Indigo
A touching excerpt, throwing light on the pathetic state of share croppers during the British regime, 'Indigo' highlights the humble beginnings of the fight for self governance.
The role played by Gandhiji and other educated people, like lawyers, who stood up for the rights of the peasants, challenging the authority of the landlords and became a force to reckon with, is clearly etched.
The fact is that it was a person like Gandhiji who could visualise the need to free the minds, of the simple peasants, (who had a hand to mouth existence) from oppression by the landlords.
The peasants won their case and the landlords lost face, though they had to pay merely 25% compensation, the moral and emotional victory was unsurmountable in the nondescript town of Champaran, and India.
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ReplyDeleteThe Indigo movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in Champaran was the first civil disobedience movement against the British. Gandhi had come back from South Africa when a peasant visited him at his ashram seeking his support to help the peasants get justice.
ReplyDeleteThe people, who were scared to raise their voices against the British had gained confidence under Gandhi's leadership and had played a pivot role in the disobedience movement. Gandhi got support from many lawyers as well, but they weren't as compassionate as Gandhi. However, upon seeing that he was ready to go to jail for the peasants whom he barely knew, they all realised that the movement wasn't just to seek justice for the peasants, but to mark the beginning of their struggle for Independence.
Courage..!!!
ReplyDeleteCOURAGE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL THE VIRTUES BECAUSE WITHOUT COURAGE, YOU CAN'T PRACTICE ANY OTHER VIRTUE CONSISTENTLY.
-Maya Angelou
Through this chapter we don't only get a glimpse of the Colonial British rule along with it we come to know the situation of our Indian peasants ,how in different or some other way they were exploited by the government then and even today by a developing country like India.And how restlessy Gandhiji takes effort and consistently fights for the peasants and with the help of other lawyers he practices the "Civil Disobedience" movement, and at the end he was successfull and he agreed to 25% refund by the landowners, it symbolized the surrender of the prestige.
And along with it a deep message which the narrator realises and also we must realise is ,one must have courage , courage to take a stand for yourself and for your loved ones and for our nation.If Gandhiji, and other respective freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh would have not been consistent or courageous enough to fight for the nations freedom ,we all would have not been that comfortable and had such rights as we have today.