The chapter Indigo is an excerpt from Fischer’s book ‘The Life of Mahatma Gandhi’. The book has been reviewed by the Times Educational Supplement as one of the best books ever written on Gandhi. The author visited Gandhi in 1942 and Gandhi narrated to him the incident which prompted him to fight against the British.
Rajkumar Shukla, a poor peasant, who came to Gandhi with the problem of exploitation in his district. Gandhi visited the place and freed the people of Champaran from tyranny ( cruelty).
Gandhiji had gone to attend the annual convention of Indian National Congress Party in Dec 1916 in Lucknow 2301 delegates and many other visitors were there to attend it. A peasant Rajkumar Shukla, who was from Champaran, came to meet Gandhiji. The condition of the sharecroppers in Bihar was very bad. Someone told him to meet Gandhiji in this regard. So he came to Gandhiji to make a complaint about the injustice done to the sharecroppers by the landlord system in Bihar.
Rajkumar Shukla was one the sharecroppers. He was illiterate but his determination was par excellence. It was his strong will power that brought him to Lucknow to meet Gandhiji. Gandhiji had not heard about Champaran before. It was in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal.
Rajkumar Shukla requested Gandhiji to visit his district Champaran. Gandhiji told him that he had an appointment in Cawnpore (Now Kanpur) after that he would have to go to some other parts of the country.
Rajkumar Shukla was resolute to get a fixed date from Gandhiji so he did not return to Champaran. Rather he went with Gandhiji everywhere he went. He also accompanied Gandhiji to his Ashram, near Ahmadabad. Here he requested Gandhiji to give him a fixed date of his visit to Champaran. Gandhiji was very much impressed with Shukla’s patience and strong will power. He told Shukla that he would come to Calcutta on a certain date and then he would accompany him to Champaran.
After some months, Gandhi came to Calcutta and Rajkumar Shukla accompanied with Gandhiji to Patna. On reaching there Shukla led Gandhiji to the house of a lawyer, named Rajendra Prasad, who later becomes the President of Congress Party of India. Rajendra Prasad was not at home. The servant knows Shukla as a poor yeoman. So they did not let Shukla and his they did not let Shukla and his companion (who was Gandhi and whom they did not know) to sleep inside the house.
The servants did not know that Gandhiji was with Shukla. They thought that Shukla’s companion was a poor peasant. Gandhiji was also not permitted to draw water from the well. They must have thought him untouchable. They feared that some drops if fell from his bucket, would pollute the whole water of the well. Muzaffarpur was on the way to Champaran. So, Gandhiji thought of first going to Muzaffarpur.
He wanted to get full and real information about the sharecroppers of Champaran. According to the program, he sent a telegram to J.B. Kripalani, a teacher at the Arts college in Muzaffarpur. He had met Kripalani Ji at Tagore’s Shantiniketan School. The train reached the station at midnight. Kripalani Ji was waiting for Gandhiji with many students. Gandhi stayed for two days there in the house of Professor Malkani a teacher in a Govt. School. Gandhiji says that it was an extraordinary thing for a professor to honour a man like Gandhiji an advocate of home rule in India. People in small localities were afraid of showing sympathy for the freedom fighter in those days.
As soon as the news of Gandhiji’s arrival spread in Muzaffarpur and Champaran. Sharecroppers from Champaran started coming on foot and by some vehicles to see their leader. The lawyers of Muzaffarpur came to meet Gandhiji. They told Gandhiji that they frequently represented the peasants in courts.
They also told him about the size of fees they took from the peasants. Gandhiji chided then for taking hefty fees from the poor peasants. Presently the landlord learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo. So they obtained agreement from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for realizing them from the agreement of the 15% agreement. That agreement was irksome to the peasants.
Many of them signed willingly but those who resisted it engaged lawyers. In the meantime, the information about the synthetic indigo reached the illiterate farmers, who had signed. So they demanded their money back. That was the time when Gandhiji reached Champaran. Gandhiji started getting the fact about the real condition of the peasants in the district of Champaran.
First of all, he visited the secretary of the British Landlord Association. The Secretary told Gandhiji that they could not give him information to an outsider. Gandhiji answered that he was not an outsider. After that Gandhiji met the commissioner of Tirhut division in which the district of Champaran lay. The commissioner tried to bully Gandhiji and advised him to leave Tirhut. Gandhiji did not leave Tirhut.
