#so i replied to him in english in an attempt to revert languages. the first sentence that he replied to me with was in english…

[quigonswife8]

Reveal: Namor x fem reader

After finding out that you're pregnant with Namor's child, you sit by the ocean everyday in hopes he'll appear so that you can tell him.

Warnings: injury, mention/talk of sleeping together, pregnancy as I know some people don't like reading these types of fics.

Thank you for the request anon. Sorry it took so long to get out, but I do still hope you like this

Also after I finish and post the other requests, the requests will be closed for a while. I'll still write, but it's hard to also write the requests, sorry about that.

-

It happens so quickly. One minute you're reading, the next an injured man stumbles to the shore and falls over. You don't even notice the wings on his ankles at first.

"Oh god."

Dropping your book you nearly trip over your feet, thankfully keeping stability. "sir?!" and, as fast as you possibly can, you run over to the man.

"Sir?"

He attempts to stand but ends up falling again and groaning.

"Are you okay?"

There are three scratch marks on the left side of his face, you note. He looks up at you, but then closes his eyes to try and get rid of the pain, and groans.

"Sir?"

"My..." another pained groan. "Right ankle wing." though he falls short on words and groans again. Right ankle wing? is that code for something? Confused you look down at his right ankle curiosity getting the best of you. Your eyes land on his ankle, and then your eyes widen in surprise. They go to his other ankle, and you notice a difference.

Well, to begin, you notice how he was telling the truth. 'right ankle wing' wasn't code for anything since he does actually have wings on his ankles. However the difference between that one of his right ankle wings have been sliced off, while the others seem to be fine.

Your confusion slowly wears off, until you look at him. It's now that you notice people are staring, and confused, but that doesn't really get your attention.

"I'm a nurse." you begin. "I can fix your ankle up for you if you want."

The stranger opens his eyes again.

"You do not have to."

"...but I want to."

You move to place a hand on his shoulder, a stern but kind look in your eyes. "Please let me help you."

-----

"Here." you hand out a bottle of water for him. He slowly looks at the bottle, and then you.

"Thank you."

You leave to grab what you need, as he drinks the water you'd just passed him, and he watches you. He's a bit surprised by the events that just transpired, but he's grateful for your help. Though, if Namor is being honest, he's a bit embarrased for seeming so weak.

"You're welcome...oh, I never asked your name."

shuffling through your equipment, your hands land on a bandage.

"...i'm (y/n)."

Grabbing the rest of what is needed you turn and walk over to him.

"My people call me K'uk'ulkan." he begins. You kneel down in front of him, "...but my enemies call me Namor."

Then it clicks. You're not sure why you hadn't realised who he was when you'd seen his ankle wings.

"...the winged serpeant god?" you reply, surprised. He simply nods. Wow. you'd only heard legends of 'the winged serpeant god', but you never thought you would ever meet him.

The man that can live underwater and breathe on land. Who can fly with the wings on his ankles. He is a fierce leader and a fierce protector who will do anything for the people he cares about.

"It's an honor to meet you." you nod to him, beginning to bandage his ankle. "...and I'm sorry that you were hurt, but I'll do my best to fix up your ankle..."

"Níib óolal..."

Huh?

"What?" tilting your head in confusion, while Namor didn't even realise he'd reverted back to his language. Since he's underwater most of the time, he doesn't have to speak english, as he speaks his language.

"I said thank you, in my language. I am sorry for not speaking your language."

"You don't have to be sorry." tightening the bandage enough, you check over everything. "... and I think your language is beautiful, and everything i've heard about your culture is too. I would..." you stop yourself as you don't want to badger the guy. You've just met, you don't want to annoy him.

You stand up and move back to give him his space.

"That should be good until it heals."

Namor moves his leg around a little, then he looks up at you.

"Thank you, really. I appreciate this (y/n)."

Namor begins to stand, confident that he can.

"...I should get going." when he finds it hard, though, he ends up stumbling, and you quickly wrap an arm around his waist.

"I don't want to be annoying Namor, but you need to stay while your wing heals." he wants to say no, because he needs to go home...but you're right. He can't leave yet, and because you've been nothing but kind and you'd bandaged up his ankle, he doesn't mind.

"Okay."

-

For the next couple of weeks you let him stay there until his ankle wing is healed enough and he's healthy enough to go back home. Despite him saying it's alright, and that he can make his way home, you'd told him it would be better to let it heal up before he does.

If he were to hurt himself even more, that would mean waiting longer to heal. As a nurse you know this is the best option as you have dealt with patients hurting their ankles. Well minus the part where they didn't have wings on their ankle.

As you nurse him back to health, Namor tells you a lot about who he is and his culture, as a whole. The many stories he describes in such detail that it feels like you're there. He tells you about Talokan and how there would never be enough words to describe how breathtaking it is, and how the people who live there like him fit perfectly.

You tell him about yourself, about stories from your past. That you became a nurse over ten years ago, and how you can't help but admit that you're a damn good one too. Namor agrees with you on that. That you'd moved away from your hometown to be where you are now, and you're happy you did. Not that where you lived was bad or anything.

Over these weeks you begin to grow closer, becoming friends. Though as your friendship blossoms, new feelings grow to the surface, and before long all you can think about is him. That when you stare at him all you want to do is admit how you feel, and you'd be lying if you said you didn't look at his lips every-so-often, wishing hoping to kiss them.

-

Then, one night as you're talking to Namor, one thing ends up leading to another.

Your head rests against the wall behind you, while your hands rest by your side. Though all you can think about is how that more beautiful he looks like in the light from the moon.

You're talking about something. A story from the past, and you're so invested in telling it that you don't catch how he stares at your lips. How he feels intoxicated with the feelings that he holds for you. The feelings that you're oblivious to.

As you begin to say something, Namor gets to it first. He looks at you, then your lips, and mutters 'can i?' and you're confused at first.

"Can you..." but, then, you notice his eyes on your lips, and you realise. He wants to kiss me? surely you're imagining things...right? 'cause why would he want to kiss you? Still you find yourself mouthing 'yes'. and so he leans forward, capturing your lips with his, and your walls cave in.

You think the kiss is the only thing that happens. Turns out Namor has wanted you, as much as you have wanted him, 'cause the kiss turns into more.

Next thing you know you're stumbling to the bedroom.

-A few weeks later-

"Oh god."

You hold onto the wall fearing that you'll fall over if you don't. Eyes focused on the test in your right hand, tears fill your eyes, and you close them.

"I'm pregnant?"

You should have realized after feeling sick in the mornings lately. That you haven't been feeling the best as-of-late. Though pregnancy never did come to mind, but now you're pregnant with the child of the man you haven't seen in weeks.

There's no bad blood between you both. He'd left because he needed to continue ruling, so that's why hasn't visited. Bringing yourself down into a sitting position you rest your head back against the wall, sighing. "now what am I going to do?"

You never thought to hide the pregnancy from him, as he deserves to know. Though how you're going to tell him is the hard part, cause what if he doesn't even want a child with you? What if he only viewed your one-night-stand as just that, and what if his feelings weren't true?

So you sit there, test in your hand.

----

You decide to go to the beach and call his name. At night so people don't think you're weird. He doesn't arrive the first time, though you don't leave straightaway.

For the next couple of weeks you go to the same beach in hopes of getting his attention. Every day you call for him but he doesn't answer or let you know that he can hear you. It kind of stings as you need to let him know.

You wonder if he'll be a good father. He's a kind man, a good man, so you think what he'll be like as a dad. You wonder what you'll be like as a mother, if you'll be a good one. Having kids have been on your mind for a while but you hadn't found 'the one' to have them with. Maybe Namor is the one, though you're not sure if he thinks that about you.

The hopes of seeing him, however, start to lessen and you worry that you'll have to raise this child alone...until things change one wednesday.

-

"Namor?"

You make your spot on the sand, with your right hand out-of-habit rests on your pregnant stomach. The waves are calm, and the water is flat. The night is cool which helps to calm the nerves you have, as you pray that he'll finally appear.

"We need to talk."

You wait. You wait for five minutes, but he doesn't show, and you're ready to continue waiting like you usually do as you're convinced he's not going to appear. The water suddenly moves as you think that, and then something makes a splash....well, someone.

You watch as he walks out of the water towards you, and you stand up. When he reaches you he surprises you by taking your hands in his:

"I am sorry for not being here sooner."

He squeezes your hands.

"...but I am here now, so we can talk."

With a nod, you sigh. Now that he's there you have to reveal that you're pregnant, and you pray that he won't just leave. Though, why would he?

"Okay..." here we go. "I have to tell you something, but I'm not sure how to."

"Well..." he replies. "...take your time, in yakunaj." in yakunaj. He'd muttered that to you during that night. You're still not sure what it means, but you could- can tell that it means something. His words seem to help you admit what you've been meaning to admit, but it's not easy to get those words out.

"Namor I...i'm...pregnant." averting your eyes from him, you continue. "...and the baby is yours." now as you aren't looking at him, you don't notice how his eyes seem to widen.

"...that's what i've been meaning to tell you, because you had the right to know." then, you turn to look at him again, scared that you'd seen anger in his eyes, or disgust. Instead, however, you notice the surprise on his face.

"You're... pregnant?"

"I...I understand if you don't-"

"No." realising he's still holding your hands, he squeezes them softly.

"I'm just surprised."

Now he hates that he wasn't there sooner. He knows you would have been feeling alone without the father of your child being there to be your support. To be the other parent to your child. You needed him, and now he hates himself for not being there.

Though he's still shocked that you're pregnant, but he isn't angry. In fact, despite the circumstances, he is happy you're going to have a kid, and the kid is his. You aren't dating, but that doesn't matter, as he just wants to be there for you.

"...I know this isn't ideal for you." he continues. "but I will be there for you. for our kid." he softens his tone as he says this. "...I promise you." and you can't help but tear up hearing him say this.

"You will?"

The winged serpeant god nods and god you can see the amount of care his eyes hold. "I promise you (y/n)."

The tears run down your cheeks, but you're happy. These are happy tears, because why would you be sad? He's going to help you raise this kid, which is all you have wanted.

"Thank you."

-

Throughout your pregnancy, Namor is amazing. He offers you to stay there and as it's easier, you agree. Though you don't move in at first. He gets a room set up for your baby, and you find it adorable how excited he is.

You find yourself falling harder for him, more than you had initially been, and you found yourself wanting a relationship with him. Though you weren't sure he did, too. He did. But he wanted to wait to see what you wanted.

It was about a month into the pregnancy, that you'd been staying there, that you'd admitted how you wanted a relationship. He'd let you know he wanted one too, and before long, you'd begun dating.

When you give birth he's there, and when you hold your baby girl in your arms, you look up at him with such love. While Namor is tearing up, he can't help it. When he holds your kid, he tears up more, and you tear up, too.

You have your own little family. It's so perfect, that it feels surreal.

Everything is perfect.

#Namor #Namor x reader #Wakanda forever #cute #request #tenoch huerta #marvel

[deus-ex-mona]

time to see how much novel content gets yeeted out in the pv—

#i’m still very sad that my favourite saltaro scene from the daikirai novel will never get to see the spotlight :( #but anywayysssss… saltaro mv hype!!!!!!!!! #the pic’s grainy af bc of resizing lmfaoooo #it is suiyoubi my dudes #misc. saltaro saltppenings #and now to wonder if i should spend tomorrow tling ijiwaru or watching the mf zhuge liang anime— #ok so since i mentioned that zhuge liang anime i’m gonna feel free to ramble about my chinese language woes after this— #so today (yesterday?) was my last day at work. yays. and this supervisor dude whom i only spoke to twice tried to give me a good luck speech #he started off in english but his next sentence was in chinese (ʘ‿ʘ) which was very (ʘ‿ʘ)??? to me bc my chinese is horrendous #so i replied to him in english in an attempt to revert languages. the first sentence that he replied to me with was in english… #…but then the next few sentences he spoke was in chinese (ʘ‿ʘ) #and so i replied 1 sentence in chinese and the rest in english… only for him to reply 1 sentence in english and the rest in chinese… #it was almost as though we were playing language ping pong or something s o b s ಥ‿ಥ #i probably need to go back to kumon or sth… i’m a colossal failure lmfaooooooo _(:3 」∠)_

[straykidsupdate]

Stray Kids are shaking up K-pop’s status quo

The South Korean pop band Stray Kids are clustered around a laptop for a Skype interview, pale in the screen’s glow as heavy rain turns New York City to grey. It’s a fitting backdrop for the group: from their 2017 pre-debut release “Hellevator” to the latest single, the snarling, trumpeting EDM of “MIROH”, the K-pop group have made similarly dystopian environs their visual backdrop, where neon and CCTV screens flicker and the group are hemmed in by skyscrapers, tarmac, and tunnels as they attempt to escape or defy their surroundings.

This concept – of attaining freedom – is central to the group, and it’s an idea that’s rooted in reality. The group’s leader, Bang Chan, handpicked each member for the group from their parent label JYP Entertainment’s roster of trainees, a process unheard of in K-pop, where that power lies with executives and creative directors. Stray Kids write and produce all their material, too, and are one of the few idol groups to do so. Their music focuses unflinchingly on their youth – the anger and frustration, the ecstatic highs and ragged lows – while questioning their own shifting sense of identity.

