Previous Year Question
Consider the following statements.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad persuaded Mahatma Gandhi to come to Champaran to investigate the problem of peasants.
Acharya JB Kripalani was one of Mahatma Gandhi’s colleagues in his Champaran investigation.
Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?
Correct Answer: B
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is incorrect.
The person who persuaded Gandhi to visit Champaran was Raj Kumar Shukla, not Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
Shukla was a cultivator affected by the indigo system in Champaran. He met Gandhi at the Lucknow Session of the Congress in 1916 and persistently secured his promise to visit Champaran.
Shukla accompanied Gandhi from Calcutta to Bihar and took him to Rajendra Prasad’s residence in Patna.
Rajendra Prasad was not present there at that time. He subsequently joined Gandhi and made an important contribution to the Champaran movement.
Statement 2 is correct.
Before reaching Muzaffarpur, Gandhi sent a telegram to J.B. Kripalani.
Kripalani, accompanied by students, received Gandhi at the railway station around midnight.
He informed Gandhi about conditions in Bihar, particularly the Tirhut division, and the difficulties that his mission would encounter.
Kripalani helped Gandhi establish local contacts, organise people and conduct the Champaran investigation.
The central Champaran issue:
Under the tinkathia system, tenants were compelled to cultivate indigo on 3/20 of their holdings.
Gandhi collected statements and evidence from peasants and disobeyed the official order directing him to leave Champaran.
The government subsequently appointed an inquiry committee of which Gandhi was a member.
The process resulted in the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1918 and the abolition of the tinkathia system.