Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

(John Updike)
 Jack told his daughter Jo(Joanne) who had blue eyes and looked like her mother, a story
which Jack made in evenings and Saturday afternoon. Clare was her mother’s name.
 Jack started story telling when Jo was two and now Jo is four years old.
 Basic Story: a small creature Roger had some problem-went to wise old owl-owl sent
him to wizard-wizard had magic spell-solved the problem-demand money more than
Roger had-sent Roger to a place where extra money could be found-Roger became
happy-played with his friends-went home to his mother-heard the train whistle in which
his father used to come home daily from Boston-supper with items
 On Saturdays, it had become difficult to make her sleep as she was now no more an
infant.
 Her brother is Bobby, two years old now.
 That day, Jack asks Jo, ‘Who shall the story be about today?’ and Jo said, ‘Roger Skunk’.
 Jo had started to go to nursery school and learnt about Skunk.(smelling very
bad/stinking)
 In the story, Jack tells that Roger Skunk smelled very bad and no little woodland creature
played with him. Jack told the story with creative enthusiasm and zest.
 Roger Skunk’s friends told him, ‘here comes, Roger Stinky Skunk.’ So Roger cried. When
Jo heard this, she became sad. But she knew the pattern of Jack’s story. She asked,
‘Won’t he see the owl?’
 Through the story, Jack wanted Jo to learn a moral value, being obedient to mothers as
mother is always correct. So we should not argue with our mother.
 Roger Skunk went to the owl, who said, he did smell bad. But Jo started shouting, ‘The
wizard, the wizard.’ At this, Jack told, ‘Daddy’s telling the story..Do you want to tell
Daddy a story?’
 Jo’s Questioning ability: Are magic spells real? Is God really in the sky? What’s a crick?
(small river)Jack told, ‘They’re real in stories.’
 Wizard’s house: little white house with many magic things and too much dust. So Jo asks
Why the wizard did not have any cleaning lady? Jack said that wizard was old. So Jo
asked, ‘Will he die?’ The wizard was tiny, little, old man with long white beard, pointed
blue hat. Jack’s favourite was to speak in the wizard’s voice by expressing through face
and eyes. Jack felt that the old wizard’s voice suited him.
 After the smell was changed to roses, the wizard asked for seven coins. Roger had four
pennies, so he had to go to the end of a lane where there was a magic well and got 3
pennies more, gave to the wizard and went to play.
 Roger went back and played tag, baseball, football, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, soccer
and pick-up-sticks with his friends. Jo asked, ‘What’s pick-up-sticks?’
 Jack wanted to teach her that she should be obedient and return home from play before
it gets dark. Jo thought that Roger’s problem was solved and the story was almost over.
Jack didn’t like women when they took anything for granted and got irritated when Jo
started to play with shadow.
 Jack told that his mother was upset when Roger Skunk reached home, as he didn’t smell
like a skunk. She asked, “What’s that awful smell?” She was angry. When Roger told her
that the wizard had changed the smell, she took an umbrella and went with Roger to the
 wizard and hit the wizard right over the head.
 Jo did not like the ending of the story and so, she told her father that the story should
end with the wizard hitting her on the head and did not change the little skunk’s smell
from roses. But her father Jack told that the wizard obeyed Roger’s mother. It was
Daddy’s story. So he said that it would end the way he likes. Skunk and his mommy went
home and waited for the choo-choo train bringing Roger’s daddy home from Boston.
They had lima beans, liver, mashed potatoes, Pie-oh-my (dessert).
 Jack also told that Mommy Skunk hugged Roger Skunk before sleeping and told him that
she loved him very much. Jack also explained that other little creature friends of Roger
accepted him with the smell, but Jo said that it was a stupid mommy.
 Jo also told Jack to tell her a story where the wizard took the magic wand and hit that
mommy, but Jack told her that Mommy is always right and Roger loved his mommy
more than anybody else.
 A child’s perspective is different from an adult’s perspective. An adult (Jack) wanted to
teach Jo to be obedient and that mother is always right and protective. She thinks the
best for her child. So Roger’s mother was right as she was concerned about her child’s
safety. A child (Jo) thinks only about happiness and doesn’t think of safety and other
important issues of life.
 Jack was caught in an ugly middle position because he did not want Jo to take his story
for granted. So he extends his story with a twist in the tale and took much time to
complete it. Jo did not like the ending of the story and Clare,his wife complained that
the story was too long as he did not come to help her with the woodwork. Jack was so
tired that he did not have energy to work or help his wife.
Indigo (Louis Fischer)