With bleached bangs falling into one eye, Bang Chan recalls not the gravitas of the opportunity to form his own group, but the pressure of picking wisely. “There was a lot on my mind,” says the 21-year-old, speaking during the band’s run of sold-out North American concerts. “Choosing the right people was a must, because I’m going to be with them for a long time. Because I’d been a trainee for so long,” – seven years – “I think I had the ability to figure out what potential they had.” He turns to his bandmates and namechecks them: Woojin, the eldest at 22; Lee Know; Changbin; Hyunjin; Han; Felix; Seungmin; and the youngest, I.N, who turned 18 in February. “With everyone around me right now, I’m really glad we’ve become this team.”

Bang Chan and 18-year-old Felix, whose cavernously deep voice is at odds with his Bambi-innocent looks, were both raised in Australia, and the broad twang of their accent conveys a cheerful, anything-is-possible resonance. It’s the former who helms the conversation. He’s an engaging speaker and a careful listener, stopping to translate questions for the non-English speakers. At times he falters, and at others he deflects to well-worn answers (a reflection of their newness), but he’s unmistakably a leader, a role he wears effortlessly.

As a whole, Stray Kids are known for their friendly, indefatigable rambunctiousness, but with nearly a dozen rookie awards and five EPs in just over 12 months, it’d be foolish to underestimate their tenacity. Their start was a baptism of fire. On Stray Kids, the eponymously-named survival TV show that they were formed through, they were required to write tracks and perfect performances to short deadlines, then ruthlessly critiqued by the CEO of their label, JYP Entertainment. Two of the group members, Felix and Lee Know, were initially eliminated, although eventually reinstated in the final episode via a public vote. Felix, axed due to his less-than-fluent Korean, hasn’t forgotten the sting. “I still think about my Korean and how I use the language,” he sighs. “I try to learn, and fix it.”

You can see his determination when Stray Kids appear on Korean variety shows to showcase their work and their personalities. Felix’s shyness in speaking had resulted in less camera time but, in recent months, his studying has appeared to pay off and he’s a far more confident presence, able to convey the charm that's endeared him to their fans. It’s the result of constant help from his bandmates, he says, radiating positivity (which is, delightfully, Felix’s default setting). Lee Know, however, who’d had only a short idol training period and was cut early in the series, favours a more stoic approach. “I think I’m here thanks to that feedback. I worked really hard then, and I’m still trying to work hard now too,” he says, and although his small smile seemingly hints at something more pronounced, he settles on a double thumbs up and sits back.

“Choosing the right people was a must... With everyone around me right now, I’m really glad we’ve become this team” – Bang Chan, Stray Kids

Their rough-meets-polished sound was set up by the darkly anthemic “Hellevator”, but the thundering EDM and guitar riffs of their official debut, “District 9”, cemented them as a fresh force in K-pop. In its music video, they flee a clinical-looking prison and use a school bus to smash through to the safety of the titular District 9, although even there they’re left searching. “I don’t know who I am, it’s frustrating, it always worries me / Answer me, then give me an answer that will clear it all,” Hyunjin raps with a volatile urgency.

This ceaseless quest weaves through last year’s EP trilogy (I Am NOT, I Am WHO, I Am YOU) and into their latest EP, Clé 1: MIROH, the clear narrative allowing for sonic experiments (from the minimalist electronica of “3rd Eye” to the bright pop drawl of “Get Cool”) without losing momentum. In their song “NOT!”, they celebrate breaking out the “system” – the status quo – and the strength of being different. For Stray Kids, this is more about ambiguous storytelling than holding a deliberate ’us versus them’ mentality. “We usually don’t compare (ourselves) to others,” says vocalist Seungmin, in English. “Like in the song ‘My Pace’, we’re saying we don’t care about others’ (achievements), we’re just talking about Stray Kids’ own way.”

While Stray Kids have definitely created a richly empathetic musical tapestry, their chosen path raises a pertinent observation: in breaking out of one “system”, they’ve joined another. The idol system that they’re now a part of often appears more restrictive than the one they leave behind, and as they move towards the bubble of fame and money, there’s also the potential to lose a sense of oneself. Both feel paradoxical to their story. Bang Chan pauses. “Well, honestly, we wouldn’t call it a system, let’s say a ‘world’, and we’d call it a decision that we made. In order for us to get out of the main system, we chose being idols, and through K-pop we can show the message we want to express.”

Han, the 18-year-old rapper, singer, and songwriter/producer, drapes himself, cat-like, over Felix’s head and neck to get close to the camera. “I think fame and success can be dangerous to a person, depending on how they feel about it, but we’re going to try to always be positive and good natured about it,” he opines, gesticulating rapidly. “We’re still lacking so much, but we’re going to try really hard to understand other people’s feelings and be a good influence.”

Given Stray Kids’ formation, creative freedom, and growing success makes them something of an anomaly, might their presence provoke change in the idol world? Bang Chan furrows his brow. “I suppose so,” he says with the questioning tone of someone presented with an unfamiliar concept. “I guess it’s up to how people take it in.”

Stray Kids, evidently, have been more preoccupied with looking inward, and, when examining their new EP, it’s apparent their gaze has been in flux. Clé 1: MIROH, which Bang Chan describes as “us being really confident because all nine of us are together”, presents a new fearlessness on tracks like “Boxer”, “MIROH” and “Victory Song”, where Han triumphantly raps:“A laidback victor, a smile spreads on my face / Who else is like me, there’s no one.”

“When I was becoming a singer, some people didn’t support my dreams, so I was sad. I remember that and put those feelings into this song” – Changbin, Stray Kids

They pose fewer existential questions than on previous EPs, but, says Bang Chan, “if you look at tracks like ‘Chronosaurus’ and ‘Maze Of Memories’, it shows nervousness or anxiety, and a feeling of being lost as well.” The latter, its doomy hip hop propelled by tense piano and bursts of foreboding strings, was an emotional outlet for their silver-tongued rapper, Changbin. “When I was becoming a singer,” he says, in English, “some people didn’t support my dreams, so I was sad. I remember that and put those feelings into this song.”

Yet despite sieving emotions and thoughts through the music, their biggest questions, says Changbin, remain unanswered. “But we’re trying,” he smiles. He points to the close presence of their fans, known as STAY. “Maybe we can find the answer soon, through STAY.” How does he intend to discover deeply personal epiphanies through others? “I’m young and lack a lot of experience,” replies Changbin, reverting to Korean. “There are still a lot of childish elements about me as well. By watching those around me, I can find out what I like through them. I feel like I can find myself through (others’ journeys).”

For now, Stray Kids simply continue doing what they’ve done so well thus far – capturing the human condition, including tackling difficult subjects like depression (“Hellevator”), anxiety (“Rock”), and negative thoughts (“Voices”), all of which, Bang Chan says, they’ve experienced first-hand. The group’s core writing team (Han, Changbin, and Bang Chan, together known as 3RACHA) have not only refined their style over the past year but, according to I.N, “improved on their speed of making songs. They’ve gotten really fast,” he says with a sunny grin.

3RACHA’s Soundcloud days are far behind them, although, to their credit, they haven’t deleted the handful of songs that were posted pre-debut. Some will remain just enthusiastic learning curves, but others were raw and powerful, such as “Broken Compass”, which was refashioned into “Mixtape #4” for Clé 1: MIROH.

The “Mixtape” songs, which are only found on the physical versions of their EPs, are where, Hyunjin says, “we all contribute, and fill our individual verses with our personal stories”. In January, 3RACHA revisited a few songs during a Vlive broadcast, and cringed to the point of sweating profusely. As Changbin and Han crease up, Bang Chan covers his face, mock-groaning. “We can’t listen to them now!” But there’s a glint in his eye. “We do have to do episode two of that,” he adds, grinning.

It’s not just the songwriters who are evolving; from being wide-eyed, ambitious and nervous trainees who didn’t always get along, as Hyunjin recently revealed, Stray Kids have become compelling performers with close bonds. They’d clung tightly to Bang Chan during their survival show, but do Stray Kids today feel less lost – or at least more secure in their responsibilities? “I’ll just leave the room so the guys can talk more freely,” jokes Bang Chan, even as Changbin, owner of a bone-dry sense of humour, simply yells, “No!” Vocalist Woojin leans in. “He was very good to us while we were filming the show. At that time we always followed him very well, and relied on him a lot.”

“I don’t have a lot of confidence but when he’s next to me, I know I can do this,” adds Felix, as they ready to depart for the next schedule in a packed day. “But,” Woojin says, “now we’re all developing our own selves, too.”

Source

#stray kids #190606 #era: clé 1 miroh #t: article #dazed

[blackthorn-brekker]

Walls of Glass - Part Numero Uno

“Emma Carstairs one-shot. Emma Carstairs, following the destruction of the Cohort and during the dissolving of the Cold Peace, Emma Carstairs takes a break from the madness to partake in her travel year. She decides to visit Mexico City and her good friends Cristina Mendoza Rosales and Mark Blackthorn, now engaged to be married. Things happen (I’m not sure what yet so I’ll have to edit this later and if I don’t then you’re welcome to this lovely little bit of text; you’re welcome).

The Mexico City Institute was not hard for Emma to see, and it certainly wasn’t easy to miss, it was just that it wasn’t, upon her arrival, the first thing she was concentrating on.

No. Instead, her immediate focus was drawn to Cristina Mendoza Rosales, who had not so long ago taken her own travel year at the Los Angeles Institute, the place Emma had seen as a second home for so long, and know her first and only real home with the Blackthorn family. Cristina, in the short time, had firmly cemented herself as a staple of the Blackthorns’ and Emma’s life, and found her true loves: Mark Blackthorn, second oldest of the Blackthorn siblings, and Kieran Kingson, now King of the Unseelie Court. 

Emma herself didn’t entirely understand how Mark, Kieran and Cristina’s love triangle dynamic worked, but, hey, if her friend was happy and they treated her right, she was all for it. She also knew that Kieran, as Unseelie King, wasn’t technically allowed to have human consorts, let alone Shadowhunter ones (well, half-Shadowhunter ones, in Mark’s case), so she wondered how that worked and how the rest of the Unseelie faeries felt about it, but didn’t spend too much time milling over their love lives. 

Presently, Cristina ran across the deserted Mexico road, her shiny black hair flying out behind her and a simple yellow sundress swinging on her frame. Emma barely had time to take in the Institute’s grand appearance, or Mark, who came tumbling out of the doors, or any of the other mundane establishments that obliviously surrounded the Mexico City Institute, when Cristina was on her, her suntanned arms flung around Emma’s neck. She knocked Emma flying, and the contents of Emma’s suitcases went flying through the air; the two of them fell back onto the patch of greenery which was shaded over by a single tree, and where the taxi had dropped Emma.

“Emma!” “Tina!” Emma laughed, pushing Cristina off of her with a laugh. “What were you planning on doing with my body once you’d strangled me?” Cristina laughed and leant back on her elbows in the midday sunshine. 

“Sorry, Emma,” she said. She was beaming all over her face and looking at Emma with a strange look that she couldn’t decipher: it was a mixture of pride and content and extreme excitement.

“Are you gonna tell me, or -” Emma began to ask, but, before she could finish, Cristina had cried out with a smile,

“Mark and I are engaged!” 

“Oh.” Emma said, with a solemn nod, not really taking in what Cristina was saying, but then she realised. “Oh! That kind of engaged!”

“Yes,” Cristina laughed, but Emma expected this was more of a nervous excitement. Cristina’s beaming lit up every single sun kissed feature of her face: her eyes were glinting with happiness, and her white teeth shone in the sunshine. “You’ll be my bridesmaid, of course?”

“Honey, have you met me?” Emma asked with raised eyebrows. Cristina blinked her confusion. “Uh, yes!” 

“Oh, good,” Cristina laughed. “I’m so, so glad. I couldn’t bear the thought of getting married without my best friend there. Mark’s going to ask Julian to be his best man, of course, so we’ll have to get hold of him as soon as possible -” “What about Kieran?” Emma asked abruptly. She couldn’t figure out how the faerie king would fit into the equation: faerie Kings and Queens weren’t allowed human consorts, and, to her knowledge, neither Shadowhunter nor mundane laws allowed three-way marriages. 

“Kieran?” Cristina repeated blankly, her mouth a perfect, surprised, ‘O’.

“Yes,” Emma replied slowly, in the same voice she’d heard Julian use a thousand times over when trying to explain something to Ty. I wonder how he is, Emma thought suddenly. I wonder how they all are. Helen and Ty and Dru and Tavvy. She’d slept through the nearly four-hour flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and, once she’d gotten off the plane, her first and most excited thought had been of Cristina. The Blackthorn family had never been so separated, what with Mark here in Mexico, Julian taking his own travel year in London, Helen, Ty, Dru and Tavvy still in LA, and Livvy - well, best not to think about that. She’d have to call Helen later.

“Yes,” she said now. “Kieran. Your third third. Angry guy. Always scowling. Hot when he can be bothered. Weasel face. The King of the Unseelie? Jeez, Tina, I thought you’d remember a guy like that.”

“I know who you mean,” Cristina said, and her eyes darkened and her cheeks reddened. Mark had joined them: his skin was less pale due to the scorching South American sun he’d faced over the past few weeks, and his pale blonde hair was longer than the last time Emma had seen him, curling around his cheekbones and resting on his collar. There was only some resemblance to Julian in him, in his blue eye, in the shape of his face, in the set of his chin and jaw. His faerie heritage was evident in the slight taper of his ears.