He proceeded to Motihari, the capital of Champaran. Some lawyers were also with Gandhiji at the railway station. He made his headquarter and continued his investigations. Then a report came that a peasant had been maltreated in a nearby village. Gandhi went there by sitting on the back of an elephant. He had not gone so far when a messenger overlooks him and ordered him to return to the town in his carriage. Gandhiji was driven back to the place where he was staying. He was also served with a notice ordering him to leave Champaran with immediate effect.
Gandhiji received the order and wrote on its receipt that he would disobey the order. As a result of it, Gandhiji has received a Summon to appear in court the next day. A night Gandhiji remained busy. He telegraphed Dr. Rajendra Prasad to come from Bihar with influential friends.
He also sent an instruction to the Ashram and a full report to the viceroy. The administration of Champaran did not know anything about Gandhi. They had thought that he was an ordinary Mahatma who had come to help the peasants. They did not know about his history of South Africa.
People in a thousand crowded around the courthouse. It was in a way the beginning of the peasants’ liberation from the fear of the Birth. The official felt powerless without Gandhiji cooperation. He helped them regulate the crowd. He was polite and friendly. Gandhiji showed to the British officials that their might, although it was absolute, could be challenged by the Indians. The Govt. was baffled. The prosecutor requested the judge to postpone the trial. It was clear that the authorities wished to consult their superiors. Gandhiji protested against the delay. So he read a statement pleading himself guilty. He also told the court that he did not go to set a bad example by breaking the law but he had come to Champaran to render the humanitarian and national service.
He disregarded the order to leave Champaran and so, he asked for the penalty due. The judge announced that the judgment would be passed after two hours recess and directed Gandhiji to furnish bail for those 120 minutes. Gandhiji refused and the judge released him without bail. Meanwhile, Gandhiji remained at liberty. Rajendra Prasad Brij Kishore Babu, Maulana Mazharul Haq, and several other prominent lawyers had arrived from Bihar.
They discussed with Gandhiji as to what would be the consequences if he was imprisoned. Then there would be no one to guide and advise them. Gandhiji insisted on continuing his struggle to safeguard the sharecropper’s interests.
The lawyers held a separate meeting among themselves. They also decided to help Gandhiji in his struggle. They also decided to go to jail along with Gandhiji. Gandhi noted down their names on a piece of paper and divided the groups into pairs. He also put down the order in which each pair was to court arrest.
Several days later Gandhi received a written letter from the magistrate informing him that the lieutenant governor of the province had ordered the case to be dropped. Thus, for the first time, civil disobedience had won in modern India. Now the lawyers proceeded to an inquiry into the grievances of the farmers. Depositors (Affidavits) by about ten thousand peasants were written down. Documents were collected. The whole area was full of the activity of the investigators and the protests of the landlords. In June Gandhiji was summoned to Sir Edward gait.
The Lieutenant Governor before meeting Edward Gait. Gandhiji met his associates and made detailed plans for civil disobedience in case there was a need for it. He had four long interviews with Lieutenant-Governor who appointed an official commission of inquiry into the indigo sharecropper’s situation. The commission consisted of the landlords’ government official and Gandhiji as the sole representative of the peasants. Gandhiji remained in Champaran continuously for seven months and he made several short visits there. The official inquiry revealed evidence against the big planters. So, they agreed in principle to make a refund to the peasant. Now the question who about how much refund be made to the peasants. Gandhiji demanded only 50%. Gandhiji did not relax his demands. Finding Gandhiji a demand on his demand. The representatives of the planters offered him only 25%. Gandhiji, at once agreed for that and, thus deadlock was broken. Gandhiji explained later on that the amount of the refund was not so important as the fact that the landlords had to surrender the part of the money which had become their prestige issue. As a result, the peasants came to know that they had their defenders.
With the passage of time Gandhiji position was justified and within a few years, the British planters left their estates. Gandhiji saw cultural and political backwardness in the villages of Champaran district. He wanted to do something immediately. Several teachers like Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh and two young men had joined Gandhiji as his disciples and their wives volunteered for work. Several more came from the other parts of the country. Gandhiji youngest son Devadas arrived from the Ashram and so did Mrs.Gandhi primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturba Gandhiji thought about the ashram rules about personal cleanliness and community sanitation to the village folk.
