Ppt on topics – total slides 12

1. The indigo movement

2. Its origin
3. Issues it delt with
4. Political importance
5. Gandhian virtues
6. Outcome of movement

This is what you will speak for each slide

Slide 1 introduction

Good morning respected teacher and my dear friends! Today I, Karan Bhatia, am going to present a
visual presentation based on my research on the Champaran movement.

Slide 2 The indigo movement

The Indigo movement/Champaran Satyagraha was the first Satyagraha movement led by
Mahatma Gandhi which played an important role in the Indian Independence Movement.
This movement took place in Bihar, India during the British colonial period.
The landlords compelled all tenants to plant 15 per cent of their holdings with indigo and
surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent.
Slide 3
The movement was about farmers in Bihar protesting growing Indigo instead of cultivating food
crops like rice, wheat, and millets.
Farmers were against growing Indigo because indigo being a cash crop required more water and left
the soil infertile. Also, they were barely given any payments.
The British colonialists forced farmers to grow indigo, often by making this the condition for
providing loans. Loans were given on high interest rates which made it impossible for the farmers to
pay back these loans. As a result, the interest on these loans kept increasing and was passed on to
the next generations.
Below is the image of farmers working in an indigo plantation in Bihar.
Slide 4 - origin
• The Indigo revolt was a subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against the indigo planters
that arose in Chaugacha village of Nadia in Bengal in 1859.
• By 1750, indigo started being grown commercially in Berar (today Bihar), Awadh (today Uttar
Pradesh and Uttarakhand) and Bengal.
• Indigo planting was introduced for the first time to the Indians in Bengal in 1777 by Louis
Bonnaud, a Frenchman. He was the first indigo planter of Bengal. He started cultivation at
Taldanga and Goal Para near Chandan Nagar (Hooghly).
• With the Nawabs of Bengal under British power, indigo planting became more and more
commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe.
Slide 5 – issues delt with
No profit for farmers -
As discussed before, indigo plantations were not at all beneficial for the farmers. The indigo planters
persuaded the peasants to plant indigo instead of food crops. They were provided loans at a very
high interest. Once a farmer took such loans he remained in debt for his whole life before passing it
to his successors. The price paid by the planters was only 2.5% of the market price. The farmers
could make no profit growing indigo.
Slide 6 – issues delt with (continue)
Farmers felt Unprotected -
The farmers were totally unprotected from the indigo planters, who destructed farmers property if
they were unwilling to obey them. Government rules favored the planters. By an act in 1833, the
planters were granted a free hand in oppression Even the zamindars sided with the planters. Under
this severe oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt.
Slide 7 – Political importance
Champaran satyagraha was a combination of constitutional struggle and moral force of farmers
against the dispute. This movement was marked as India’s first civil disobedience movement
launched by mahatma Gandhi to protest against the injustice happening with the farmers in
champaran district of Bihar. The district was under the influence of zamindars and landlords.
Amongst them the European indigo planters were most influential. Though these planters were
temporary holders of farmers’ land, they extracted rent from farmers and exercised civil and
criminal jurisdiction. Farmers united against this injustice to fight for their rights and to end the
British rule.
Slide 8 – Gandhian virtues
1) Gandhi resolved the Champaran issue by combining the politics with practical, day-to-day
problems of millions.
2) Gandhi believed what he did was an ordinary thing by declaring that Britishers could not
order him or anybody about in his country.
Slide 9
3) He tried to organize mass uprisings by people to protest against injustice as did in South
Africa.
4) His motive was to mold a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make
the country free from rule of Britishers.
5) Gandhi taught the lesson of self-reliance and being an independent human. He was against
seeking help from Englishmen because that would prove us dependant and week. He taught
us that we must rely upon ourselves to win the battle.
Slide 10 – outcomes
1) The representative of the planters was ready to pay 25% as a refund. Gandhi explained that
it more important for the landlords to surrender the part of farmers money which was a part
of their prestige.
2) The peasants learnt courage and were now aware of their rights and defenders.
3) Within a few years the British planters abandoned their estates, which reverted to the
peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.
4) The  Economic policy enforced by the east Indian company in bihar and other parts of India
was abolished and with it the planters’ raj came to an end. the superstition that the stain of
indigo could never be washed out was exploded.
Slide 11
To overcome cultural and social backwardness in the Champaran villages Gandhi took following
steps -
- Gandhi with the help of some volunteers and his family support appealed for teachers
opened primary schools in 6 champaran villages
- Awareness was spread among the villagers on personal cleanliness and community
sanitation.
- Gandhi got doctors to run volunteer services for six months. Three medicines were available
- castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment – to treat miserable health conditions of the
villagers
- Gandhi encouraged the village leaders to undo purdah, untouchability and the suppression
of women
- Kasturbai took care of the filthy state of women’s clothes