Gandhiji & His Struggle for Champaran

Jude Joseph, PGT English, KVS

JUDE JOSEPH, PGT ENG, KVS

 Short Quiz on Mahatma Gandhi

• What is Gandhiji's full name?

• When & where was Gandhiji born?
• Name the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi?
• When & where was Gandhiji assassinated?
• Who shot Gandhiji?
• Name the most well-known personal secretary of
Gandhiji?
Suspected Conspirators of Gandhiji's Assaination
Trial of the Conspirators
 Indigo

Louis Fischer
Indigo Plantation & Manufacturing
 Main issue in Champaran

• Most arable land in Champaran 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 percent of their holdings with indigo.
• The entire indigo harvest was to be surrendered as rent.
• This was done by a long-term contract
 Later developments

• Germany developed synthetic indigo.

• Landlords obtained agreements from the sharecroppers
to pay them compensation for being released from the 15
per cent arrangement.
• Many peasants signed & paid willingly; others who went
to court were threatened/intimidated by landlord's thugs.
• Peasants came to know of synthetic indigo & they
demanded their money back.
• Thus arose the conflict - Gandhiji arrived at this point.
 Gandhiji's approach

• Gandhiji had a very systematic approach to the problem-

he along with his lawyer friends gathered as much
information about the problem in Champaran.
• Gathered evidence & documents to support their case -
everything was documented(written down) - convinced
the British officials - who finally set up an official
commission of enquiry.
• Commission awarded 25% refund to the peasants.
 Eradicating fear & infusing confidence

• Gandhi explained that the amount of the refund

was less important than the fact that the landlords
had been obliged to surrender part of the money
and, with it, part of their prestige.
• Now the peasant saw that he had rights and
defenders.
• He learned courage. He gained confidence.
 Gandhiji did not stop at that...

• He saw the cultural and social backwardness in

the Champaran villages.
• He with help of his associates set up school,
taught the community b lesson in health &
hygiene.
• This was the typical Gandhi pattern — his politics
were intertwined with the practical, day-to-day
problems of the millions.
2017- Stamp(minisheet) issued by India Post
Louis Fischer
 Louis Fischer (1896 – 1970)

• was a Jewish-American journalist.

• a Leftist
• Major Works:
• The God that Failed (1949)
• The Soviets in World Affairs (1930)
• The War in Spain (1937)
• Men and Politics (autobiography)
• The Essential Gandhi (editor) (1962).
• The Life of Lenin (1964).
 Louis Fischer

• was born in Philadelphia

• served as a volunteer in the British Army - 1918-
1920
• worked as journalist in The New York Times, The
Sunday Review, for European & Asian publications
• was a faculty at Princeton University
 The Life of Mahatma Gandhi - Louis Fishcher

• 'The Life of Mahatma Gandhi'

(1950), basis for the Academy
Award-winning film 'Gandhi'
(1982),
• The lesson, 'Indigo' is an
excerpt from this book.
• It is regarded as one of the best
books ever written on Gandhi
Sevagram Ashram, Wardha, Maharashtra
 Sevagram Ashram, Wardha, Maharashtra

• Sevagram is a small village, located about 8 km

from Wardha.
• Mahatma Gandhi set up his ashram in the outskirts
of the village.
• Seth Jamnalal Bajaj of Wardha, a disciple of
Mahatma Gandhi, made available to the ashram
about 300 acres of land.
Sevagram Ashram, Wardha, Maharashtra
 Jamnalal Bajaj (1889 – 1942)
was an Indian industrialist, a
philanthropist, and Indian
independence fighter
He founded the Bajaj Group of
companies in the 1920s, and
the group now has 24
companies
was also a beloved associate
of Mahatma Gandhi, who
declared that Jamnalal was his
fifth son.
 Indian National Congress - 1885
• Allan Octavian Hume - founder
• it was the first modern nationalist Congress led India to
movement to emerge in the British independence
Empire in Asia and Africa. from Great Britain
• after 1920, under the leadership
of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress
became the principal leader of
the Indian independence movement.
• it influenced other anti-colonial
nationalist movements in the British
Empire.
 Lucknow Session - December 1916

Ø Lucknow Pact - b/w Indian National Congress &

Muslim League - hope for Hindu-Muslim unity
Ø Cordial relations were estd b/w extremist(garam dal) &
moderate(naram dal) factions of Indian National
Congress.
Ø 2301 delegates & many visitors attended the session
Raj Kumar Shukla (1875 – 1929)

• was the person who convinced Mr.

M.K. Gandhi to visit Champaran
village in Bihar
• was a villager who became famous
for his association with Mahatma
Gandhi during Champaran
Satyagrah and this struggle was a
turning point in India's fight for
independence.
 Raj Kumar Shukla & Gandhiji

• During the 31st session of the Congress in Lucknow in

1916, Gandhiji met Raj Kumar Shukla, a representative
of farmers from Champaran, who requested him to
come and see for himself the miseries of the indigo ryots
(tenant farmers) there.
• Gandhi later wrote in his autobiography “I must confess
that I did not then know even the name, much less the
geographical position, of Champaran, and I had hardly
any notion of indigo plantations.”
Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad - banks of the River Sabarmati
 Rajendra Prasad (1884 – 1963)
• lawyer by training
• a major leader from the region
of Bihar
• 1946 - Minister of Food and
Agriculture
• 1947 - President of the Constituent
Assembly of India, which prepared
the Constitution of India
• the first President of India, in office
from 1952 to 1962
Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani (1888 – 1982) Acharya Kripalani

