The enhanced rent that Champaran planters charged for releasing tenants from indigo cultivation was called
- A.Tawan
- B.Sharahbeshi
- C.Abwab
- D.Begar
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Sharahbeshi. When synthetic dye destroyed the market for natural indigo, the planters freed tenants from the obligation to grow it but raised their rent permanently; this enhancement was known as sharahbeshi. Together with the lump sum demanded for the release, it was the immediate grievance that brought the cultivators to Gandhi.
Option A is wrong because tawan was that lump sum, a compensation paid once for release from the indigo clause, so the two terms are easily interchanged and are therefore set against each other. Option C is wrong because abwab was the general term for illegal cesses levied by landlords across north India. Option D is wrong because begar meant forced unpaid labour, a separate abuse that the peasants also complained of.
Read the full article: Champaran Satyagraha and Bihar's Freedom Struggle
Practice Questions
View allThe Champaran Satyagraha took place in which of the following states of India?
- A.Odisha
- B.Gujarat
- C.Bihar
- D.West Bengal
Show answer
Champaran is a district of north Bihar, with Motihari as its headquarters, and the satyagraha of 1917 was fought there against the indigo planters' tinkathia system.
Read the full explanation →Who persuaded Mahatma Gandhi to visit Champaran?
- A.Rajendra Prasad
- B.Raj Kumar Shukla
- C.Brajkishore Prasad
- D.Mazharul Haque
Show answer
Shukla was a cultivator of Champaran who met Gandhi at the Lucknow session of the Congress in 1916 and followed him from place to place until Gandhi agreed to come to the district.
Read the full explanation →In the tinkathia system of Champaran, the cultivator was required to grow indigo on
- A.three kathas out of every twenty kathas of his land
- B.three bighas out of every twenty bighas
- C.one third of his total holding
- D.three acres of every holding
Show answer
The word tinkathia comes from the obligation to plant indigo on three kathas out of every twenty kathas of land, twenty kathas making one bigha in the local measure.
Read the full explanation →The Champaran Agrarian Act, which abolished the tinkathia system, was passed in which year?
- A.1916
- B.1917
- C.1918
- D.1920
Show answer
The government appointed the Champaran Agrarian Enquiry Committee in 1917 with Gandhi as one of its members, and acting on its report Parliament of the province passed the Champaran Agrarian Act in 1918.
Read the full explanation →Gandhi arrived in Bihar for the Champaran satyagraha first at which city?
- A.Motihari
- B.Muzaffarpur
- C.Patna
- D.Bettiah
Show answer
Gandhi reached Patna on 10 April 1917, stayed briefly in the city, then went to Muzaffarpur, where J. B. Kripalani was teaching and had gathered students to receive him, and only afterwards moved on to Motihari in Champaran, where the order to leave the district was served on him.
Read the full explanation →