1) How did Ghandhiji keep a distinct watch on the Ashram?
2) Why did Ghandhi agree to a settlement of 25% refund to the farmers?
3) What robbed the farmers of the value of courage? How did Gandhiji instil this value in them once again?
4) Why did Gandhiji call on the British official commissioner of the Tirhut division? What was the outcome of this meeting?
1) Gandhi was never contented with seeking large political and economic solutions, he wanted to do something about the cultural and social backwardness of the Champaran villages. He appealed for teachers, Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh , two young men who had just joined as Gandhi's disciples volunteered for the task along with their wives. Several more came from all parts of the country along with Gandhi's youngest son, Devadas , who arrived from the ashram with Mrs Gandhi in tow. Primary schools were opened in six villages, Kasturbai taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation. Health conditions were miserable so Gandhi got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months and three medicines became commonly available-castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment. People with coated tongues received a dose of castor oil, malaria fever patients received quinine plus castor oil and those with skin eruptions received ointment plus castor oil. Gandhi noticed the filthy state of women's clothes and put Kasturbai to the task. Gandhi kept a long distance watch on the village and even wrote to the residents when it was time to fill the old latrines and dig new ones.
2) For Gandhi, the gains were more symbolic than material out of the peasant movement that he had started. It did not matter how much the refund came to, what mattered was the new confidence that he had been able to instill in the peasants such that they demanded their rights fearlessly from their British landowners.
3) Exploitation will continue as long as there are economic differences inherent in society. It is not only a universal phenomenon or a colonial legacy, it has continued even today. The exploitation of unorganised labour can be mitigated through the values acquired through our study of Gandhiji's campaign which stressed upon self-reliance that can bind these people together. The present day problems of exploitation can be solved through the lessons learned from his campaign. The movement in Champaran began as an act of defiance, it grew out of an attempt to alleviate the distress of the multitude of poor peasants which was emblematic of the typical Gandhian pattern. His politics was intertwined with the practical, day-to-day problems of the millions. He did not have any loyalty to abstractions, he owed allegiance to living, human beings. Everything that Gandhi did was an attempt to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and make India free. These conceptualization of the new Indian has somewhat become lost because self-reliance has not been inculcated. Self-reliance would lead to solidarity with people in the same sphere of life which can help the unorganised labour sector come together to voice their greivances and unite against the oppression of economic servitude.
4) Gandhi began to get facts on the exploitation of the indigo sharecroppers and he visited the secretary of the British landlord's association in this context. The secretary refused to divulge any information to an outsider. Next, Gandhi called on the British official commissioner of the Tirhut division in which Champaran district lay. The commissioner proceeded to bully him and advised him to leave Tirhut forthwith. But Gandhi did not leave and instead proceeded to Motihari , the capital town of Champaran . The Britishers had thought that Gandhi could be put in his place through the instrument of fear but that failed miserably.