“He knows,” Mark explained for the seemingly dumbstruck Cristina. “He’s happy and will be attending, of course, even if the Unseelie Court technically forbids it. Although not by law, we are all married to each other in soul and spirit.”

“Aww,” Emma cooed. She put her hand over her heart and pouted mockingly. “That is so sweet.”

“I see we’ve reverted back to our first language of sarcasm,” Mark remarked with one crooked eyebrow and a slight curve to his lips. 

“And I see we’ve reverted back to archaic British English?” Emma teased. Mark smiled fully now, and drew her in for a brief hug.

“It’s good to see you again, Emma.”

She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder - the soft, golden tresses that she knew Julian so loved to paint - in imitation of someone she’d seen before, but she couldn’t quite think of who. Isabelle Lightwood or even - although she shuddered to think about her - Zara Dearborn. 

“Don’t I know it.”

Cristina laughed, and bent to retrieve some of Emma’s discarded clothes, which lay dreary and crumpled on the pavement. 

“Come on, Em,” she said warmly. “Let’s get you inside and we can explain more.”

The inside of the Mexico City Institute was quite different to the interior of the Los Angeles Institute. It was decorated with far more personal touches: pots of flowers of every hue and species - reds and blues and yellows and purples - and there were many, many photographs of Cristina and the Rocio Rosales, brothers Diego and Jaime, all through childhood into their teen years, and a few more recent ones - including some of Cristina and Mark and even Kieran.

There was a large staircase immediately in front of the doors, which led onto a platform with a huge stained glass window; two more sets of stairs led up from it in opposite directions. The window depicted the Angel Raziel, rising up out of Lake Lyn, holding both the Mortal Cup and the Mortal Sword - which Emma slightly sheepishly recalled shattering with her blade Cortana the year before - in marvellous hues of yellow and gold and blue in green, far more splendid and magnificent than anything even Julian could paint. The Shadowhunters’ motto was carved in the stone beneath the window: ‘Descensus facilis Averno est’, or ‘The decent into Hell is easy’. Emma shivered to think of the window shattering and the fires of Hell rising up in its place, engulfing the Institute. She blinked; the image left her mind almost immediately.

Two people were stood in front of the window, deeply conversing in Spanish: one was a small, dark woman who resembled Cristina, and the other was a tall, robust young man with curling dark hair and a faint but twisted scar across the side of his face. Emma recognised him immediately.

“Perfect Diego?” The boy, Diego Rocio Rosales - or, as he should have been called, Inquisitor Rosales, his proper title, as appointed by Consul Lightwood (Alec, another friend of Emma’s) - looked up from the conversation he was having with who could only be Cristina’s mother. Diego’s mouth curled into a reluctant smile when he saw Emma, and his eyes lit up with unexpected mischief. Emma recalled Cristina first explaining how a beautiful, wonderful boy had broken her heart, and then meeting that boy and discovering that he had tried to kill Julian. Emma had wanted to kill Diego then, both for hurting Cristina and hurting Julian (even if it was a case of mistaken identity), but then she had grown to appreciate his presence, and even see him as a friend. Then how he had turned out to be engaged to a Downworld-hating bigot, Zara Dearborn, whom Emma had attempted to kill on more than one occasion, and had turned out to be more than slightly crazy. She remembered Diego doing everything he could to save his brother, Jaime, even after the cruelty the Cohort had forced on them. She remembered Diego being nearly killed by a faerie following the battle against the Cohort and King Oban, Kieran’s crazed brother. All in all, she remembered a lot, not all good, but not all bad, either.

“Sorry, I meant Inquisitor Rosales,” she quickly amended, not quite keeping the sarcasm out of her tone.

“Emma Carstairs,” he said, turning to look at her. “I never thought I’d say I got to see you for a reason other than misbehaviour.” “Do you really think so lowly of me?” she asked, pretending to be hurt and cocking her head. “And I thought we were friends.”

Diego laughed, coming down the stairs to meet them and talk more properly.  He looked at her with wide, hopeful dark eyes. “But we are, aren’t we?”

“Charmer,” she laughed, swatting away the hand he had held out. “You know exactly what’s going on with Jules and I.”

“And you know that I have a new girlfriend,” he said, also pretending to look offended. “I cannot believe you think so lowly of me, Emma.”

“So things worked out with you and Divya then?” she asked, genuinely intrigued. Divya Joshi was an Indian Shadowhunter, a Centurion trained at the Scholomance as Diego himself was before he was promoted to the post of Inquisitor. Emma had guessed that Divya and Diego were interested in each other the last time they had all been together, but everything had been such a whirlwind after that - Magnus and Alec’s wedding, so many funerals, the election of the new Consul, and then suddenly her travel year - that she hadn’t given it much thought.

“Yes,” Diego said, with an air of pride. “We’re actually engaged as well, as I’m sure Cristina and Mark have told you they are.”

“Oh, by the Angel, I’ve just realised something,” Emma said, hoping she sounded quite stricken. She clapped her hand over her mouth for dramatic effect, and was pleased when Diego, Cristina and Mark all looked at her in confusion and slight panic. Cristina even gripped her arm as if afraid Emma might fall to the floor. “It’s not going to be a double wedding, is it?”

She distinctly heard Cristina whisper, “Emma,” under her breath before leading Emma up the stairs and past the beautiful window and her mother, as both Emma and Mark shook with silent laughter.

#blackstairs #jemma blackstairs #kierarktina #kieran kingson #cristina mendoza rosales #emma carstairs #diegorociorosales #jaime rocio rosales #mexico #shadowhunters #institute #mark blackthorn #blackthorns #yesIcalleditpartnumerounobecauseimspeciallikethat

[footballffbarbiex]

English Lessons.

This had been a discussion that turned into an unofficial request. I know I have a lot of Marco Asensio fans on here so I hope you all enjoy this slice of smutty goodness.

Masterlist here. 

____________________

She’d been impressed lately with his progress. He had some English lessons down previously but not as many as he’d liked. Or at least that’s what he’d said. He’d made a lot of effort the first two months, sentences were coming together much more confidently and he was less hesitant to speak. Instead he seemed confident and happy to speak mostly in English than Spanish. Sometime he spoke so confidently that she was taken back by how well he actually spoke it before he’d revert back to his shy ways. She sometimes wondered why he even came to here. But today? Today was different. Today he was…disinterested. Distracted and didn’t seem to be here with her like he usually is.

She watches as he flicks the pencil between his finger and thumb, his teeth bites down on his bottom lip as he stares at the paper and the “work” she’s asked him to do sits uncompleted. His eyes would stare off into space before he’d blink manically and scan the page before he’d zone out again. It was frustrating for her to watch considering how he’d been previously. Attentive, engaged and wanting to do well. He was her best student out of everyone she’d tutored and she couldn’t understand what she’d done to disengage with him.

She couldn’t deny that she was enjoying the time to just observe him. She’d be foolish if she said she didn’t find him attractive. He was exactly her type. With his dark hair and eyes, a smile that was infectious, making you want to see it again or be the person for that smile. The way he looked at her was enough to give her shivers, she felt her skin tingle and her skin to flush. She could feel his eyes burning into her, long after he’d leave. She’d never act on her crush. He was her first crush since starting tutoring and while she tried not to let it cloud her judgement, she couldn’t deny she gave him extra attention, was a little more patient and generally more attentive when it came to Marco.

“Marco are you ok?” She asks, her hand itches to reach across the table and cover his. She won’t, it’s an inappropriate gesture considering they’re not friends. Her words pull him from his thoughts, though when he looks at her she realizes he has no idea what she’s said despite asking him this in Spanish not English. She figures the best way to get him back with her, to concentrate and be in this room, is to tackle the issue in his native language. “Sorry what did you say?” “I asked if you were ok.” She laughs, pushing her hair behind her ear as she stares at him. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.” He confesses, a shadow of a smile creeping onto his lips. “Do you want to talk about it? I can see the work isn’t helping so I thought some conversation might help?” She suggestions, only to add “unless you’d rather go and we’ll pick this up another time?” when he simply stares at her. “Sorry, I’m being rude.” He replies in English, ignoring her attempt at familiarity with Spanish and places the pencil back on the table. “It’s just…have you ever looked at someone and wondered how they kiss?” his question throws her off. Of course I have, she thinks, I’d love to kiss you. “Erm, yeah I guess so.” “It’s just…sorry this is unprofessional to speak about something like this. But I’ve been resisting kissing this woman.” He says in perfect English. 

She frowns at him, unsure why Marco is being so open with her. “Is this a scenario?” She asks, wondering where this has come from. “Sure.” Marco nods, a smile slowly works its way onto his face. “Ok, why are you resisting?” She asks sitting back in the chair to look at him. Marco picks the pencil back up again and alternates between dropping it through his fingers onto the lead tip, turning it around and dropping it on the rubber end. Each time the lead end hits the desk she winces. “I don’t know if she would want me to.” “How well do you know her?” She asks. “I’ve known her a while. I wouldn’t say we were close. I can tell when she’s down but hiding it. When she has a lot on her mind but doesn’t say so and when she’s faking her smiles. I know when she’s watching me when she thinks I’m not noticing. ” “You seem observant.” “I have to be when their language isn’t my first. I notice body language.” He says slowly, his eyes dropping from her face to what he can see of her torso as he says body. She feels herself flush under his stare, heat spreads through her and she shifts in her chair uncomfortably. “that’s wise of you…if you’re close enough to her to notice such things you must have a relationship of sorts. Try spending time with her?” “I see her as often as I can.” “But that’s not enough?” Marco shrugs, his attention back on the pencil. “Not really. Not enough to know how she feels about me.” “Well have you tried to speak about it? Shown her how you feel?” she asks. Marco shakes his head, his fingers gripping the pencil and he begins to doodle. “Then maybe that’s the issue. We’re not all forthcoming with our feelings.” “But you would be if you knew how someone else felt?” “It depends on the person.” She replies honestly. Marco nods again as he continues to doodle.

“Ok then. Let’s do a scenario.” Marco leans back in his chair and flicks the pencil between his fingers. “What would you do if you liked someone.” “Someone I can openly admit to it or someone I shouldn’t like?” “Why shouldn’t you like them?” He asks. “Could be for several reasons. A friends family member, a friends ex…someone I work with.” She lets the last option sink in. She notices the change in his posture immediately, the flicker of a smile on his lips and the way his eyes brighten. He nods, more to himself as he thinks about this. “Ok so lets go with that. You like someone you shouldn’t. Then what?” “That depends doesn’t it? Do I think they like me back?” “They do,” Marco inputs. “And what have they done to show me that they like me? Is it a genuine interest or not? Is it because they know they shouldn’t and so that adds to the thrill. Consuming the forbidden fruit if you will.” “In this…scenario.” Marco repeats, “maybe they do like you. A genuine interest though the thrill of it would be an added bonus.”

Her heart beats quicker as she realizes what he’s saying. She’d hoped she wasn’t imaging the way he looked at her, the interactions they’d had or the way he’d always hesitated before leaving. “Maybe he’d wanted to say it for a while but didn’t think he could?” “If this was the case, in the scenario,” she confirms as he smirks, “why would he then think now was a good time to say something?” “Maybe he’s tired of watching opportunities pass?” “Could be.” She muses, her eyes meeting his when he murmurs her name. “Would you mind if I was bold?” “Not at all.” “It’s just…about what I said earlier.” He stands up, cautiously moves in front of her and peers down. “I’ve just gotta know how you kiss.”

“It’s only fair if you’ve been patient.” Her words come out as little more than a whisper as she’s pulled to her feet. Marco rests one hand against her waist, his fingers stroking softly over her hip as his other cups her face, his thumb pressing against her chin forcing her to look up at him. He looks down at her lips and licks his own. “As much as I want to just kiss you, I need to know it’s OK to.” She pushes herself up onto her tip toes, her nose brushes against his as her lips trace his. “As sweet as this is, just do it.” Her sentence has barely left her mouth when he claims it.

Marco’s hands grip her waist and turns her around. The table hits the back of her thighs, prompting her to sit on it as Marco stands between her legs. His lips never leave hers, his tongue enters her mouth as her fingers slip beneath his shirt and she runs her nails over his stomach. She feels his stomach suck in and his muscles work beneath the skin. It’s something she’s thought about doing ever since she started having the inappropriate thoughts about him. His kisses overwhelm her, they stir feelings she thought she’d forgotten about and the clench within her core does not go unnoticed as Marco continues to kiss her deeply.

She reaches up and locks her hands behind his neck, the action causes her dress to pull up, exposing more of her thighs. Realizing this, Marco’s fingers trace up from her knees and slowly dances over her skin. He smiles into the kiss when he feels her thighs tremble at his tongue and the goosebumps that erupt there. He smiles again when her breath catches and the lightest of moans fills his mouth. He pulls away from her lips, trails them over her jaw and along the delicate skin of her neck, “I know I said I only wanted to kiss you,” he says as he presses kisses everywhere he can, “but I can’t help but wonder now what you taste like. If I may be so bold again.”