In the villages of district Champaran of the health conditions were miserable. Gandhiji engaged a doctor to volunteer his services for six months. Three medicines like castor oil, quinine, and sulphur ointment were made available and distributed to the people suffering from malaria and skin disease. The women of the villages were not aware of their personal hygiene. Gandhiji told Kasturba to talk to them about washing clothes also. While living in Champaran, Gandhiji kept contact with Ashram also by sending regular instruction by mail. The Champaran episode was a turning point in Gandhiji’s life. Gandhiji explained that it was an ordinary act for him when he started. He declared that the British could not order him about anything in his own country. In Champaran, Gandhiji had a new experience. He came to know about the real problems of the peasants there. He became the spokesperson of the thousand of the sharecroppers at Champaran.
Very Short Answer Type Questions (1 Mark each)
1. Who is the author of the lesson, ‘Indigo’?
Ans. The author of the lesson, ‘Indigo’ is Louis Fischer.
2. Which book by Louis Fischer has been reviewed as one of the best books ever written on Gandhi by Times Educational Supplement?
Ans. Louis Fischer’s book – The life of Mahatma Gandhi has been reviewed as one of the best books ever written about Gandhi by Times Educational Supplement.
3. When did Gandhi decide ‘to urge the departure of the British?
Ans. Gandhi decided to urge the departure of the British in 1917.
4. Who was Rajkumar Shukla? (2012, 2016)
Ans. Rajkumar Shukla was one of the poor sharecropper peasants of Champaran.
5. Where was Rajkumar Shukla from?
Ans. Rajkumar Shukla was from Champaran in the foothills of Himalayas, near Nepal.
6. What did Shukla want Gandhi to do? (2015)
Ans. Shukla wanted Gandhi to visit his district and seek a way out of the unfair situation prevailing there owing to the injustice of the landlord system.
7. Where was Champaran? (2014, 2018)
Ans. Champaran was in the foothills of the Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal.
8. Where did Gandhi and Shukla board a train to?
Ans. Gandhi and Shukla boarded a train to the city of Patna in Bihar.
9. Whom did Gandhi and Shukla want to meet at Patna? (2013)
Ans. They met Rajendra Prasad there.
10. Where did Gandhi decide to go first from Patna?
Ans. Gandhi decided to go first to Muzaffarpur.
11. Which country had developed synthetic indigo? 2019
Ans. Germany had developed synthetic indigo.
12. What was the capital of Champaran?
Ans. Motihari was the capital of Champaran.
13. What happened when Gandhi refused to furnish bail at the Muzaffarpur Court?
Ans. When Gandhi refused to furnish bail, the Judge released him without bail.
14. Who is Sir Edward Gait? 2012, 2015
Ans: Sir Edward Gait was the Lieutenant Governor who appointed an official commission of inquiry into the indigo sharecroppers’ situation.
15. Why was Gandhi visiting Lucknow in 1916? 2013
Ans: Gandhi visited Lucknow to attend the annual Convention of the Indian National Congress.
16. What was Gandhi’s politics intertwined with? 2016
Ans: Gandhi’s politics intertwined with the practical day to day problem of the millions.
17. Where did Gandhi stay in Muzzafarpur? 2019
Ans: Gandhi stayed in the house Professor Malkani in Muzzafarpur.
Short Answer type questions (2 Marks)
1. Who was Rajkumar Shukla? Why was he described as being resolute?
Or
Why was Gandhi impressed with Rajkumar Shukla?
Ans. Rajkumar Shukla was a poor sharecropper of the Champaran District.
Rajkumar Shukla wanted Gandhi to visit his district to look into the condition of the peasants there. Gandhi had other commitments but Shukla accompanied him everywhere; for weeks, he never left Gandhi’s side until Gandhi agreed to accompany him to Champaran to help the poor sharecroppers. That was why he was described as being resolute.
2. Why did servants Rajendra Prasad’s house mistake Gandhi to be and why?
Or
Why was Gandhi not allowed to draw water from the well?