 Louis Fischer visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in Sevagram in Central India.
Gandhiji told him how he decided that the British should depart from India in 1917.
 Dec 1916-annual convention of Indian National Congress in Lucknow-an illiterate,
emaciated(weak and thin) Rajkumar Shukla from Champaran came to meet him and
requested to go to Champaran and solve the problem of the peasants there. Rajkumar
Shukla followed Gandhiji to Cawnpore and then to Ahmedabad ashram and stayed there
for weeks so that Gandhiji would go with him. Gandhiji was impressed by Rajkumar’s
tenacity and said that he was resolute.(determined).
 Gandhiji told Rajkumar Shukla to go back and that he would go with him after a meeting
in Calcutta on a certain date.
 Both of them went to Patna from Calcutta and stayed at Rajendra Prasad’s house who
was out of town. His servants mistook Gandhiji as an untouchable and didn’t allow him
to take water from the well. They believed that the water will be polluted.
 Then they went to Muzzafarpur where Gandhiji had sent a telegram to Prof JB Kriplani,
Arts College, Muzzafarpur. The Professor along with many students came to welcome
Gandhiji when the train reached there on 15 April, 1917 at midnight. Gandhiji stayed at
Prof.Malkani’s house for two days. This was extraordinary for a government school
teacher when Indians were afraid to show sympathy towards Home Rule Movement
advocates (leaders). Many peasants came on foot from Champaran to meet Gandhiji
when they came to know that someone had come to solve their problem. Gandhiji also
chided(scolded) the lawyers when he came to know that they used to charge high fees to
fight cases of peasants in courts. Gandhiji also believed that peasants are not suitable yet
to go to court as they were fear-stricken.
 Problem of Peasants/sharecroppers:
a) Most of the arable land in Champaran were estates and owned by Englishmen.
b) The Indian peasants were tenants. The chief commercial crop was Indigo.
c) The British landlords compelled (forced) the peasants/sharecroppers to plant 15% or
three-twentieth of their holdings with indigo. The harvest had to be given to the
landlords as rent. This was a long-term contract.
d) Germans had developed synthetic indigo recently. So the British got indigo from
them. The British landlords did not tell this to the peasants, but told them to sign
agreement that they were ready to pay compensation and will be released from the
contract from 15% arrangement.
e) As sharecropping was difficult for the peasants, many signed willingly. Some of them
resisted and went to lawyers. The landlords hired thugs and started maltreating the
peasants who did not sign.
f) Soon, the information about synthetic indigo reached the illiterate peasants who
wanted the money back.
g) This was the injustice faced by the Champaran peasants.
 Gandhiji arrived in Champaran and the following steps were taken to solve the
problem of the Indigo peasants:
a) First, he visited the Secretary, British Landlord’s Association to get the facts regarding the
indigo agreement. The Secretary told he won’t give information to an outsider. Gandhiji
told he wasnot an outsider.
b) Next, Gandhi met the British Official Commissioner, Tirhut division. The commissioner
bullied him and told him to leave Tirhut.
c) MOTIHARI INCIDENT: (Naming Mahatma and Civil Disobedience Movement ):
Gandhiji did not leave, but went to Motihari and made a house headquarters to continue
his investigations. A report came that a peasant had been maltreated. When Gandhiji was
going to meet him, a messenger of the police superintendent ordered him to return to
Motihari. The messenger himself drove Gandhiji home(in Motihari) and gave an official
notice to quit Champaran immediately. Gandhiji signed a receipt and wrote on it that he
would disobey the order. So he received a summons to appear in court the next day.
That night, Gandhiji telegraphed Rajendra Prasad to come from Bihar with friends and
sent a report to the Viceroy.
 Next morning, the town of Motihari was black with peasants. They came to support
a Mahatma who wanted to help them and so was troubled by the British. Their
demonstration outside the courthouse was the beginning of liberation from fear of
the British.
 The officials felt powerless and had to take Gandhiji’s help to regulate the crowd.
Gandhiji proved that their power can be questioned and challenged by the Indians.
 The government was baffled. So the prosecutor requested the judge to postpone the
trial. But Gandhiji protested the delay in the case.
 Gandhiji then pleaded guilty with three points:
1) He was not a lawbreaker.
2) He had come to render humanitarian and national service.
3) His voice of conscience will not allow him to leave Champaran.
 Gandhiji asked the penalty due.
 The magistrate announced that he would give the judgement after 2 hours recess
and asked Gandhiji to furnish bail for those 120 minutes. Gandhiji refused. So they
let Gandhi free for the recess. They consulted their superiors in the recess.
 When the court reconvened after 2 hours, the judge said that he would deliver
the judgement after some days and Gandhiji could be free till that.
 Several days later, Gandhiji received a written communication from the magistrate
that the Lieutenant Governor Sir Edward Gait had ordered to drop the case.
Thus Civil Disobedience had been successful(triumphed) for the first time in India.
 When Gandhiji couldn’t be arrested in the Motihari court, he held a meeting with many
lawyers like Rajendra Prasad, Brij Kishor Babu, Maulana Huq and many others. During the
discussion, Gandhi asked, What would they do if Gandhi was sent to prison? A senior lawyer
 said that they would go home as there would be no one to advise. The next question from
Gandhiji was, What about the injustice to the sharecroppers? The lawyers discussed and
thought that Gandhi being a stranger was prepared to go to prison and so finally decided that
they would follow Gandhiji into jail. Gandhiji was very happy to hear this and prepared a list
dividing them into groups. On that day, Gandhiji announced, ‘The battle of Champaran is
won.’
d) Gandhiji also collected depositions of grievance with supporting documents by 10000
peasants and notes on other evidence were made.
e) In June 1917, Sir Edward Gait held 4 long and detailed meetings with Gandhiji. So he
appointed an official commission of inquiry into the indigo sharecroppers’ situation. The
commission consisted of landlords, government officials and Gandhiji as the only
representative of the peasants. So, Rajkumar Shukla’s visit to Gandhiji in December 1916
occupied almost a year of Gandhi’s life in Champaran.
f) Gandhiji had enough evidence against the landlords(big planters) and so, they agreed to
make refunds to the peasants. ‘But how much must we pay?’ they asked. They thought
Gandhiji would ask 100% repayment. But he asked 50%. The representative of the
landlords offered to refund only 25%. Gandhiji accepted which was a big surprise.
Gandhiji later on explained that the amount of refund was less important than the
fact that the landlords had to surrender part of the money and part of their prestige.
Earlier, the British Landlords behaved as Gods, but now were defeated.
The peasants learnt courage, he had rights and had defenders.
 Removing Cultural and Social Backwardness:
1) Two teachers, Narhari Parikh and Mahadev Desai volunteered to teach and many others
came from Pune,Mumbai.
2) Primary schools were opened in 6 villages.
3) Devdas, Gandhiji’s youngest son and Kasturba came to Champaran to teach personal
cleanliness and communal sanitation.
4) Health conditions were miserable. A doctor was called to volunteer his service for 6
months.
5) Three medicines were made available: Quinine for malaria, Sulphur ointment for skin
disorders and Castor oil for coated tongue.
6) The people were taught to weave own clothes when Gandhiji observed the filthy clothes
worn by women in Champaran.
 Self-reliance:

Charles Freer Andrews was a pacifist and follower of Gandhiji. He came to bid farewell to
Gandhi as he had to go on a tour of duty to Fiji islands. Gandhiji’s lawyer friends thought it
would be a good idea to take help of Andrews to solve the problem of Champaran peasants.
Andrews was also ready to help, but Gandhiji opposed. He told the lawyers that it would be
an unequal fight if they took Andrews’ help. We should not show our weakness of heart. If
we are fighting for a correct cause, we must rely on ourselves to win the battle. Andrews
should not be used as a prop. Rajendra Prasad wrote that this was how Gandhiji taught them
 self-reliance.

Important sentences:

1) The Champaran episode was a turning point in Gandhi’s life.

2) Gandhiji’s politics was intertwined with the practical problems of the millions. (So he
brought the cultural and social changes).
3) Self reliance, Indian independence and help to the peasants were all bound together.

1. INDIGO
Short Answer Type Questions:(2 marks)
1. What was the problem faced by the peasants of Champaran?
2. Why did Gandhiji agree to the offer of a 25% refund to the farmers?
3. How did Gandhiji remove fear of the British from the peasants?
4. What was the rule for Home rule advocates in those days?
5. Why is Rajkumar Shukla ‘resolute’?
6. Why did Gandhiji chide the lawyers?
7. Why was Gandhiji summoned to the court?
8. Why did Gandhiji go to Muzzafarpur before going to Champaran?
9. How did Gandhiji teach self-reliance?
10. What made the Lieutenant Governor drop the case against Gandhiji?
11. Why did Gandhiji feel that taking the Champaran case to the court would be useless?
12. ‘The battle of Champaran is won,’ remarked Gandhiji. Why?
13. List the places Gandhiji visited after meeting Rajkumar Shukla before finally going to Champaran.

Long Answer Type Questions: (6 marks)

1. Gandhiji’s loyalty was to human beings. Why did Gandhiji continue his stay in Champaran even after
problem of sharecropping was solved?
2. Explain in the context of the chapter Indigo, “Self-reliance, Indian independence and help to
sharecroppers were all bound together.”
3. How did Civil Disobedience movement triumph for the first time in India?
4. Write in detail Gandhiji’s efforts to attain justice for the poor indigo sharecroppers of Champaran.
5. Gandhiji was a great leader. What according to you are the qualities a leader must possess?