Class 12 English · Original EZT practice
Indigo - Louis Fischer (Class 12 English, Flamingo, Chapter 5)
Indigo is Chapter 5 of Class 12 Flamingo (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 45-55), an excerpt from Louis Fischer's The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. It tells how an illiterate but resolute peasant, Rajkumar Shukla, brought Gandhi to Champaran in 1917, where the indigo sharecroppers' fight became the first triumph of civil disobedience in modern India - and a lesson that 'the real relief' for a crushed people 'is to be free from fear'. This page gives a full summary, the people involved, theme, word meanings and fresh practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. Summary - how Champaran was won
At the December 1916 Lucknow Congress convention, with 2301 delegates, a peasant comes up to Gandhi: 'I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran, and I want you to come to my district.' Shukla accompanies Gandhi everywhere, follows him to his ashram near Ahmedabad, and for weeks never leaves his side. In Calcutta at the appointed date, Shukla is waiting; the two board a train for Patna, to the house of the lawyer Rajendra Prasad, who is out of town. The servants let the peasants stay on the grounds - but Gandhi is not permitted to draw water from the well, lest drops from his bucket pollute the source. Gandhi goes first to Muzzafarpur for fuller information, wiring Professor J.B. Kripalani; the train arrives at midnight, 15 April 1917, and Kripalani waits at the station with a large body of students. Gandhi stays two days in Professor Malkani's home. Muzzafarpur lawyers brief him - and he chides them for collecting big fees: where peasants are 'so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear.' The Champaran facts: most arable land belongs to English estates; the landlords compel every tenant, by long-term contract, to plant three twentieths - 15 per cent - of his holding with indigo and surrender the entire harvest as rent. When Germany develops synthetic indigo, the landlords extract agreements for compensation to release the peasants from the arrangement - and the peasants who learn of it want their money back. Gandhi seeks facts: the secretary of the British landlords' association refuses information to 'an outsider'; the commissioner of Tirhut 'proceeded to bully me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut'. Gandhi proceeds to Motihari instead. On his way to a maltreated peasant's village, Gandhi is ordered back and served an official notice to quit Champaran immediately. He signs the receipt - and writes on it that he will disobey the order. A summons follows; all night he telegraphs Rajendra Prasad, instructs the ashram, and wires a full report to the Viceroy. Morning finds Motihari 'black with peasants' - thousands demonstrating spontaneously around the courthouse, 'the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British'. Gandhi helps the officials regulate the crowd, polite and friendly. In court he pleads guilty to a 'conflict of duties': he disregarded the order 'not for want of respect for lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience'. He refuses bail; the judge releases him without it and postpones judgment for days. Gandhi asks the assembled lawyers what they will do if he goes to prison - and they, a stranger's shame outweighing their own, tell him they are 'ready to follow him into jail' - and Gandhi exclaims that the battle of Champaran is won. Days later the Lieutenant-Governor orders the case dropped: 'Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.' A far-flung inquiry follows: depositions by about ten thousand peasants, documents collected. The official commission - landlords, officials, and Gandhi as the peasants' sole representative - assembles a crushing mountain of evidence. Gandhi asks only 50 per cent refund; the planters offer 25 - and he takes it, explaining the amount matters less than that the landlords 'had been obliged to surrender part of the money and, with it, part of their prestige'. Within a few years the British planters abandon their estates; indigo sharecropping disappears. Gandhi stays on for an initial seven months, opening primary schools in six villages with volunteers (Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh and their wives, his son Devadas, and Kasturbai, who teaches personal cleanliness and community sanitation); a doctor volunteers six months with castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment. The Champaran episode, Gandhi says, was a turning-point: 'I declared that the British could not order me about in my own country' - yet it began not as defiance but as 'an attempt to alleviate the distress of large numbers of poor peasants'. When the lawyer friends suggest keeping Charles Freer Andrews as help, Gandhi is vehemently opposed: 'You should not seek a prop in Mr. Andrews because he happens to be an Englishman.'
2. People in the chapter
Mahatma Gandhi: narrates the Champaran episode to Fischer in 1942 at Sevagram as the moment 'I decided to urge the departure of the British' - it was in 1917. Rajkumar Shukla: the poor, emaciated, illiterate but resolute sharecropper from Champaran who follows Gandhi for weeks - 'Fix a date,' he begged - until Gandhi comes to his district. Rajendra Prasad: the Patna lawyer (later President of the Congress party and of India) on whose doorstep Gandhi is taken for another peasant; he records why the lawyers could not desert Gandhi. Professor J.B. Kripalani and Professor Malkani: who receive Gandhi in Muzzafarpur, where harbouring him was 'an extraordinary thing' for a government professor. The lawyers of Bihar (Brij Kishor Babu, Maulana Mazharul Huq among them): who move from charging the peasants big fees to being 'ready to follow him into jail'. Sir Edward Gait, the Lieutenant-Governor: whose four protracted interviews with Gandhi lead to the official commission of inquiry. Charles Freer Andrews: the English pacifist and devoted follower whom Gandhi refuses as a 'prop', teaching the lawyers a lesson in self-reliance.
