indigo sharecroppers. So they let
him stay on the grounds with his
companion, Gandhi, whom they took
to be another peasant. But Gandhi
was not permitted to draw water
from the well lest some drops from his bucket pollute the entire
source; how did they know that he was not an untouchable?
Gandhi decided to go first to Muzzafarpur, which was
en route to Champaran, to obtain more complete
information about conditions than Shukla was capable of
imparting. He accordingly sent a telegram to Professor
J.B. Kripalani, of the Arts College in Muzzafarpur, whom
he had seen at Tagore’s Shantiniketan school. The train
1. Strike out what is not true in
the following.
a. Rajkumar Shukla was
(i) a sharecropper.
(ii) a politician.
(iii) delegate .
(iv) a landlord.
b. Rajkumar Shukla  was
(i) poor .
(ii) physically  strong.
(iii) illiterate.
2. Why is Rajkumar Shukla
described as  being ‘resolute’?
3. Why do you think the
servants thought Gandhi to be
another peasant?
Reprint 2024-25
48/Flamingo
arrived at midnight, 15 April 1917. Kripalani was waiting
at the station with a large body of students. Gandhi stayed
there for two days in the home of Professor Malkani, a
teacher in a government school.
‘‘It was an extraordinary
thing ‘in those days,’’ Gandhi
commented, “for a government
professor to harbour a man
like me”. In smaller localities,
the Indians were afraid
to show sympathy for
advocates of home-rule.
The news of Gandhi’s
advent and of the nature of
his mission spread quickly
through Muzzafarpur and to
Champaran. Sharecroppers
from Champaran began
arriving on foot and by
conveyance to see their
champion. Muzzafarpur lawyers
called on Gandhi to brief him;
they frequently represented
peasant groups in court; they
told him about their cases and
reported the size of their fee.
Gandhi chided the lawyers for
collecting big fee from the
sharecroppers. He said, ‘‘I have
come to the conclusion that we
should stop going to law courts.
Taking such cases to the courts
does litte good. Where the peasants
are so crushed and fear-stricken,
law courts are useless. The real relief
for them is to be free from fear.’’
Most of the arable land
in the Champaran district
was divided into large
Reprint 2024-25
Indigo/49
estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants.
The chief commercial crop was indigo. The landlords
compelled all tenants to plant three twentieths or 15 per
cent of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire
indigo harvest as rent. This was done by long-term contract.
Presently, the landlords learned
that Germany had developed
synthetic indigo. They, thereupon,
obtained agreements from the
sharecroppers to pay them
compensation for being released
from the 15 per cent arrangement.
The sharecropping arrangement
was irksome to the peasants, and
many signed willingly. Those who
resisted, engaged lawyers; the
landlords hired thugs. Meanwhile,
the information about synthetic
indigo reached the illiterate peasants
who had signed, and they wanted
their money back.
At this point Gandhi arrived in Champaran.
He began by trying to get the facts. First he visited the
secretary of the British landlord’s association. The secretary
told him that they could give no information to an outsider.
Gandhi answered that he was no outsider.
Next, Gandhi called on the British official commissioner
of the Tirhut division in which the Champaran district
lay. ‘‘The commissioner,’’ Gandhi reports, ‘‘proceeded to bully
me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut.’’
Gandhi did not leave. Instead he proceeded to Motihari,
the capital of Champaran. Several lawyers accompanied him.
At the railway station, a vast multitude greeted Gandhi. He
went to a house and, using it as headquarters, continued his
investigations. A report came in that a peasant had been
maltreated in a nearby village. Gandhi decided to go and see;
the next morning he started out on the back of an elephant.
He had not proceeded far when the police superintendent’s
messenger overtook him and ordered him to return to town
1. List the places that Gandhi
visited between his first
meeting with Shukla and his
arrival at Champaran.
2. What did the peasants pay the
British landlords as rent? What
did the British now want
instead and why? What would
be the impact of synthetic
indigo on the prices of natural
indigo?