Ans. The servants knew Shukla as a poor peasant, who always troubled their master (Rajendra Prasad) to help the indigo sharecroppers. As Gandhi accompanied him, they thought him to be another farmer. Gandhi was not allowed to drink water from the well as they thought he was untouchable.
3. What was the incident that prompts Gandhi to raise his voice of protest against the British? (2013, 2017)
Ans. Gandhi had gone to attend the December 1916 annual convention of the National Congress Party Lucknow, there a poor peasant, Rajkumar Shukla, approached him. He wanted Gandhi to visit his district to help the poor sharecropper, on his request Gandhi went there and fight against the injustice done to the sharecroppers by the British landlord and forced out a way for honourable settlement. This episode of Champaran prompts Gandhi to raise his voice of protest against the British as Gandhi was very clear that the Britishers must quit India soon.
4. Why was Gandhi decided to go to Muzzafarpur first before going to Champaran? 2018
Ans. Gandhi decided to go to Muzzafarpur first before going to Champaran because he wanted to obtain more complete information about the conditions of the sharecropper of Champaran. He did not want to act blindly. It did prove helpful as the lawyers in Muzzafarpur, who frequently represented the peasant groups in the court, brief Gandhiji about the cases.
5. Why did Gandhi chide the lawyers?
Ans. Gandhi chided the lawyers for collecting a huge fee from the poor sharecroppers as the peasant was so crushed and fear-stricken that going to law court was useless. The real relief for them was to be free from fear.
6. What did the British commissioner of Tirhut division in Champaran district ask Gandhi to do?
Ans. When Secretary of British landlord Association refused to give information to Gandhi, he went to meet British Commissioner. The British Commissioner bullied Gandhi and asked him to leave Tirhut.
7. Why was Professor Malkani’s section of offering shelter to Gandhi ‘extraordinary’?
Ans. The average Indians in smaller localities were afraid to show sympathy for advocates of ‘home rule’. They probably feared some bad consequences. It is for this reason that Gandhiji recalls Professor Malkani’s offering him shelter in his own home as an extraordinary thing.
8. Why do you think Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning point in his life? (2012)
Ans. Gandhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning point in his life because it was the first successful civil disobedience movement for him. Though it began as an ordinary attempt to free the poor peasants from injustice and exploitation, it was important because it wiped out the moral fear of the Britishers from the hearts of the simple farmers.
9. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25% refund to the farmers?
Or
Why did Gandhi agree to the planter’s offer of a 25% refund to the farmers?
Ans. When the landlords agreed to pay a refund of only 25%, they wanted to create a deadlock which would prolong the dispute. To everybody’s surprise, Gandhi accepted the offer. According to him, the amount of refund was less important than the fact that the landlords had been obliged to surrender part of their money and with it, part of their prestige.
10. Why did Rajkumar Shukla want to take Gandhiji to Champaran?
Ans. Rajkumar Shukla was one of the poor impoverished sharecroppers of the Champaran district. He had gone to the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress to take Gandhiji to Champaran to fight the injustice and exploitation of the sharecroppers.
11. What did the peasants pay the British landlords as rent? What did the British now want instead and why? What would be the impact of synthetic indigo on the prices of natural indigo?
Ans. The British landlords forced all tenants to plant 15% of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done on a long term contract.
When the landlords learned that Germany had developed synthetic indigo, they wanted to dissolve the agreement. However, they asked the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being released from the 15% arrangement. Obviously, synthetic indigo would be cheaper and more readily available and thus would bring down the price of natural indigo.
12. List the places that he visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at Champaran.
Ans. After his first meeting with Shukla, Gandhiji did not visit Champaran immediately because he had prior commitments in other parts of the country. He was expected to visit Kanpur after which he returned to his ashram near Ahmadabad. It was only after his visit to Calcutta was he able to attend to the problem highlighted by Shukla.
13. Why did Gandhiji oppose when his friend Andrews offered to stay in Champaran and help the peasants?
Or
Why did Gandhiji object to CF Andrews’ stay in Champaran?
Ans. CF Andrews wanted to stay in Champaran and help the peasants, but Gandhiji objects to it because he wanted to mould ‘a new free Indian’. He wanted Indians to stand on their own feet. So, he taught everybody a lesson in self-reliance.