His lips brush over her pulse point, his tongue flicks over it as it speeds up, his teeth graze it and he kisses once more. His fingers run from the hem of her dress to her knee and back up again. She feels her legs parting willingly and how her hips angle themselves as it feels like he reaches up a little more. She wants his fingers inside of her almost as much as she wants to feel his tongue against her absolute sweet spot. “I fully encourage you to be bold.” Her tone of voice sounds pathetic, even to her ears. His hands drift further up, skimming over the soft skin of her inner thighs as he sucks gently on her shoulder muscle. “For the record,” he lifts his head to look her in the eye, “you kiss better than I ever thought possible.” He kisses over her clothed chest, his hands push the skirt of her dress up her thighs to expose her now damp center. He slowly drops to his knees as his mouth moves lower, between breasts, over the dip of her ribcage and down her stomach.

She feels her stomach fluttering with each kiss that’s lower, her pussy tightens as he nips at her underwear hem through the dress. He’s so close to where she wants him yet he’s taking his time. Her body ignites when his head dips, his mouth now brushes behind her knee and inches his way up. She tries to control her breathing but she struggles, wanting to lift her hips and tilt them towards his face. “Marco,” she mewls. “Considering you hadn’t kissed me an hour ago, you’re very impatient.” He grins. “Considering you said you needed English lessons, you’re very good at speaking it.” She remarks with a raised eyebrow. “It looks like you’ve seen through my plan…” he nips at her inner thigh. “Don’t tease,” she arches her back as she feels his breath upon her knickers and a shudder ripples through her.

His fingers hook her underwear and pulls them to the side. The cool air mixes with her wetness and she looks down when a deep breath sounds from him. His tongue swipes across her damp folds, causing her to suck in a lungful of air as she anticipates his next move. The tip of his tongue parts them, teasingly slipping to her entrance and licks at the wetness that’s there already. “It seems you’ve wanted this as much as I have.” Marco’s eyes flicker up and meets hers. She feels herself blush, embarrassed to be caught watching but he doesn’t seem to mind. His eyes remain on her face as his tongue dips inside of her and begins to move. He laps at her, darting his tongue in and out of her while his fingers move to her swelling clit.

Her hips buck at his tongue, the contrast of the cool air around them from the aircon and the heat of his mouth plays with her senses. With each stroke of his fingers and each swipe of his tongue she was slipping further and further towards the edge. If she thought his kisses were something else, his oral abilities were beyond her wildest dreams. Marco responds to every moan, whimper and gasp that she makes. He listens to her breathing, continues when she begins to pant and either speeds his fingers up or drives his tongue deeper inside of her when she begins to quieten.

His tongue laps up to her clit where his fingers leave her and two slip inside. His tongue swirls over her sensitive bead before the tip of it expertly begins to work against her as his fingers pump in and out. He curls them upwards, touching against her g-spot with painstaking precision that has her legs trembling. She grinds her hips against both his face and his fingers, stopping suddenly when he sucks her clit between his lips and relentlessly uses his tongue against her.

She grips the edge of the desk, her vision distorts and her muscles tense up as her climax builds at an alarming rate. She curses, her breathing comes out in rasps and the tone of her moans becomes high pitch. He keeps his pace, not changing a single thing as her body trembles before him. His mouth and fingers working in completely unison to push her over that edge, needing to make her orgasm. It explodes from her with such force that she cries out, it drips over his fingers and onto the floor. His movements slow until they stop and Marco places wet kisses along her thigh.

When he straightens up and gets back to his feet, she grabs his shirt by the collar and pulls him in for another kiss. She doesn’t mind that she can taste herself on his tongue, she just needs to feel him again. He kisses her back deeply, his fingers gripping her thighs and she doesn’t mind if he bruises her. “I have a condom in my bag,” she breaks the kiss, her words come out breathlessly as she tries to clear her mind to think logically. She knows she shouldn’t be doing this but damnit he’s clouding all her sense of right and wrong and right now all she can think about is having him inside of her. Marco passes her the bag and she digs around until she produces the foil wrapper. He snatches it from her and places it between his teeth while his hands make quick work of his belt and zip, pushing his jeans over his hips and down his thighs. At the same time she lifts herself up and quickly drops her underwear to the floor.

She palms him through his boxers before reaching inside and gripping him. He was bigger than she thought he would be, pre-cum already glistening at the slit as her hand works up and down his shaft. He throbs within her grasp, the prominent vein there pulses against her palm. Had she been in any other position, she’d have swiped her tongue over it and relished the first taste of him. Marco ripping the foil packaging open pulls her from her thoughts of having him nudging the back of her throat and she spreads her legs wider, places the heel of her feet on the edge of the desk as he rolls the condom over his length and aligns himself at her core.

“You can still say n-” he doesn’t have time to finish, her feet have locked behind his waist and she’s pushing his hips forward, easing him into her. Marco hisses as she takes him completely inside of her. Her eyes roll and she slowly lays herself back onto the desk. He gazes between the two of them as his cock fills her repeatedly. His hips rolling, pulling out half way before pushing back in again. She bites the back of her hand to stop her noises from escaping. She’s aware the session is almost over if not already and there would no doubt be someone else waiting outside.

The idea that someone was outside gave her a thrill. The idea of being caught or heard was a huge turn on and not one that she expected to have. His thrusts speed up, the sound of their bodies connecting fills the room along with the squeak of the desk as it slowly begins to move. His hands skim over her body, it’s still covered in her dress but he needs something. He wants to familiarize himself with the curves of her body. He moves within her deeply and just the right pace. It’s not a rough fucking but it certainly wouldn’t count as love making.

He stretches her as he buries himself from head to base within her core. He nudges against her walls, hitting points of pleasure that she never even knew she had. Everything about this was unexpected. The excitement of being with her student, especially one like Marco, was thrilling enough as it was let alone the fact that he used her body in ways she never dreamt of. She was by no means a virgin, her previous boyfriends had been good in bed but she’d never felt this sizzle, this desired or turned on by them.

The way Marco looks over her body, his eyes darkening at the sight of his dick sinking deep into her pussy was one that she would keep in her mind for many months to come. “I’m close.” He warns. She tightens her legs around him, pulling him closer to her while he continues to drive himself into her over and over. Her teeth close harder on the back of her hand, her eyes close tightly and she feels her pussy clench around him, tightening with every thrust he does. He cusses as his rhythm increases, his hips bucking quickly as he chases his climax which comes moments later, his movements stopping as he gathers his breath and allows himself to ride out his euphoria. His fingers grip the rubber band of the condom as he pulls out, careful not to allow the condom to slip off. Removing it, he ties the condom and drops it into the bin. “I’ll take it that you’ll no longer need your lessons.” She recovers her panties and steps back into them again. “If you agree to go on a date with me instead?” “We’re doing things in reverse.” She chuckles as she straightens her dress. “Is that a yes?” He asks. “I’d love to.”

________________

Tag list:

@fcbarcelonababes @msgem @carlaimberlain @pollaluci evapr00

#marco asensio one shot #marco asensio oneshot #marco asensio one shot request #marco asensio imagine #marco asensio smut #real madrid fanfiction #real madrid one shots #real madrid smut #real madrid imagine #real madrid one shot request #football fanfic #football one shot #football fanfiction #football imagine #football smut #footballer fanfic #footballer fanfiction #footballer one shot #footballer imagine #Footballer oneshots #footballer smut #footballer smut request #soccer fanfiction #soccer one shots #soccer imagine #soccer smut #soccer one shot

[ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes]

Unexpected

Summary: Sebastian travels to Romania to give back to the community. There, he meets two orphans that he can’t leave behind.

Note: This was requested by @raulesparzalover Thank you for the idea!

           Sebastian remembered hearing about the horrible conditions of orphanages in his birth country. It mostly occurred when he was born but his mother often reminded him that despite their tough situation, it could be a lot worse. Fortunately, Sebastian wasn’t one of the abandoned children who managed to evade being placed in orphanages. Instead, they ran the streets and the Bucharest Metro, picking pockets and begging.

           That was all in the nineties. He couldn’t imagine how those kids were living now.

           Sebastian had been itching for a way to give back. He felt like he’d been doing so much work in Hollywood that he was losing sight of what was important. It was easy to donate to charities, he needed to do something more.

           Elizabeta was another actress born in Romania. Chris Hemsworth had worked on a project with her and introduced the two at the premiere.

           It was practically love at first sight. Someone who understood his little Romanian pet names and swears. Finally, he wasn’t the only one reverting to his native tongue in the bedroom either. He loved her beyond belief and felt like he was moments away from proposing to her.

           Elizabeta wanted to tag along on his trip to Romania, but she was tied up in prior engagements. So after a long goodbye at the airport, Sebastian headed back to his homeland for a few weeks.

           He had some connections who would show him around, getting him acclimated to the cities again. He’d visited a few times since he left with his mother for New York. But it had been a while since he’d seen the less fortunate population of the country.

============

           Two days after he arrived, he was introduced to one of the orphanages in Bucharest. His friend said conditions had improved greatly in the turn of the century. There were much fewer kids actually in the system, making it easier to maintain. It was relieving to Sebastian, but at the same time, it was still an orphanage. Kids who were taken away from their parents, kids abandoned by their parents, and kids who lost their parents to death. Their one goal was to find a family who would give them something they’d been lacking for so long.

===========

           “You can’t adopt them all, Sebs.” Elizabeta reminded him over the phone after his first day getting introduced to the children.

           “I know.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s just hard.”

           “What you’re doing is more than enough. I’m sure they're so happy just to have you there for a few days.”

           “Yeah.” He leaned back against the bed. It was late so he could accommodate for the time difference. “My Romanian’s not as good as I thought it was. They have to teach me new words. They laugh at me.” He said sheepishly.

           “That’s adorable. They’re putting you in your place, hotshot.”

           “Mhm, I miss you though. We’ll have to do this again when you have time, you’d love it.”

           “We’ll plan for it.” She agreed. “You should get some rest though. I love you.”

           “I love you too.”

============

           After spending some time in Bucharest, he traveled to Constanța, where he was born. The first day there, he met a set of siblings who seemed to stand out to him. Mostly because the twelve-year-old brother, Petre, looked much like he did when he was younger. He had cobalt blue eyes, brown hair, and a shy demeanor about him. But he seemed protective over his younger sister, Anca who was ten. In fact, he was wary of Sebastian talking to them both at first.

           Through one of the workers, he found out the two had been abandoned by their parents just a few years ago. They’d been through a few foster homes but Anca acted out if she was ever separated from her brother. It seemed clear that they would need to be adopted together, which wasn’t easy especially since they were older

           Over the week Sebastian was there, Anca took a liking to him. She smiled whenever he arrived and urged him to come and play with her. She was fond of puzzles and was clearly intelligent for her age. She went through all the puzzles, mostly because she’d done them multiple times. So Sebastian had to go out and buy her new ones.

           She talked openly to Sebastian, giggling whenever his Romanian faltered. In exchange for helping him with his vocabulary, he taught her some English words.

           All the while, Petre hovered by them, cautious but never getting involved. He was reserved but wouldn’t leave his sister alone with a stranger.

===========

           “Petre, come and help us,” Anca begged one morning as she and Sebastian attempted a new puzzle which was much more difficult than before.

           “No, you can figure it out.” He replied quietly as he flipped through a book nearby.

           “Please?”

           Her older brother sighed and stood up. He walked over and knelt down beside her, keeping his distance from Sebastian. “You need to sort the colors first. Let’s put the blue ones over here.”

           “Sebastian told me the word for blue in English.”

           “You don’t need to learn English, you’re not going to America,” Petre spoke fast as if he wanted to keep Sebastian out of the conversation.

           “It might be helpful one day,” Anca replied stubbornly. “It’s blue.”

           “Petre, what’s the one thing you want in life?” Sebastian asked gently, hoping to get some insight.

           The boy looked skeptical of his intentions. “A home.” He muttered.

           “But you want to…stay with Anca?” Sebastian struggled to find the words. He seriously needed to brush up on his native language.

           “Yes.”

           “I live in New York with my…how do you say it…girlfriend. I’ve been thinking. Maybe you two could come live with us.”

           Anca’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

           Petre didn’t look convinced though. “You’re lying.” He accused.

           “No, I’m not. Would you like to come live with me?”

           “Petre, please.” Anca looked desperate at even an opportunity at adoption.

           It appeared to be difficult for him to say no to his sister. “It’s not easy.”

           “I know it’s not. I’ll have to talk to a…shoot I don’t know how to say that.” He looked through the translator on his phone. “Lawyer. I’ll go back to New York but I’ll adopt you both and have you come to New York.”

           “You won’t give us up?” Petre asked quietly. It seemed his greatest fear was being abandoned again and this time in a foreign country.

           “No, I promise. I’ll give you everything you two want.”

           Anca grinned and hugged Sebastian close. “Thank you.”

===========

           That night, Sebastian had to make the call to Elizabeta. He was sort of dreading it because he wasn’t sure how she would react to such a drastic thing that he didn’t ask her about first.

           “How was today? Did you have fun?”

           “Yeah, uh, listen…I may or may not have adopted two kids.”

           The other end of the line was silent for a moment. “You’re kidding right?”

           “No.”

           “Sebastian Stan, you adopted kids without asking me?” She demanded. “What in the world…oh my God.”

           “I’m sorry, I know I should’ve asked you first but it’s those two siblings I was telling you about. I can’t leave them here.”