Reprint 2024-25
Page 5


46/Flamingo
Indigo
About the author
Louis Fischer (1896-1970) was born in Philadelphia.
He served as a volunteer in the British Army between
1918 and 1920. Fischer made a career as a journalist
and wrote for The New York Times, The Saturday Review
and for European and Asian publications. He was also
a member of the faculty at Princeton University. The
following is an excerpt from his book- The Life of Mahatma
Gandhi. The book has been reviewed as one of the best
books ever written on Gandhi by Times Educational
Supplement.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— urge the departure — harbour a man like me
— conflict of duties — seek a prop
When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in
Sevagram, in central India, he said, “I will tell you how it
happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British.
It was in 1917.”
He had gone to the December 1916 annual convention
of the Indian National Congress party in Lucknow. There
were 2,301 delegates and many visitors. During the
proceedings, Gandhi recounted, “a peasant came up to me
looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated,
and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran,
and I want you to come to my district’!’’ Gandhi had never
heard of the place. It was in the foothills of the towering
Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal.
Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran
peasants were sharecroppers. Rajkumar Shukla was one
of them. He was illiterate but resolute. He had come to the
5
Reprint 2024-25
Indigo/47
Congress session to complain about the injustice of the
landlord system in Bihar, and somebody had probably said,
“Speak to Gandhi.”
Gandhi told Shukla he had an appointment in
Cawnpore and was also committed to go to other parts of
India. Shukla accompanied him everywhere. Then Gandhi
returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Shukla followed
him to the ashram. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side.
“Fix a date,” he begged.
Impressed by the sharecropper’s tenacity and story
Gandhi said, ‘‘I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a
date. Come and meet me and take me from there.”
Months passed. Shukla was
sitting on his haunches at the
appointed spot in Calcutta when
Gandhi arrived; he waited till Gandhi
was free. Then the two of them
boarded a train for the city of Patna
in Bihar. There Shukla led him to
the house of a lawyer named
Rajendra Prasad who later became
President of the Congress party and
of India. Rajendra Prasad was out
of town, but the servants knew
Shukla as a poor yeoman who
pestered their master to help the
indigo sharecroppers. So they let
him stay on the grounds with his
companion, Gandhi, whom they took
to be another peasant. But Gandhi
was not permitted to draw water
from the well lest some drops from his bucket pollute the entire
source; how did they know that he was not an untouchable?
Gandhi decided to go first to Muzzafarpur, which was
en route to Champaran, to obtain more complete
information about conditions than Shukla was capable of
imparting. He accordingly sent a telegram to Professor
J.B. Kripalani, of the Arts College in Muzzafarpur, whom
he had seen at Tagore’s Shantiniketan school. The train
1. Strike out what is not true in
the following.
a. Rajkumar Shukla was
(i) a sharecropper.
(ii) a politician.
(iii) delegate .
(iv) a landlord.
b. Rajkumar Shukla  was
(i) poor .
(ii) physically  strong.
(iii) illiterate.
2. Why is Rajkumar Shukla
described as  being ‘resolute’?
3. Why do you think the
servants thought Gandhi to be
another peasant?
Reprint 2024-25
48/Flamingo
arrived at midnight, 15 April 1917. Kripalani was waiting
at the station with a large body of students. Gandhi stayed
there for two days in the home of Professor Malkani, a
teacher in a government school.
‘‘It was an extraordinary
thing ‘in those days,’’ Gandhi
commented, “for a government
professor to harbour a man
like me”. In smaller localities,
the Indians were afraid
to show sympathy for
advocates of home-rule.
The news of Gandhi’s
advent and of the nature of
his mission spread quickly
through Muzzafarpur and to
Champaran. Sharecroppers
from Champaran began
arriving on foot and by
conveyance to see their
champion. Muzzafarpur lawyers
called on Gandhi to brief him;
they frequently represented
peasant groups in court; they
told him about their cases and
reported the size of their fee.