• 1947 - President of INC

• a Gandhian socialist,
environmentalist, mystic and ind
ependence activist.
• the husband of Sucheta Kriplani
• Kripalani was a familiar figure,
from the Non-Cooperation
Movements of the 1920s to
the Emergency of the 1970s
one of Gandhi's most ardent
disciples
 Narayandas Malkani (1890–1974)

oa social worker and freedom fighter from Rajasthan.

oMalkani left teaching, joined Mahatma Gandhi and
became his close confidant.
oHe was conferred the Padma Bhushan award in 1973
by the Government of India.
oHe was a member of Rajya Sabha for two terms.
Motihari is the headquarters of East Champaran district
in the Indian state of Bihar.72 km from Muzaffarpur
Brajkishore Prasad (1877–1946)

• a lawyer inspired by
Gandhi during the Indian
Independence Movement
• met Gandhi in 1915 and was
inspired.
• gave up his legal practice to
get involved in the freedom
struggle
 Brajkishore Prasad(Babu) & Gandhiji

• Gandhi set aside a full chapter

on him in his autobiographical
book, The Story of My
Experiments with Truth, called
•
"The Gentle Bihari"
•

• Prasad remained at the

forefront of the freedom
struggle in Bihar
Maulana Mazharul Haque
• a legal luminary, a statesman,
an educationalist, a journalist, a
poet and a philosopher
combined in one.
• a firm believer in secular
foundations of this country he
believed that "whether we are
Hindus or Mussalmans we are
in the same boat. We must sail
or sink together."
 Sir Edward Albert Gait (1863–1950)

v he was an administrator in
the Indian Civil Service who
rose to serve as Lieutenant-
Governor of the Bihar and
Orissa Province in
the Bengal
Presidency of British India.
v he held that office for the
years 1915–1920
 Mahadev Haribhai Desai (1892 – 1942)
• an independence activist and writer
• Mahatma Gandhi's personal
secretary - 25 yrs
• Desai joined Gandhi's Ashram in
1917 and accompanied him
to Champaran.
• He maintained a diary from 13
November 1917 to 14 August 1942,
the day before his death, chronicling
his life with Gandhi.
Mahadev Desai - an outstanding writer

Ø wrote in Gujarati, Bengali and

English.
Ø a translator - the short stories
of Saratchandra Chattopadhyaya,
Nehru's Autobiography (into
Gujarati), The Story of My
Experiments with Truth (into Eng)
Ø wrote several biographies such
as Sant Francis, Vir Vallabhbhai &
a biography of Khan Abdul Gaffar
Khan and his brother
 Narhari Dwarkadas Parikh (1891-1957)

Ø a writer, independence activist and social reformer

from Gujarat
Ø1914 - became a lawyer with his friend Mahadev Desai
Ø1916 - left his practice and joined Mahatma Gandhi in
social reform movements and later in Indian
independence movement.
Øcampaigned against untouchability, alcoholism and
illiteracy.
Øworked for freedom for women, sanitation, health care
and schools run by Indians.
 Kasturbai "Kasturba" Gandhi (1869 – 1944)
• a political activist, the wife of M K Gandhi.
• In association with her husband and son, she was involved
in the Indian independence movement
• 1917 - in Champaran - she concerned herself with the
welfare of the women there
• 1922 - she participated in a civil disobedience movememt
• 1942 - she was arrested & imprisoned for participating in
the Quit India Movement
• 1944 - contracted pneumonia, suffered heart attacks, died
 Gandhi's Nature Cure - Castor Oil
• a powerful laxative - a remedy for
Gandhiji occasional constipation.
• a natural moisturizer
prescribed castor
• used in cosmetics to promote
oil for anybody hydration
who showed a • promotes wound healing
• it reduces inflammation and relieves
coated tongue pain.
• has antifungal properties and keeping
the mouth healthy.
• keeps hair and scalp healthy
 Gandhi's Nature Cure - Quinine
• belongs to a class of drugs
known as anti-malarials.
Gandhiji's Remedy-
• this medication is used to
anybody with treat malaria caused
malaria fever by mosquito bites in countries
received quinine where malaria is common.
plus castor oil • This medication is used to kill
the malaria parasites living
inside red blood cells.

JUDE JOSEPH, PGT ENG, KVS

 Gandhi's Nature Cure - Sulphur Ointment
• is useful for treating a few
Gandhiji's kinds of skin disorders
Remedy-
• it softens and loosens dead
anybody with skin skin cells from the skin surface.
eruptions received • The substance also has mild
sulphur ointment anti-fungal and antibacterial
castor oil qualities.

JUDE JOSEPH, PGT ENG, KVS

Charles Freer Andrews (1871-1940)
• a Christian missionary, educator
and social reformer in India
• he became a close friend
of Mahatma Gandhi and
identified with the cause
of India's independence.
• Gandhi and his students at St.
Stephen's College, Delhi, named
him Deenabandhu, or "Friend of
the Poor".

JUDE JOSEPH, PGT ENG, KVS

After Gandhiji declined help from Andrews, he left for Fiji

JUDE JOSEPH, PGT ENG, KVS