           Elizabeta sighed. “I should’ve known you were going to do this.”

           “You’re not mad at me, are you?” He winced.

           “No…I’m just trying to figure out how much time I have to renovate the guest room and the study.”

           Sebastian grinned. “I love you.”

           “Mmf, don’t you dare adopt any more kids. We only have room for two. I’m still sort of pissed.”

           “Anca sort of looks like you. And Petre looks like me when I was younger.”

           “Well, it’s hard being upset at you. I guess we’ll have to figure out the process of all of this.”

           “If you call my lawyer I’m sure she can walk us through it.”

           “Alright…you need to call your mother though. I should call mine and tell her I’m about to have two kids.”

           “You’re going to love them, I promise.”

           “I trust you. But next time I get to make the big decision without telling you.”

           “Deal.”

==========

           “Mama, guess what?”

           “What?” Georgeta was happy to hear from her son.

           “You’re going to be a grandmother.”

           She gasped. “I am? Elizabeta is pregnant?”

           He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “No, we actually adopted from Constanța.”

           “You did?” She seemed overwhelmed with joy. “Oh, my perfect angel, you’re too good for this world.” She gushed.

           “I’ll send you a picture of them. I can’t wait for you to meet them.”

============

           A few months later, Elizabeta and Sebastian were waiting by the foreign flight's exit. Thankfully, Elizabeta had completely warmed up to the idea of suddenly being a mother to two kids, especially after seeing a picture of them. Unfortunately, they had to jump through some legal hoops and paperwork to adopt Petre and Anca and bring them over to the states. But Sebastian knew it would be worth it.

           “Oh my God, there they are.” Elizabeta gasped.

           Anca spotted Sebastian and ran to him, her backpack bouncing up and down. “Tati!” She launched herself into his arms.

           “Fiică!” He exclaimed and hugged her close. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

           Sebastian and Elizabeta worked on their Romanian so they could easily start to teach the two English and make them feel more at home.

           “This is Elizabeta, you can call her mamă.” Sebastian set her down so she could meet her.

           Elizabeta immediately started to cry and knelt down to see her. She touched her cheeks. “You’re so beautiful.”

           “Petre.” Sebastian smiled when he saw the timid boy.

           He walked over and set down his bag. He had tears in his eyes as he hugged Sebastian tightly. “Thank you.”

           “Come, come, come.” Elizabeta drew Petre over to her next and enveloped the two siblings into her arms. “Look at you two, beautiful. I love you so much.” She gushed and kissed them both on the cheeks over and over again.

           It certainly wasn’t what Sebastian planned, but sometimes life was better when lived spontaneously.

Translations: 

Tati: Daddy

Fiică: Daughter

mamă: Mother

Masterlist

#Sebastian Stan #sebastian stan fanfiction #sebastian stan fic #sebastian stan x ofc #romania #Marvel rpf #marvel fanfiction #Marvel actor rpf #marvel actor fanfiction #Actor rpf #actor fanfiction #rpf #fanfiction #fic

[xhxhxhx]

I first met Orde Wingate in James Barr’s A Line in the Sand (Bloomsbury, 2011), where he’s introduced as a “young, well-connected and faintly unhinged army officer” who had just been assigned to Palestine:

He admired the Jews’ industry (a Jew was ‘worth twenty, thirty or even a hundred’ Arabs, he believed) and he instinctively sympathised with their predicament because he had been an outsider all his life. The son of Plymouth Brethren, he had been ostracised at boarding school where, as a day-boy who disliked team sports, he acquired the nickname ‘Stinker’. It was only after he scraped into officer training that he realised he could turn his unsettling, cadaverous looks to his advantage – when he was challenged to run the gauntlet of his fellow cadets naked, Wingate walked up to each in turn and dared them to strike him, and thus made it through untouched. ‘He had fiery, searching, unsmiling eyes – extraordinary deep-set eyes that penetrated into your inner being in such a way that you could not conceal the slightest of your facial movements or say a single superfluous word,’ said David Hacohen, the man who had built Tegart’s fence. ‘He was fanatical,’ recalled the man who had shared an office with him in Jerusalem. ‘I liked him very much. I got on very well with him. But I must admit he was a fanatic.’

He requested permission to set up ‘Special Night Squads’ with British soldiers and Jewish auxiliaries to police the rebellious Arabs:

Fit, working in silence and trained in ambush tactics, they would try ‘to persuade the gangs that, in their predatory raids, there is every chance of their running into a Government gang which is determined to destroy them, not by an exchange of shots at a distance, but by bodily assault with bayonet and bomb’.

Wingate did not think it would take long to persuade the Arab gang-leaders to stay in at night. ‘In person they are feeble and their whole theory of war is to cut and run. Like all ignorant and primitive people they are especially liable to panic.’ Once the threat of the gangs had gone, the villagers would have no excuse for silence. At that point, Wingate argued, the British could more reasonably put the villages under pressure, because non-cooperation could only imply complicity with the gangs.

In 1938, the first Special Night Squads were set up. One of the Jewish recruits was the young Moshe Dayan, who thought Wingate -- who was now teaching himself Hebrew using the Bible -- rather strange:

[Dayan] was both inspired and intimidated by Wingate, who initially addressed his recruits in broken Hebrew, revolver in one hand, Bible in the other. ‘After a while we asked him to switch to English,’ said Dayan, ‘since we had difficulty in following his strange Hebrew accent and could understand only the recognisable biblical quotations in our language.’

In June 1938, the Squads began their raids, and Wingate went with them:

He struck one member of his squad across the face with a stick when the man failed to shoot an Arab horseman silhouetted against the skyline. On another occasion he interrogated one of four captured Arabs by choking him with a handful of grit and sand he had scooped up from the ground. When his prisoner still refused to talk, he turned to one of the Jewish recruits. ‘Shoot this man,’ he ordered, but the recruit hesitated. ‘Did you hear? Shoot him.’ The recruit did as he was told. Wingate turned to the three surviving detainees. ‘Now speak!’ he bellowed. Back at camp, Wingate’s men were bemused by his behaviour. He would sit in his tent naked, reading the Bible and scrubbing himself with a brush, or eating a raw onion as if it were an apple.

After a failed attack on an Arab gang in July 1938 -- Wingate had set up ambushes around the wrong village -- the Squads were disbanded. At this point, Wingate disappears from Barr’s narrative. He does not reappear. 

Today, however, Wingate returned to me, in Artemis Cooper’s Cairo in the War (Hamish Hamilton, 1989): 

In the summer of 1941, a remarkable soldier mounted a campaign against the formidable bureaucracy of GHQ, a campaign that nearly culminated in his own death. The imperfect instrument of a severe Puritan God, who had marked him for great things, Charles Orde Wingate had first come to Wavell’s attention in Palestine in 1936. The latter thought him brilliant but dangerous, with his passionate Zionist opinions which echoed the thunder of the Old Testament; and, like all fanatics, Wingate was short on both tact and humour.

In 1940, to increase pressure on the Italians in Abyssinia, Wavell asked Orde Wingate to organise assistance to the supporters of Haile Selassie. From a base in Khartoum, Wingate managed to form his unit, with little help from an obstinate and sluggish military administration. He was a difficult man whose eccentricities were famous: he carried an alarm clock rather than a watch so as to time appointments, and instead of taking baths to keep clean he brushed himself all over with a hairbrush.

By January 1941, his mixed band of Sudanese, Ethiopian and British troops named ‘Gideon Force’ was ready; and, accompanied by Haile Selassie, they crossed the frontier into Abyssinia. As Gideon Force made its way over the mountains, Italian garrisons fell and patriots flocked to the Emperor. It was a brilliant military operation, which enabled Haile Selassie to return to Addis Ababa in triumph at the head of his troops.

[Wingate had wanted to call his Palestinian Special Night Squads ‘Gideon Force’ too -- he even set himself up in Ein Harod, where Gideon had picked the three hundred men who would scatter the Midianites -- but the higher-ups hadn’t allowed it.]

Apart from the addition of a bar to the DSO he had won in Palestine, the congratulations of Wingate’s superiors were brief. In Harar, he was told that Gideon Force was to be disbanded. He appeared to take the news calmly, and said he would return to Cairo to lobby for permission to raise a Jewish army in Palestine.

In June 1941, GHQ was still recovering from the three defeats of Cyrenaica, Greece and Crete. No one had time for the guerilla hero of Abyssinia. He was ordered to revert to the rank of major; and, when he tried to get the allowances due to his volunteer soldiers in Gideon Force, he was informed that this was not possible because the claims had not been submitted at the correct time. The final straw was to be told that, because his men fought behind enemy lines, they did not qualify as ‘a unit in the field’.

What happened next was gracefully passed over by Wavell, when he came to write up Wingate’s life for the Dictionary of National Biography; but the incident is described at length in Christopher Sykes’s book. Sykes was well-placed to find out about it, for one of those involved in the story was his old boss Colonel Thornhill, for whom he had worked in SOE. Thornhill was an amiable, indiscreet man who was often to be found propping up the bar in Shepheard’s or the Continental, and who had been so disastrously involved in the Aziz el Masri affair.

Wingate took a room in the Continental Hotel. There he wrote a blistering report on the treatment of Gideon Force, and how it had been hampered and obstructed by those he chose to call the ‘military apes’. It did not make him any friends at GHQ, and Wavell – though he sided with Wingate on the subject of allowances – was heard to say that the report might almost justify placing him under arrest for insubordination.

Wingate was now seriously ill with malaria, but would not see an army doctor for fear of being relegated to a staff job. However, he did manage to visit a local doctor, who prescribed a drug called atabrine to reduce his temperature. He over-dosed himself liberally which inflamed his nerves, already ragged from brooding alone in his room. In the struggles he had had to set up Gideon Force, and the way the military administration had dealt with it, he saw a plot to absorb Ethiopia into the British Empire. It was too late to do anything. He had failed himself, his men, the Emperor Haile Selassie, and God.

On the afternoon of 4 July Wingate’s temperature stood at 104° and he had run out of pills. He made his way out of the hotel in an effort to find the doctor and get some more atabrine, but so feverish was he that he could not remember the way, and thought he was going mad. He went back to the Continental, and decided to kill himself. On the way to his room, Wingate met the floor steward who brought him his food; and rather than arouse the man’s suspicions, he closed but did not lock the door to his room. He had already stabbed his throat once with his hunting knife when he staggered back to the door, locked it, and then returned to the bathroom to try again. He plunged the knife into what he hoped was the jugular, and then collapsed on the floor.

As luck would have it, the next door room was occupied by the inquisitive Colonel Thornhill. Having heard a number of very strange noises coming through the wall, Thornhill knocked on Wingate’s door. There was no answer. Thornhill alerted the manager. With the master key they got in, and Wingate was rushed to the 15th Scottish Hospital. He was operated on immediately and, thanks to Thornhill and the surgeon’s skill, his life was saved.

The story provoked mixed reactions at GHQ; but as one brigadier put it, whether he was court-martialled or put in a lunatic asylum the career of the troublesome Major Wingate was over. Major Simonds, who had been part of Gideon Force, visited Wingate in hospital and asked the reason for his attempted suicide. The reply was: ‘I did it to call attention to our wrongs.’

There was a verandah at the end of the ward and, as Wingate became stronger, he walked up and down it of an evening. Once, he heard a woman call him by name from the private wing. It was Pistol-Packing Mary Newall, whose No. 11 Convoy was soon to be amalgamated into the ATS. She was in hospital with duodenal ulcers.

In her straightforward, no-nonsense way, she told him that there had been a suicide in her own family; and that if he wanted to talk, he should talk to her. From then on Orde Wingate spent many hours sitting with Mrs Newall, talking and reading his Bible aloud. ‘Isn’t that marvellous?’ said Wingate, as he finished reading the Book of Job. ‘I don’t know,’ said Mrs Newall. ‘I’ve been asleep for the last half hour.’ Since she had many visitors, Wingate began to meet people again. His spirits lightened, and he began to feel that God had forgiven him. One visitor was rather taken aback, however, when Wingate remarked that anyone who wanted to slit their own throat should have a hot bath first, otherwise – as he had found – the muscles would be too tense to cut.

What a character! What a lunatic!

#t

[thetimetravellinggaybar]

Chapter 4: Bosom Friends (second draft)

The women’s bathroom was overrun.

It was pandemonium, it was cacophony. It was confusion all around. Those at the center of the crowd - though the crowd itself could not have been larger than ten or fifteen strong - found themselves lost and tossed about by the surges of the mass. Everyone was talking. Yells and queries bounced off the walls unanswered, in what sounded like every language under the sun. Heads and bodies turned every which way, thumping against the doors of bathroom stalls and tripping over each other in the tangles of entropy.

Stunned, some had only begun to turn to each other, looking for a familiar face. But in a corner, what had been a whisper had now escalated to shrieks and giggles. Two women - one in a plain white dress and the other with exotic flowers in her hair - were in the middle of an animated discussion.

The more colourfully bedecked had introduced herself first - after a futile attempt in Spanish, which garnered only a reply in confused German, the two found common ground in their knowledge of Russian.

The plainer-dressed lady smiled. “Frida. What a beautiful name that is.”

“My given name was Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, if it pleases you to know.”

“God, how bourgeois.”

Both laughed.

“And you?”

“Rosa. Rosa Luxemburg.”