Gandhi chided the lawyers for
collecting big fee from the
sharecroppers. He said, ‘‘I have
come to the conclusion that we
should stop going to law courts.
Taking such cases to the courts
does litte good. Where the peasants
are so crushed and fear-stricken,
law courts are useless. The real relief
for them is to be free from fear.’’
Most of the arable land
in the Champaran district
was divided into large
Reprint 2024-25
Indigo/49
estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants.
The chief commercial crop was indigo. The landlords
compelled all tenants to plant three twentieths or 15 per
cent of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire
indigo harvest as rent. This was done by long-term contract.
Presently, the landlords learned
that Germany had developed
synthetic indigo. They, thereupon,
obtained agreements from the
sharecroppers to pay them
compensation for being released
from the 15 per cent arrangement.
The sharecropping arrangement
was irksome to the peasants, and
many signed willingly. Those who
resisted, engaged lawyers; the
landlords hired thugs. Meanwhile,
the information about synthetic
indigo reached the illiterate peasants
who had signed, and they wanted
their money back.
At this point Gandhi arrived in Champaran.
He began by trying to get the facts. First he visited the
secretary of the British landlord’s association. The secretary
told him that they could give no information to an outsider.
Gandhi answered that he was no outsider.
Next, Gandhi called on the British official commissioner
of the Tirhut division in which the Champaran district
lay. ‘‘The commissioner,’’ Gandhi reports, ‘‘proceeded to bully
me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut.’’
Gandhi did not leave. Instead he proceeded to Motihari,
the capital of Champaran. Several lawyers accompanied him.
At the railway station, a vast multitude greeted Gandhi. He
went to a house and, using it as headquarters, continued his
investigations. A report came in that a peasant had been
maltreated in a nearby village. Gandhi decided to go and see;
the next morning he started out on the back of an elephant.
He had not proceeded far when the police superintendent’s
messenger overtook him and ordered him to return to town
1. List the places that Gandhi
visited between his first
meeting with Shukla and his
arrival at Champaran.
2. What did the peasants pay the
British landlords as rent? What
did the British now want
instead and why? What would
be the impact of synthetic
indigo on the prices of natural
indigo?
Reprint 2024-25
50/Flamingo
in his carriage. Gandhi complied. The messenger drove
Gandhi home where he served him with an official notice to
quit Champaran immediately. Gandhi signed a receipt for
the notice and wrote on it that he would disobey the order.
In consequence, Gandhi received a summons to appear
in court the next day.
All night Gandhi remained awake. He telegraphed
Rajendra Prasad to come from Bihar with influential
friends. He sent instructions to the ashram. He wired a
full report to the Viceroy.
Morning found the town of Motihari black with peasants.
They did not know Gandhi’s record in South Africa. They
had merely heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them
was in trouble with the authorities. Their spontaneous
demonstration, in thousands, around the courthouse was
the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British.
The officials felt powerless without Gandhi’s
cooperation. He helped them regulate the crowd. He was
polite and friendly. He was giving them concrete proof that
their might, hitherto dreaded and unquestioned, could be
challenged by Indians.
The government was baffled. The prosecutor requested
the judge to postpone the trial. Apparently, the authorities
wished to consult their superiors.
Gandhi protested against the delay. He read a statement
pleading guilty. He was involved, he told the court, in a
“conflict of duties”— on the one hand, not to set a bad example
as a lawbreaker; on the other hand, to render the
“humanitarian and national service” for which he had come.
He disregarded the order to leave, “not for want of respect for
lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our
being, the voice of conscience”. He asked the penalty due.
The magistrate announced that he would pronounce
sentence after a two-hour recess and asked Gandhi to
furnish bail for those 120 minutes. Gandhi refused. The
judge released him without bail.
When the court reconvened, the judge said he would
not deliver the judgment for several days. Meanwhile he
allowed Gandhi to remain at liberty.
Reprint 2024-25