3. Theme and word meanings
Freedom from fear before legal justice: 'Where the peasants are so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear' - the courthouse crowd is the beginning of that liberation. Conscience above unjust command: disobedience offered 'in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience', with the penalty willingly accepted. Self-reliance makes India free: refusing an English 'prop', Gandhi moulds 'a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet' - his politics intertwined with 'the practical, day-to-day problems of the millions', 'a loyalty to living, human beings'. Textbook-flagged expressions, explained: urge the departure - press for the going-away (here, of the British from India); conflict of duties - a situation where two duties pull in opposite directions; harbour a man like me - give shelter to a wanted man like him; seek a prop - look for a crutch or support (here, relying on an Englishman).
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Read the well scene
Choose the method: Mistaken for a peasant.
EZT practice question
At Rajendra Prasad's house, why is Gandhi not permitted to draw water from the well?
Show the worked solution
- Rajendra Prasad is out of town; the servants know only that Shukla is a peasant.
- They take Gandhi, in his simple dress, for another peasant like Shukla - and peasants could be untouchables.
- So he is not permitted to draw water from the well, lest drops from his bucket pollute the entire source.
Answer: The servants take him for another peasant like Shukla, and will not risk drops from his bucket polluting the entire source - for how could they know that he was not an untouchable?
Check: The mistaken identity, the untouchability fear, the refused water.
Watch for this: Do not blame Rajendra Prasad - he is away; the scene indicts the social reflex, not the host.
Now try it yourself
What does Shukla beg of Gandhi at the Lucknow convention?
Check your answer
'Fix a date' - he wants Gandhi to come to his district, Champaran.
The whole episode hangs on one peasant's persistence.
Weigh the rebuke
Choose the method: Fees first, fear last.
EZT practice question
What does Gandhi tell the Muzzafarpur lawyers about their fees and the law courts?
Show the worked solution
- The Muzzafarpur lawyers brief him - and he chides them for collecting big fees from the sharecroppers.
- His conclusion startles them: the peasants should stop going to law courts.
- His reason: where men are 'so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear.'
Answer: He chides them for collecting big fees from the sharecroppers, concludes they should stop going to law courts, and says that where peasants are 'so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear.'
Check: The big fees, the advice to abandon the courts, the free-from-fear maxim.
Watch for this: Do not read this as contempt for law - it is a diagnosis of sequence: courage must come before litigation can help.
Now try it yourself
What share of his holding was a tenant forced to plant with indigo?
Check your answer
Three twentieths - 15 per cent - and the entire indigo harvest went to the landlord as rent.
The arithmetic of the arrangement is the root of the whole fight.
Follow the notice
Choose the method: Sign, then disobey.
EZT practice question
How does Gandhi respond to the official notice ordering him to quit Champaran immediately?
Show the worked solution
- On the way to a maltreated peasant's village he is served an official notice to quit Champaran at once.
- He signs a receipt for the notice - and writes on it that he will disobey the order.
- When summoned to court, he spends the night telegraphing Rajendra Prasad for help, sending instructions to the ashram, and wiring a full report to the Viceroy.
Answer: He signs a receipt for the notice and writes on it that he will disobey the order; when summoned to court, he spends the night telegraphing Rajendra Prasad for help, sending instructions to the ashram, and wiring a full report to the Viceroy.
Check: The notice, the written disobedience, the night's three wires.
Watch for this: Do not call it defiance for its own sake - Gandhi himself says the visit began as 'an attempt to alleviate the distress of large numbers of poor peasants'.
Now try it yourself
How does Gandhi describe his disobedience in court?
Check your answer
As a 'conflict of duties' - done 'not for want of respect for lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience.'
The plea turns a trial into a lesson about which law is highest.
Picture Motihari
Choose the method: A town black with peasants.
EZT practice question
Describe the scene in Motihari on the morning of the trial.
Show the worked solution
- The peasants do not know what a trial means, but they have heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them is in trouble with the authorities.
- Motihari is 'black with peasants' - thousands demonstrate spontaneously around the courthouse.
- The officials feel powerless; Gandhi, polite and friendly, helps them regulate the crowd - 'the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British'.
Answer: The town is 'black with peasants'; thousands who had merely heard that a Mahatma was in trouble demonstrate spontaneously around the courthouse - 'the beginning of their liberation from fear of the British' - and the officials, powerless, accept Gandhi's polite help in regulating the crowd.