14. What made the Lieutenant-Governor drop the case against Gandhiji?
Ans. Thousands of peasants held a spontaneous demonstration in Motihari. The officials felt helpless and the government was baffled. The pressure of the people was mounting. The judge didn’t want to aggravate the situation. He held up the sentence for several days and finally released Gandhi without bail, thus dropping the case against Gandhiji.
15. Why did Gandhi tell the court that he was involved in a ‘conflict of duties’?
Ans. Gandhi told the court that he was involved in a ‘conflict of duties’, i.e. he must not set a bad example by breaking the law (by refusing to comply with the eviction order), but he must also render the humanitarian and national service for which he had come to Champaran.
16. ‘The battle of Champaran is won!’ What led Gandhiji to make this remark?
Ans. Gandhiji asked the lawyers what they would do if he was arrested. The lawyers first replied that they would return home, but when Gandhiji asked them for a solution about the injustice to the sharecroppers, they realised their mistake. They thought that when a total stranger was ready to go to jail for the poor peasants, their going home would be utterly shameful.
They decided to follow Gandhiji into jail. This made Gandhiji exclaim, “The battle of Champaran is won’, as he was happy to have convinced the lawyers and won their trust.
17. Why was the Champaran episode so significant in Gandhi’s life? 2016
Ans: The Champaran episode was really very significant in Gandhi’s life. It was an effort to remove the distress(कष्ट) of poor peasants. The success of Champaran justified Gandhi’s ways and means. It gave a message. The Britishers who were dreaded and unquestioned could now be challenged by the Indians. The success of Champaran was the success of peaceful Civil Disobedience in modern India.
18. How was a solution to the problem of indigo sharecroppers of Champaran found? 2019
Ans: Gandhiji, with the lawyers of Muzzafarpur, conducted an inquiry into the grievances of the farmers. The investigations, documentation, and evidence collected favoured the peasants. Hence, Gandhiji asked for only 50% of the money as compensation as opposed to the landlord’s thinking that he might demand the whole amount they had extorted. However, an agreement was reached at 25% of the money to be compensated to the peasants.
19. Whom did Gandhi send a telegram to in Muzzafarpur?
Ans. Gandhi sent a telegram to Prof. J. B. Kripalani of the Arts College of Muzzafarpur, whom he had seen at Tagore’s Shantiniketan School.
20. What did the British Commissioner of the Tirhut division in Champaran district ask Gandhi to do?
Ans. With a view to getting the facts about Champaran Gandhi called on the British Commissioner of the Tirhut Division in which the Champaran district lay. But the commissioner bullied him and asked Gandhi to leave Tirhut at once.
21. Why was Professor Malkani’s action of offering shelter to Gandhi ‘extraordinary’?
Ans. Professor Malkani was a teacher in a Government school. It was an extraordinary thing in those days for a Government officer to harbor or show sympathy to an advocate home-rule for India.
22. Why did Gandhi write to J.B. Kripalani?
Ans. Gandhiji wanted to get more information about the sharecroppers than Shukla could provide. He decided to stop at Muzzafarpur which was en-route to Champaran. So he wrote to J.B. Kripalani whom he met at Tagore’s Shantiniketan.
23. Why did Gandhi think that ‘it was an extra-ordinary thing in those days to harbor a man lime me (him)’?
Ans. Gandhiji thought that it was an extraordinary thing in those days to harbor a man like Gandhi because in those days people were afraid to show sympathy to the advocates of home-rule. But Mr. Malkani, though he was a government teacher, gave Gandhi his house to stay for two days.
24. What do you know about the arable lands in the Champaran district?
Ans. In the Champaran district most of the arable land was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants. All tenants were made bound to plant three twentieth or 15 percent of their holdings with indigo and then surrounded it entirely as harvest.
25. How did Gandhi prepared himself after receiving summons to appear in court?
Ans. After receiving summons to appear in the court, Gandhiji remained awake all night. He telegraphed Rajendra Prasad to come from Bihar with influential friends. Then he sent instructions to the ashram. He also wired a full report to the viceroy.