“I suppose your parents were revolutionaries.” Frida grinned.

Rosa looked skeptical. “I wouldn’t say so. Though my father had a penchant for liberalism.”

“But the name? They must have realized?” Kahlo looked surprised.

“I’m sorry? The name?”

“Rosa Luxemburg! Hero of the proletarian cause, martyr of socialism! Among the greatest theorists, philosophers, economists - ”

Rosa looked away awkwardly. “Well, I suppose I do have admirers.”

Frida grew pale, eyes widening. “Rosa?”

“Yes?”

“When were you born?”

Rosa giggled uncomfortably. “Erm, the fifth of March, 1871. Why?”

“And what year is it now?”

“1919. Are you alright?”

“Holy Mother of God.”

“I’m sorry… I don’t understand… ”

“Rosa, I don’t know what has happened,” began Frida, “but this… this is the year 1950.”

“I don’t…”

“Something has gone terribly wrong.” Frida was solemn.

There was a moment of silence.

Then - Rosa reached out, grabbed Frida’s hand.

“The Civil War,” she gasped. “Is it over?”

“The… oh, that’s right. The Russian Civil War. Is that what you mean?”

“Has it ended?” Rosa’s eyes were wide.

“Yes, yes. The Reds triumphed. In 1922, if I remember correctly.”

“Goodness, this is an odd conversation to be having.” Rosa was glowing with excitement. “And Lenin leads the Party?”

Frida grimaced. “Not any longer. He died in 1924.”

“So soon!”

“Unfortunately. His successor is Stalin - do you remember him? Iosif Dzhugashvili? The outlaw from Pravda.”

“Yes, of course.”

“He has been horribly cruel. Torture even to read about. But he won the war.”

“The war?”

Kahlo’s eyes were ablaze. “God, this is going to be fun.”

Meanwhile, a slight woman in a black suit squirmed her way out of the squalor. Standing by the door, she clapped her hands, cleared her throat.

“Excuse me! Excuse me! My name is Virginia - ”

She was ignored. Spotting the enamel ledge where the sinks were placed, she tried to clamber up, reaching for an air of authority, something that would would attract attention... suddenly she wavered, the heels of her shoes slipping on the smooth surface. She gasped, flung an arm out in an attempt to stay balanced, but it was no use. She was about to scream and fall when a hand caught her from behind, helping her up.

From her new vantage point, Virginia looked down at her unnamed savior. “Thank you,” she breathed, relieved and astonished.

“You are very welcome.” This guardian angel had a marked French accent. She gestured to the crowd. “Go on, ze floor is yours! Friends, Romans, Countrymen...”

Virginia giggled, then did as suggested.

“Everyone, please!” she began. “Please listen! We need to organize ourselves!”

“Revolution!” Frida yelled. There were a few laughs.

“Does anyone know where we are?” Virginia went on.

“A bathroom.”

“Not the cleanest.”

“God knows how we got here.”

“We can’t all have been blind drunk.”

“Were we drugged?”

“She has a point.”

“Kidnappers?”

“I’m sorry, but - ”

Virginia struggled to orient herself amid the sea of voices. The scene was one of the most exotic she had ever witnessed; the crowd of women stood before her, a display of the most wild variety. Some wore lavish dresses, others jackets and trousers. One in the corner boasted the most extravagantly colourful attire Virginia had ever seen; dialects and accents of all sorts fought a fierce battle to the death.

Virginia had never even imagined such a range of cultures or personalities in such a small space - and she was quite the cosmopolitan, for her time.

“Does everyone here speak English?” she asked loudly, before realizing the futility of such a question. She reformulated: “Will everyone who speaks English step forward, please!”

Most shuffled forward. A few remained standing where they were, looking baffled. Beside Virginia, the lady who had broken her fall so soon before shot her a resigned grin. “I suppose I do. Rustily at best…”

“Alright. We may have to leave the rest of you for the moment… ” Virginia scanned the ranks of those who had stood still. “I do apologize. As for all of you,” she went on, gesturing to the women who had stepped forward, “could any of you - and if you could avoid drowning each other out, we must be civil - could any of you tell me who you are, and perhaps where it is we’ve all found ourselves, if any of you have any idea?”

“I… Miss Cather. Miss Willa Cather,” piped up a young lady in a brown dress. “I don’t know where we are. Or how I got here, either.”

“Marsha, Marsha P. Johnson. Looks like some sort of a public toilet,” another woman agreed, peering into one of the stalls. “There’s a door over there, too. Wonder if there’s somebody outside who could tell us where we are? Shall we go out and have a look?”

“Wait!” Virginia frowned. “Let’s not be too quick about this. Where did you all come from? Do you know how you got here?”

“I was just walking down the street. And then all of a sudden, I wasn’t.”

“Waiting for a train… ”

“I opened the back door and here I was.”

Virginia sighed. “Seems we’re all in the same fix, then. As for myself, I only stepped out for a moment into the hall, and all of a sudden…” she waved a hand at her surroundings. There was a pause, as each woman fell into thought.

The kind, accented woman beside Virginia finally broke the silence. “Shall we not introduce ourselves? We may be here, ah, a long time. I am Simone - Simone de Beauvoir, if you prefer, but Simone alone is perfect.”

“De Beauvoir,” whispered a starstruck Virginia. Blue blood, she thought.

“Pardon?” Simone smiled up at her. Virginia crouched awkwardly so the two were nearly eye to eye, then positioned herself so as to be able to sit down on the enamel ledge.

“Are you - you will excuse me - are you from France, madam?” she asked.

“Madam! Ha! Yes, I am Parisian heart and soul, but make no mistake! I am a mademoiselle, and forever I will be.”

“Oh, please do forgive me,” Virginia apologized, reddening. Then she raised an eyebrow. “You say forever… a vow of maidenhood? You don’t strike me as the type.”

“Marriage is impossible for me,” shrugged Simone; Virginia smiled at that. “Et vous? Do you speak French? I have forgotten your name, how terrible,” the Frenchwoman went on.

“Oh dear, it’s no issue. I’m afraid my French may not be the most impressive, but I’ll have a go at it. As for my name - Virginia Woolf.” she extended a hand. “Enchantée.”

“Like the writer,” smiled de Beauvoir, switching to French. “How lovely. Come to think of it, you look like her as well.”

“I don’t believe I know of any other writer by my name…” Woolf hesitated. “Perhaps you are mistaken… unless you would care to enlighten me?”

“Ah, the Virginia Woolf? You do not know her? What a woman! You have not heard of her? Are you quite certain? Oh, you know… Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway… I don’t care much for The Waves, but I’m very, very fond of her book on Elizabeth Barrett Browning.”

“Excuse me - ” Virginia cut in, close to laughing. “Those are my books. I am that writer.”

“Virginia Woolf is dead,” frowned Simone, though with a certain measure of self-doubt.

“I certainly hope not,” giggled Virginia, now thoroughly baffled. “Who told you such a thing? I am alive, I am sitting here, wherever I am...”

“It is the year nineteen sixty-seven…” Simone hesitated.

“It is not.”

“I am sure it is. It must be.”

Virginia furrowed her eyebrows. “And I am sure it is only nineteen forty - ”

“Is it... possible?” Simone interrupted her with a gasp.

“Is what possible?”

“One of us - or perhaps both of us - has… has separated from the timeline of our existence.”

“Oh. Oh, my goodness.”

“The question is - ”

“How?” wondered Virginia wide-eyed. “And why us?”

“The question is, where… when are we?”

Both gaped. For all their questions, they hadn’t an answer between them.

Meanwhile, the room had reverted to its former chaos. In the corner, Frida was still busy with the task of recounting the last half-decade’s history to her newfound comrade.

Trotsky - Lenin’s confidant? You know of him - he was exiled - ”

“Good god, why?”

“Stalin became paranoid. Some - myself included - believe has forsaken the socialist cause.”

“And to think I had so much hope.” Rosa sighed.

“But Russia is not finished! Stalin will die eventually, we all know that. Besides, the struggle is being carried out elsewhere! International Socialism is upon us!” Kahlo became agitated. “It has expanded to China! A nationwide revolution only last year! And Syria, and Southeast Asia - already Vietnam and Indonesia have declared themselves partisans to the cause! And South America, of course…”

“South America!” gasped Rosa.

Frida grinned. “Oh, yes! In Argentina and Bolivia, the governments themselves are involved! Here in Mexico, it is only a revolutionary movement, but it is vast.”

“Mexico?”

“Oh. Did you not leave Berlin?”

“Not recently. There have been conflicts. I haven’t had a moment’s peace.”

“And until a moment ago I was certain I had not left Coyoacán… where are we?”

The two heard a sound from the front of the room, and looked up. Virginia had begun to manoeuvre herself upright again. For a moment she wavered, and there again was Simone, reaching out to support her, an anxious look crossing her face. For a moment they touched, their fingers brushed lightly - and Virginia surprised herself with a blush. Something about that woman got to her.

She straightened and rapped the heel of her shoe on the enamel of the sink, silencing the crowd - at least to an extent.

“Among those of you who do speak English,” she began, “could any of you tell me, by any chance, what year this is?”

Discord rang out. Virginia nodded, in hesitant understanding.

“Do you know what this means?” she whispered, in French, looking back at Simone.

“The phenomenology of time… the fundamental mode of transcendence… I have a friend who writes about such things.”

“What year is this?”

“I… I’m afraid I can’t say. How bizarre this all is...” Simone giggled, then gestured to the door. “Shall we have a look outside?”

“Why not?” Virginia turned again to the crowd: “We have been… transported away from our time… or times. I’m sure you have all figured out something along those lines? Simone and I propose, on a bit of a whim, that we go out through that door… if the plan agrees with everyone - ” she paused. “Let’s all go out together. Try to keep an eye on somebody you can recognize. Don’t lose the group. Alright?”

There was a murmur of assent. Those nearest the exit pushed open the door and stepped, cautious but intrigued, out of the bar bathroom.

Then Simone held out a hand, to assist Virginia back to firm ground. Still holding hands - neither quite willing to let go of the other - they followed the crowd out into the brilliant, dazzling lights and sounds of a brave new world.

#timetravellinggaybar #gay #fanfiction #sci fi & fantasy #virginia woolf #simone de beauvoir #frida kahlo #communism #marxist #history #marsha p johnson #willa cather #gay writers #lgbt history #history is gay #rpf #collaborative novel

[theindiapost]

