Rajkumar Shukla
Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Rajkumar Shukla was a peasant from Champaran in Bihar. Like many farmers there, he suffered under European indigo planters. They forced tenants to grow indigo, a plant used to make blue dye, on terms that hurt the tenants. At the Lucknow Congress in December 1916, Shukla asked Gandhi to come and see the tenants' problems for himself. Gandhi came, and that visit started his first satyagraha in India. Satyagraha means "truth-force": a non-violent fight that tries to change the oppressor's heart.
Example
Shukla kept pressing Gandhi until he agreed. In 1917 Gandhi went to Champaran and fought for the indigo tenants. They wanted secure rights to their land and the freedom to grow the crops they chose. This campaign marked Gandhi as a champion of the poor.
Don't confuse with
- Baba Ramchandra: led the peasants of Awadh against taluqdars (big landlords) around 1920. Shukla's cause was the indigo tenants of Champaran in Bihar.
Related concepts
- Satyagraha
- Champaran satyagraha
- Tinkathia system
- Ahmedabad mill strike
- Kheda satyagraha
- Mahadev Desai
- Rowlatt Act
- Rowlatt satyagraha
- Jallianwala Bagh massacre
- Michael O'Dwyer