26. What proved to be the beginning of the liberation of the peasant of Motihari, from fear of the British?
Ans. The spontaneous demonstration of the peasants, in thousands around the courthouse proved to be the beginning of the liberation of the peasants of Motihari from fear of the British.
27. What is the ‘concrete proof’ that Gandhi gave to the British to show that they might could be challenged by Indians?
Ans. The British officials could not control demonstration of the peasants in thousands around the court house without Gandhi’s cooperation. So Gandhi helped them regulate the crowd and gave them concrete proof that they might be challenged by Indians too.
Long Answer Type Questions (6 Marks)
1. ‘The battle of Champaran is won’, he exclaimed. Explain the context in which this was said. (2015,2016)
Ans. The lawyers played a very vital role in the Champaran movement. The news of Gandhi’s advent spread among the lawyers of Muzaffarpur. They called on Gandhi to brief him. Gandhi chided the lawyers for collecting big fees from the poor sharecroppers. Law courts were useless for them.
The lawyers from Bihar were again in the news. Gandhi was going to be tried in court. Rajendra Prasad and several other prominent lawyers had arrived from Bihar to support him. Gandhiji asked the lawyers what they would do if he was arrested. The lawyers first replied that they would return home, but when Gandhiji asked them for a solution about the injustice to the sharecroppers, they realised their mistake. They thought that when a total stranger was ready to go to jail for the poor peasants, their going home would be utterly shameful.
They decided to follow Gandhiji into jail. This made Gandhiji exclaim, “The battle of Champaran is won’, as he was happy to have convinced the lawyers and won their trust.
2. “Civil disobedience had triumphed the first time in modern India”. How? Explain with reference to the chapter “Indigo.”
Ans: Ans. When Gandhiji visited Champaran to look into the grievances of the peasants, he was served with an official notice to quit Champaran immediately. Gandhiji returned the notice with the remark that he would disobey the order. This was the beginning of civil disobedience.
As a result, Gandhiji was ordered to appear in the court the next day. Thousands of peasants put up a demonstration at the courthouse. The powerless officials appealed to Gandhiji to help them manage the crowd, which he no doubt did. The magistrate demanded Gandhiji furnish bail, but Gandhiji did not comply with the orders. Then he released Gandhiji without bail. After several days, the case was dropped by the Lieutenant-Governor. This was the start of the triumph of civil disobedience in India.
3. Give an account of the problems faced by the Indigo sharecroppers. What was Gandhiji’s role in solving the problem?
Or
Describe the exploitation of the indigo sharecroppers by the English landlords. Did Gandhi help them to get an honourable statement? 2013 ,2017, 2019
Ans. Most of the arable land in Champaran was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and worked on by Indian tenants. The chief commercial crop was indigo. The landlords compelled all the tenants to plant 15% of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done through a long-term contract.
When the landlords learned Germany had developed synthetic indigo, they obtained agreements from the sharecroppers to pay them compensation for being released from the 15% arrangement.
Gandhiji, with the lawyers of Muzzafarpur, conducted an inquiry into the grievances of the farmers. The investigations, documentation, and evidence collected favoured the peasants. Hence, Gandhiji asked for only 50% of the money as compensation as opposed to the landlord’s thinking that he might demand the whole amount they had extorted. However, an agreement was reached at 25% of the money to be compensated to the peasants. Gandhiji accepted the settlement because he did not want to deadlock between the landlords and the peasants. Thus, Gandhiji played a very proactive role in resolving the issue.
3. Describe the efforts made by R. K. Shukla persuade Gandhi to go to Champaran. (2014)
Ans: Rajkumar Shukla a poor peasant from Champaran went to the annual convention of the Indian National Congress party in Lucknow, to meet Gandhi. He told Gandhi that he wanted him to come to their district. Gandhi told Shukla that he had an appointment in Cawnpore. From Cawnpore, he had to visit other parts of India. Shukla followed Gandhi everywhere. Then Gandhi returned to his ashram near Ahmadabad and Shukla followed him to the Ashram also. He did not leave Gandhi’s side for weeks and pleaded Gandhi to fix a date to come to Champaran. Gandhi was impressed by Shukla’s steadfastness and asked the latter to come to Calcutta on such and such a date Gandhi asked him to come and take him from there. Months later Shukla met Gandhi at the Calcutta station and both left for Champaran.