Check: The spontaneous crowd, the helpless officials, Gandhi regulating his own demonstration.
Watch for this: Do not call the crowd organised - its spontaneity is exactly why it marks the end of fear.
Now try it yourself
What does Gandhi ask the lawyers that evening, and what do they answer?
Check your answer
What they would do if he went to prison - and they say they are 'ready to follow him into jail.'
Their answer makes Gandhi exclaim that the battle of Champaran is won.
Look past the case
Choose the method: Schools, sanitation, a doctor.
EZT practice question
Beyond the legal battle, what work does Gandhi take up in the Champaran villages?
Show the worked solution
- He appeals for teachers - primary schools open in six villages, staffed by volunteers like Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh and their wives, and his son Devadas.
- Kasturbai teaches personal cleanliness and community sanitation.
- A doctor volunteers six months, treating with castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment - while Gandhi keeps a long-distance watch on the ashram, down to the latrine trenches.
Answer: He appeals for teachers - primary schools open in six villages; Kasturbai teaches personal cleanliness and community sanitation; a doctor volunteers for six months with castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment; and he keeps a long-distance watch on the ashram, down to the latrine trenches.
Check: Schools, sanitation, the doctor - plus the ashram watch.
Watch for this: Do not let the refund eclipse the village work - Gandhi's politics, the chapter stresses, lived in day-to-day problems.
Now try it yourself
How long did Gandhi initially stay in Champaran?
Check your answer
An initial seven months - and he returned for several shorter visits afterwards.
The settlement was quick; the rebuilding was not.
Judge the refusal
Choose the method: No English crutch.
EZT practice question
Why is Gandhi opposed to Charles Freer Andrews staying in Champaran to help?
Show the worked solution
- The lawyers, fond of Andrews, suggest he stay and lend his influence to the cause.
- Gandhi is vehemently opposed: an Englishman's help would show 'the weakness of your heart'.
- His teaching: 'the cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves to win the battle' - Rajendra Prasad records it as a lesson in self-reliance.
Answer: He is vehemently against it: an Englishman's help would show 'the weakness of your heart', for 'the cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves to win the battle' - a lesson in self-reliance, as Rajendra Prasad admits.
Check: The suggestion, the 'weakness of your heart' rebuke, the self-reliance lesson.
Watch for this: Do not mistake the refusal for hostility to Andrews the man - Andrews is a devoted friend; the refusal is about who must win India's battles.
Now try it yourself
What settlement ends the inquiry, and why does Gandhi accept it?
Check your answer
The planters refund 25 per cent; Gandhi accepts because the landlords 'had been obliged to surrender part of the money and, with it, part of their prestige.'
The amount was negotiable; the surrender of prestige was not.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. Why no water from the well?
Show answer and reason
Servants took Gandhi for a peasant, fearing drops from his bucket might pollute the source.
The scene exposes untouchability before the campaign even begins.
2. Real relief for the peasants?
Show answer and reason
'The real relief for them is to be free from fear' - not the law courts.
Courage before litigation.
3. Reply to the quit notice?
Show answer and reason
He signs the receipt and writes on it that he will disobey the order.
Civil disobedience begins with a signature.
4. Why refuse Andrews?
Show answer and reason
An English prop would show 'the weakness of your heart' - 'the cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves.'
Self-reliance is the lesson.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Explain in two sentences why the Motihari crowd matters more than the court verdict.
- List the three parts of the sharecropping arrangement and what changed when synthetic indigo arrived.
- Describe the commission's outcome in one line and Gandhi's reason for accepting 25 per cent.
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Questions about this practice page
- Who wrote Indigo and where is it taken from?
- Louis Fischer (1896-1970), an American-born journalist and Princeton faculty member; the chapter is an excerpt from his book The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, praised by the Times Educational Supplement as one of the best books on Gandhi.
- What was the indigo sharecropping arrangement in Champaran?
- Landlords owning the large English estates compelled every tenant, by long-term contract, to plant three twentieths (15 per cent) of his holding with indigo and to surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent.
- What did Gandhi mean by a 'conflict of duties' in court?
- He pleaded guilty yet explained the clash: not to set a bad example as a lawbreaker on one side, and to render the 'humanitarian and national service' he had come for on the other - disobeying 'in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience'.
- What did the Champaran inquiry achieve?
- An official commission, with Gandhi as the peasants' sole representative, gathered a crushing mountain of evidence; the planters refunded 25 per cent, surrendering money and prestige; within a few years they abandoned their estates and indigo sharecropping disappeared.
- Where is Indigo in the Class 12 book?
- Chapter 5 of the Flamingo core-course textbook (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 45-55), an excerpt from Louis Fischer's The Life of Mahatma Gandhi.