“I consider all our languages as national languages”: Sri Guruji Golwalkar

The Breaking India Brigade has been propagating falsehoods and canards that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) insists that Hindi is the only national language and the organisation wants to 'impose' Hindi on non-Hindi speaking population. The RSS has always been clear that all Bharatiya languages are national languages. The second Sarsanghchalak of RSS, Sri Guruji Golwalkar had shared his views on ‘The Language Problem’ in two interviews to Organiser, published in December 1957 and October 1967. Here is the full interview of Sri Guruji, reproduced from the Organiser Archives: The Language Problem (With the Special Correspondent, Organiser, December 1957) Q : Which should be our national language? A : I consider all our languages as national languages. They are equally our national heritage. Hindi is one among them which, by virtue of its countrywide usage, has been adopted as the State Language. It will be wrong to describe Hindi alone as the national language and others as provincial languages. That would not be seeing things in the right perspective. Q : Some time back Dr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar ridiculed Hindi publicly. He said Hindi had but two great books – Tulsi Ramayana and the Railway Time Table. Sardar Panikkar repeated Dr. C. P. with approval. A : Only people ignorant of Hindi can ridicule it so. This tendency of mocking at other languages must stop. Some time back Ram Ganesh Gadkari, a prominent Marathi dramatist, made one of his characters say : “Southern languages, Put some pebbles in a tin can and shake it vigorously, and you hear those languages.” Now this was no doubt said in fun. But I think such fissiparous fun is no good for the country. Q : Some people feel that the rise of Hindi will eclipse their mother tongues. A : I do not think so. For example, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi and Telgu flourished even under English hegemony. With the rise of Hindi these languages will flourish further, and in turn enrich Hindi also. Why should Bengalis fear Hindisation of Bengali? For the last twenty years Bengali has been Urduised. For ‘morning’, ‘prabhate’ has increasingly yielded place to ‘phajare’. But I am yet to hear a Bengali protest. Why then should they be allergic to Hindi? Some time back in Madurai an advocate told me that Hindi would hurt Tamil. I asked him how, but he could not explain. I asked him why he used English and not Tamil in the district court, which was permitted. Again he had no reply. I told him the enemy of Tamil was not Hindi, rather English was the enemy of both. Q : Don’t you think four languages – mother tongue, Hindi, Sanskrit and English – are too many? They consume at least half the student’s time. A : That is so. But I think the most dispensable of the four is English. It should not be a compulsory language. The present confusion will abate and eventually end if the Government takes a firm decision, sticks to it, and implements it quickly. The present indecision is only strengthening English. Today more children are going to convent schools than perhaps ever before. Some people have begun to openly urge that ‘English should be the lingua franca of India’. The Government will undermine public confidence if it takes a shifty stand on this key issue of State Language. In the old Madhya Pradesh the Education Department was conducting its business in Hindi and Marathi. But after the formation of bigger Bombay, the Marathi areas of former M.P. have reverted to English! This is hardly the way to replace English as the State Language by 1965 – the time limit set by the Constitution for complete change-over. There must be some consistency between the declared policy and programme to implement it. Q : Rajaji says if Hindi is adopted as State Language, non-Hindi speakers will be reduced to second class citizenship. A : Nothing of the kind. They pick up languages quickly. What language do South Indians speak when they visit Kashi or Prayag? Is it not some sort of Hindi? Q : Are not most of these pilgrims Brahmins? A : No! They are predominantly others and the puja saamagri of sandal paste, flowers and dhoop offered in Kashi Vishwanath temple every day is supplied by an organization of Nottcotee Chettiars of Tamilnadu. Q : Rajaji says English is equally foreign to all of us, and therefore its continuation as State Language would be just and fair to all. A : Since it is equally foreign to us all, it should be equally discarded by all. It is equally unfair and unjust to all. If these leaders advocated the adoption of Tamil as State Language it would be more understandable. They could say it is much richer and much older. There would be some justification for it. But English is a counsel of despair. Q : What is the explanation for eminent leaders talking like this? A : Two explanations are possible. Either they are trying to take the wind out of DMK sails or it is a bait to appeal to man’s parochialism, and capture political power on that basis. In the former case the attempt cannot but fail. Rajaji is only lending respectability to DMK ideas. Secondly threatening that if Hindi is introduced the country will further sub-divided, is political blackmail. By such talk he is only strengthening the forces of disruption. Q : Would it be advisable to introduce bilingualism of Hindi and English for some years, after Hindi is made the State Language in 1965? A : No. Let us have bilingualism now, for some years before 1965. Actually we should have had it by now. Q : Perhaps some people in the South think that replacement of English will put them at a disadvantage in the matter of recruitment to services, since they are good at English, but would take long to be equally good at Hindi. A : In the first instance it is not correct to say that the South is particularly good at English. Most of the 1% in this country, who are supposed to know English, speak an English which hardly deserves to be known by that name – and the South is no exception. I have no doubt that once the Government takes a firm decision in this regard, the South will take less than ten years to pick up Hindi. Already the servants and hamalis have changed over from ‘two pice’ to ‘do paisa’. But what do politicians care for humble folk like that? Q : But will they be able to speak and write Hindi as well as the Hindi-speakers? A : Why not? It is erroneous to think that the type of Hindi which is going to be the State Language is the Hindi which is the mother tongue of 15-20 crores. Nothing of the kind. All these people are speaking all kinds of variants of Hindi. The standard Sanskritised Hindi will be the Union Language. To that extent everybody can learn it with equal ease. You may be surprised to know, that even the students of Hindi from South speak and write chaste Hindi than those from North. Q : Would you entertain a demand for reservation of jobs for non-Hindi-speakers, to allay their fears? A : Such a course is unnecessary and undesirable. It strikes at the unity of the nation. I know they can effectively compete with Hindi-speakers. In any case, proficiency in Hindi would not be required of them. Other things being equal, they would need only a working knowledge of Hindi to enter Central Services. Whatever handicap is there can be further reduced by adopting a common Sanskrit vocabulary for all technical terms. Also the adoption of a uniform script for all our languages would bring them closer. I say they can pick up much more Hindi than English if only they devoted to it half the time they devote to English. Q : The protagonists of English say that it is the language of international commerce and diplomacy. A : Not quite. English is the predominant language of only one power bloc. And, anyway, let those who need to, learn English on their own. Why should every schoolboy – who will have nothing to do either with high finance or high diplomacy – learn it? Q : Are they likely to find many supporters in other non-Hindi areas like Bengal and Maharashtra? A : No. Mostly ‘elderly liberals’, who still believe in the beneficence of British rule, will join them. They are too much rooted in their own particular past to outgrow it. Q : The Prime Minister says the Government must secure unanimous agreement for the introduction of Hindi. A : But they did not consult anybody when they nationalized life insurance! They are pressing ahead with Gramadan also. But neither the Congress Election Manifesto nor the Parliament enactments say anything about it (With the Editor, Organiser, October 1967) Q : What do you think of the language policy of the Centre? A : I don’t see any policy anywhere. All I see is drift and indecision. The Government seems to be moving in circles. The other day I was painted to see an article by Shri P. B. Gajendragadkar (vide ‘The Times of India’, Oct. 17, 1967). The last paragraph seemed to endorse separatist trends. He has advocated ‘militant response’ in the event of Hindi being introduced in the universities and courts. Q : Do you regard Education Minister Shri Triguna Sen’s formula of education at all levels in the mother tongue as good and reasonable? A : I do. It is the obvious thing to do. It should have been done long ago. As for the problem of students shifting from university to university, after all, what is their number? Q : What happens in the case of a state whose own language is not developed enough to serve as medium for higher education? For example, Kashmiri is not the medium in Kashmir even for primary education. A : In such cases the state can decide whether Hindi or any other Indian language shall serve as its medium. But I have no doubt that all the four Southern languages are developed enough to serve as media for higher education. Much of the trouble will be over if a common vocabulary of technical words derived from Sanskrit is introduced in all the languages. There will be no harm in accepting foreign terms where local ones cannot be easily coined. Q : Why did Shri E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker of Dravida Kazhagam say Tamil is a “barbaric tribal language”? A : Only EVR can tell that. Q : Some say Sanskrit should be the link language. Is it not a welcome suggestion? A : If all those who oppose Hindi are agreed on Sanskrit, I will be supremely happy. But the trouble is that those people who have suddenly discovered the virtues of Sanskrit are not sincere about it. I am afraid they are using that argument as a delaying tactic. Q : Shri Annadurai, Chief Minister of Madras, said the other day that Hindi should not be a compulsory subject because not many have occasion to use it when they grow up. A : That is true, but there is another side to this matter. A little knowledge of Hindi by all Indians will help to foster a sense of integration and feeling of brotherliness. Q : Perhaps common text-books in different languages will also help integration. A : But even more important is the content of those books. Our history books are particularly deficient in this respect. They centre round Pataliputra and then stick to Delhi – as though the rest of the country didn’t matter. How many of even our graduates know the greatness of Cholas and Pandyas and Pulakeshin? Except for Vijayanagar, very little is taught about the history of the South. Take again, the Eastern Bharat. Kharavela was a great king of Utkal. He carried his flag across the seas to Indonesia. But how many Indian scholars have even heard of his name? When you go south and see the huge temples there you realize the great culture behind them. But how many know anything about them? Q : One objection to Hindi is that it will put non-Hindi people at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the Hindi people. A : By and large, this is a misconceived objection. Fact is that Khari Boli which has come to be accepted as ‘Hindi’ is the mother-tongue of only a few millions in the Delhi-Meerut area. Most of the other so-called Hindi people do not speak Khari Boli in their homes. They speak a variety of languages ranging from Pahari to Rajasthani and from Avadhi to Magadhi, Braj and Maithili. They all have to learn Hindi as much as any Bengali or Maharashtrian or Andhra or Malayali. Q : What do you think of the proposed Official Language Bill? It gives a veto to every state over the change-over from English to Hindi. A : At this rate why not give a veto to every citizen? It is a case of tyranny of the few over the many. I am surprised that the English press, controlled by Indian businessmen, should be so hostile to Indian languages. Q : Could this be an extension of their business collaboration with foreigners? A : I will not be surprised. Q : Is there any necessity of making Hindi the national language of our country? A : Why? Hindi is not the only national language in our country. All the languages of this country, which have expressed the same great thoughts of our culture, are cent per cent national. The only thing is, in such a vast country as ours we need one Vyavahaara Bhaashaa, a link language, to replace English which is undoubtedly a foreign tongue. Read the full article

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NCERT Class 12 English Chapter 5 Indigo

 NCERT Class 12 English :: Chapter 5 Indigo

(English Flamingo Prose)

QUESTIONS FROM TEXTBOOK SOLVED:

THINK AS YOU READ Q1. Strike out what is not true in the following:(a)Rajkumar Shukla was:(i)a sharecropper (ii)a politician(iii)delegate (iv)a landlord.(b) Rajkumar Shukla was:(i) poor (ii)physically strong(iii) illiterate.Ans: (a) (ii) a politician(b) (ii) physically strong

Q2. Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being ‘resolute’?Ans: He had come all the way from Champaran district in the foothills of Himalayas to Lucknow to speak to Gandhi. Shukla accompanied Gandhi everywhere. Shukla followed him to the ashram near Ahmedabad. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side till Gandhi asked him to meet at Calcutta.

Q3. Why do you think the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant?Ans: Shukla led Gandhi to Rajendra Prasad’s house. The servants knew Shukla as a poor yeoman. Gandhi was also clad in a simple dhoti. He was the companion of a peasant. Hence, the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant.

THINK AS YOU READQ1. List the places that Gandhi visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at Champaran.Ans: Gandhi’s first meeting with Shukla was at Lucknow. Then he went to Cawnpore and other parts of India. He returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Later he went to Calcutta, Patna and Muzaffarpur before arriving at Champaran.

Q2. 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 peasants paid the British landlords indigo as rent. Now Germany had developed synthetic indigo. So, the British landlords wanted money as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The prices of natural indigo would go down due to the synthetic Indigo.

THINK AS YOU READ Q1. The events in this part of the text illustrate Gandhi’s method of working. Can you identify some instances of this method and link them to his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence?Ans: Gandhi’s politics was intermingled with the day-to-day problems of the millions of Indians. He opposed unjust laws. He was ready to court arrest for breaking such laws and going to jail. The famous Dandi March to break the ‘salt law’ is another instance. The resistance and disobedience was peaceful and a fight for truth and justice…This was linked directly to his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence.

THINK AS YOU READQ1. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers?Ans: For Gandhi the amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the landlords had been forced to return part of the money, and with it, part of their prestige too. So, he agreed to settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers.

Q2. How did the episode change the plight of the peasants?Ans: The peasants were saved from spending time and money on court cases. After some years the British planters gave up control of their estates. These now reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXTQ1.Why do you think Gaffdhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning- point in his life?Ans: The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of large number of poor peasants. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. Gandhi admits that what he had done was a very ordinary thing. He declared that the British could not order him about in his own country. Hence, he considered the Champaran episode as a turning- point in his life.

Q2. How was Gandhi able to influence lawyers? Give instances.Ans: Gandhi asked the lawyers what they would do if he was sentenced to prison. They said that they had come to advise him. If he went to jail, they would go home. Then Gandhi asked them about the injustice to the sharecroppers. The lawyers held consultations. They came to the conclusion that it would be shameful desertion if they went home. So, they told Gandhi that they were ready to follow him into jail.

Q3. “What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of ‘home rule’?Ans: The average Indians in smaller localities were afraid to show sympathy for the advocates of home-rule. Gandhi stayed at Muzaffarpur for two days at the home of Professor Malkani, a teacher in a government school. It was an extraordinary thing in those days for a government professor to give shelter to one who opposed the government.

Q4. How do we know that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement?Ans: Professor J.B. Kriplani received Gandhi at Muzaffarpur railway station at midnight. He had a large body of students with him. Sharecroppers from Champaran came on foot and by conveyance to see Gandhi. Muzaffarpur lawyers too called on him. A vast multitude greeted Gandhi when he reached Motihari railway station. Thousands of people demonstrated around the court room. This shows that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement in India.

TALKING ABOUT THE TEXTDiscuss the following:Q1. “Freedom from fear is more important than Legal justice for the poor.”Do you think that the poor of India are free from fear after Independence?Ans: For the poor of India means of survival are far more important than freedom or legal justice. I don’t think the poor of India are free from fear after Independence.The foreign rulers have been replaced by corrupt politicians and self-serving bureaucracy. Power- brokers and moneylenders have a field day. The situation has improved in cities and towns for the poor but the poor in the remote villages still fear the big farmers and moneylenders. The police and revenue officials are still objects of terror for them.The poor, landless workers have to still work hard to make both ends meet. Peasants and tenant-farmers have to borrow money from rich moneylenders on exorbitant rates of interest, which usually they fail to repay due to failure of monsoon or bad crops. Cases of small farmers committing suicide are quite common. If this is not due to fear, what is the reason behind it?

Q2. The qualities of a good leader.Ans: A good leader has a mass appeal. He rises from the masses, thinks for them and works for them. He is sincere in his approach. He is a man of principles. Truth, honesty, patriotism, morality, spirit of service and sacrifice are the hallmarks of a good leader. He never mixes politics with religion or sect. He believes in working for the welfare of the nation and does not think in the narrow terms of class, caste or region. Corruption and nepotism are two evils that surround a leader in power. The life of a good leader is an open book. There is no difference between his words and actions. Such good leaders are very rare. What we find today are practical politicians, who think of achieving their end without bothering about . the purity of means. The law of expediency gets the better of morality.

WORKING WITH WORDS 1.List the words used in the text that are related to legal procedures.For example: depositionAns: Notice, summons, prosecutor, trial, plead, guilty, order, penalty, sentence, bail, judgement, prison, case, inquiry, evidence, commission.•List other words that you know that fall into this category.Ans. Complaint, complainant, decree, defendant, witness, prosecution, defence, sessions, jury, verdict, decision.

THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE Q1. Notice the sentences in the text which are in ‘direct speech’. Why does the author use quotations in his narration?Ans: The following sentences in the text are in ‘direct speech’.(а)He said, “I will tell you how it happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British. It was in 1917.”(b)Gandhi recounted. “A peasant came up to me looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated, and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran, and I want you to come to my district!”(c)Gandhi said, “I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a date. Come and meet me and take me from there”.(d)“It was an extraordinary thing ‘in those days,” Gandhi commented, Tor a government professor to harbour a man like me.’(e)He said, “I have come to the conclusion that we should stop going to law courts. Taking such cases to the courts does little good. Where the peasants are so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear.”(f) “The commissioner,” Gandhi reports, “proceeded to bully me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut”.(g)‘But how much must we pay?’ they asked Gandhi.(h)One woman took Kasturbabai into her hut and said, “Look, there is no box or cupboard here for clothes. The sari I am wearing is the only one I have”.(i) “What I did”, he explained, “was a very ordinary thing. I declared that the British could not order me about in my own country”.(j) He said, “You think that in this unequal fight it would be helpful if we have an Englishman on our side. This shows the weakness of your heart. The cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves to win the battle. You should not seek a prop in Mr ‘ Andrews because he happens to be an Englishman”.(k) “He had read our minds correctly,” Rajendra Prasad comments, “and we had no reply … Gandhi in this way taught uS a lesson in self-reliance”.The choice of the direct form strengthens the effectiveness of narration. The author uses quotations to highlight certain points which may not appear so effective in reporting indirectly.

Q2. Notice the use or non-use of the comma in the following sentences:(a) When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in Sevagram, he told me what happened in Champaran.(b) He had not proceeded far when the police superintendent’s messenger overtook him. (c) When the court reconvened, the judge said he would not deliver the judgement for several days.Ans: (i) When the subordinate clause comes before the main clause, a comma is used to separate it from the main clause.(ii) No comma is used when the main clause comes before the subordinate clause.

THINGS TO DO 1.Choose an issue that has provoked a controversy like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy or the Narmada Dam Project in which the lives of the poor have been affected.2.Find out the facts of the case.3.Present your arguments.4.Suggest a possible settlement.Ans: Extension activity : To be attempted under the guidance of the teacher.

MORE QUESTIONS SOLVED

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONSQ1.Who was Rajkumar Shukla? Why did he come to Lucknow?Ans: Rajkumar Shukla was a poor peasant from Champaran district in Bihar. He had come to Lucknow, where a Congress session was being held, to complain about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar.

Q2. Where is Champaran district situated? What did the peasants grow there? How did they use their harvest?Ans: Champaran district of Bihar is situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal. Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran peasants were sharecroppers. They had to grow indigo on 15 per cent of the land and give it to the English estate owners as rent.

Q3. How did the development of synthetic indigo affect the English estate owners and the Indian tenants?Ans: The English estate owners saw that indigo cultivation was no longer profitable.Ihey wanted money from the sharecroppers as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. They obtained agreements from their tenants to this effect and extorted money illegally and deceitfully.

Q4. How did the Indian peasants react to the new agreement released them from sharecropping arrangement?Ans: The sharecropping arrangement was troublesome to the peasants. Many of them signed the new agreement willingly. Some resisted and engaged lawyers. Then they came to know about synthetic indigo. The peasants wanted their money back.

Q5. Why do you think Gandhi was not permitted to draw water from Rajendra Prasad’s well at Patna?Ans: The servants of Rajendra Prasad thought Gandhi to be another peasant. They did not know him. They were not certain whether he was an untouchable or not. They feared that some drops from his bucket might pollute the entire well. So, he was not permitted to draw water from the well.

Q6. Why did Gandhi decide to go first to Muzaffarpur before going to Champaran:Ans: Gandhi wanted to obtain more complete information about conditions than Shukla was capable of imparting. Muzaffarpur lawyers, who frequently represented peasant groups in courts, brief Gandhi about their cases.

Q7. Why did Gandhi chide the lawyers? What according to him was the real relief for the sharecroppers?Ans: Gandhi chided the lawyers for collecting big fee from the poor sharecroppers. He thought that taking such cases to the court did little good to the crushed and fear-stricken peasants. The relief for them, according to Gandhi, was to be free from fear.

Q8. How did Ga n dhi begin his mission in Champaran ? How far did his efforts prove successful ?Ans: He began by trying to get the facts. First, he visited the secretary of the British landlord’s association. He told Gandhi that they could give no information to an outsider. Then Gandhi called on the British official commissioner of the Tirhut Division. The commissioner tried to bully Gandhi and advised him to leave Tirhut.

Q9. How did Gandhi react to the commissioner’s advice? Where did he go and how did people react to his arrival?Ans: Gandhiji did not leave Tirhut division. Instead, he went to Motihari, the capital of Champaran. Several lawyers accompanied him. At the railway station, a very large crowd of people greeted Gandhi.

Q10. Where did Gandhiji want to go? What happened to him on the way? Ans: Gandhiji wanted to go to a nearby village where a peasant had been maltreated. He had not gone far when the police superintendent’s messenger overtook him and ordered him to return to town in his carriage. Gandhiji obeyed the order and returned with him.

Q11. ‘In consequence, Gandhi received a summons to appear in the court next day.’Which events of the previous day led to this state of affairs?Ans: The police superintendent’s messenger served an official notice on Gandhi. It ordered him to quit Champaran immediately. Gandhi signed a receipt for the notice. He wrote on the receipt that he would disobey the order. Hence, he was summoned to appear in the court.

Q12. What according to Gandhi was the beginning of the poor peasants’ ‘Liberation front fear of the British’ ?Ans: The next morning the town of Motihari was black with peasants. They had heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them was in trouble with the authorities. They spontaneously demonstrated, in thousands, arround the courthouse. Gandhiji called their action of protest as their liberation from fear of the British.

Q13. Why did Gandhiji feel that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless?[Delhi 2014]Ans: Gandhiji felt that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless. Because the real relief for the peasants would come only when they become fearless. The peasants were in acute panic.

Q14. What was the “conflict of duties” in which Gandhi was involved?Ans: First, he did not want to set a bad example as a law breaker. Second, he wanted to render the “humanitarian and national service” for which he had come. He respected the lawful authority, but disregarded the order to leave to obey the voice of his conscience.

Q15. What according to Rajendra Prasad, was the upshot of the consultations of the lawyers regarding the injustice to sharecroppers?Ans: They thought that Gandhi was a total stranger. Yet he was ready to go to prison for the sake of the peasants. On the other hand, the lawyers were the residents of nearby districts. They also claimed to have served these peasants. It would be shameful desertion if they should go home then.

Q16. “Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.” How?Ans: A case against Gandhi was initiated for disregarding government orders. The spontaneous demonstration of thousands of peasants baffled the officials. The judge was requested to postpone the trial. Gandhi refused to furnish bail. The judge released him without bail. Several days later Gandhi received an official letter. The case against him had been dropped. Thus, civil disobedience had triumphed.

Q17. What do you think, led Gandhi to exclaim “The battle of Champaran is won”?Ans: Gandhi was ready to go to jail fighting against the injustice to the sharecroppers. Many prominent lawyers had come from all over Bihar to advise and help him. At first, they said they would go back if Gandhi went to prison. Later, they had consultations. They told Gandhi they were ready to follow him into jail. This support made Gandhi extremely happy and confident. This confidence led him to exclaim that the battle of Champaran was won.

Q18. How did Gandhi and the lawyers try to secure justice for the sharecroppers?Ans: They started conducting a detailed enquiry into the grievances of the peasants. Depositions by about ten thousand peasants were written down. Notes were made on other evidence. Documents were collected. The whole area came alive with the activities of the investigators. The landlords raised loud protests.

Q19. What was the reaction of Gandhi and his associates when he was summoned to the lieutenant governor?Ans: In June, Gandhiji was summoned to Sir Edward Gait, the Lieutenant Governor. Anything could happen. Gandhi met his leading associates before going. Detailed plans for civil disobedience were chalked out in case he should not return.

Q20. What was the outcome of the four protracted interviews Gandhiji had with the Lieutenant Governor? Ans: An official commission of enquiry into the sharecroppers’ situation was appointed. This commission consisted of landlords, government officials and Gandhi as the sole representative of the peasants.

Q21. Why did the big planters agree in principle to make refund to the peasants?Ans: The official inquiry assembled a huge quantity of evidence against the big planters. The crushing evidence forced the big planters to agree in principle to make refund to the peasants.

Q22. What amount of repayment did the big planters think Gandhi would demand? What did Gandhi ask? What amount was finally settled?Ans: They thought Gandhi would demand repayment in full of the money they had extorted from the sharecroppers. Gandhi asked only 50 per cent. The planters offered to refund up to 25 per cent. Gandhi was adamant on 50 per cent. The deadlock was broken when Gandhi agreed to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to peasants.

Q23. HQW did the refund-settlement influence the peasant-landlord relationship in Champaran?Ans: Before the settlement of the refund, the planters had behaved as lords above the law. Now the peasant saw that he had rights and defenders. He learned courage. Within a few years, the British planters abandoned their estates. The peasants became masters of the land. There were no sharecropers now.

Q24. Which other spheres besides political or economic fields received Gandhi’s attention during his long stay in Champaran?Ans:The cultural and social backwardness of the Champaran areas pained Gandhi. He appealed for teachers. Several persons responded to his call. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturba taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation. With the help of a doctor and three medicines, they tried to fight the miserable health conditions.

Q25.“This was typical Gandhi pattern” observes Louis Fischer. What do you learn about Gandhian politics from the extract ‘Indigo’?Ans:Gandhi’s politics was intermixed with the practical, everyday life of the millions of Indians. This was not a loyalty to abstractions. It was a loyalty to living human beings. In everything Gandhi did, he tried to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free.

Q26. How did Gandhi teach his followers a lesson of self-reliance?Ans. During the Champaran action, Gandhi’s lawyer friends thought it would be good if C.F. Andrews stayed on in Champaran and helped them. Gandhi opposed this idea as it showed the weakness of their heart. Their cause was just and they must rely upon themselves to win this unequal fight. They should not seek the support of Mr Andrews because he happened to be an Englishman.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONSQ1. What solution to the problems of the poor did Gandhi suggest? How far did the Champaran movement help in this direction?OR“The real relief for them is to be free from fear”, remarked Gandhi. What do you think, was “the beginning of their liberation from the fear of the British” ?Ans. The sharecropper peasants had to grow indigo on 15 per cent of their holdings and surrender the indigo harvest as rent to the landlord. When Germany developed synthetic indigo, the British planters started extracting money illegally and deceitfully as compensation from the peasants for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The peasants were made to sign new agreements and pay money. The planters behaved as lords above the law. Many peasants engaged lawyers at hefty fees and went to courts.The Muzaffarpur lawyers briefed Gandhi about the peasants for whom they frequently represented in courts. Gandhi realised that these peasants were badly crushed and fear- stricken. Freedom from fear was more important than legal justice for them. Gandhiji was ready to court arrest for them. Thousands of peasants demonstrated spontaneously around the court. The government had to release Gandhi without bail. This voluntary uprising of the peasants marked the beginning of their liberation from the fear of the British.

Q2. Why was Gandhi summoned to appear in the court? How did he gain his liberty ?OR‘Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.’Relate the events during Gandhi’s stay in Champaran that led to the triumph.Ans. Gandhi had reached Motihari, the Capital of Champaran, to study the problems of the sharecropper peasants. He was on his way to a neighbouring village, where a peasant was ill-treated. On the way, he was stopped by the police superintendent’s messenger and ordered to return to town. When he reached home, he was served with an official notice to quit Champaran at once. Gandhi wrote on the receipt that he would disobey the order. So Gandhi received a summons to appear in the court the next day.Next morning the town of Motihari was black with peasants. Thousands of peasants demonstrated voluntarily outside the court. The prosecutor requested the judge to postpone the trial. Gandhi protested against the delay. He read out a statement pleading guilty. He asked the penalty. The judge announced that he would pronounce the sentence after a two-hour recess. He asked Gandhi to furnish bail for that period. Gandhi refused. The judge released him without bail. After the recess, the judge said that he would not deliver the judgement for several days. Meanwhile he allowed Gandhi to remain at liberty.Several days later Gandhi received a letter. The case against him had been dropped. Thus, civil disobedience had triumphed, for the first time in India.

Q3. Give an account of Gandhi’s efforts to secure justice for the poor indigo sharecroppers of Champaran.OR“Indigo sharecropping disappeared.” Which factors do you think, helped to achieve freedom for the fear-stricken peasants of Champaran?Ans. Gandhi went to Champaran on receiving reports of exploitation of the poor sharecropper peasants at the hands of British planters. He began by trying to get the facts. The British landlords as well as the Commissioner of Tirhut were non-cooperative. Lawyers from MuZaffarpur briefed him about the court cases of these peasants.Gandhi and the lawyers collected depositions by about ten thousand peasants. Notes were made on other evidence. Documents were collected. The whole area throbbed with the activities of the investigators and forceful protests of landlords.The lieutenant governor summoned Gandhi. After four protracted interviews an official commission of inquiry was appointed to look into the indigo sharecroppers’ condition. Gandhi was the sole representative of the peasants. The official inquiry assembled huge quantity of evidence against the big planters. They agreed, in principle, to make refunds to the peasants. After consultation, a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers was agreed on. This was a moral victory of the peasants. They recognised their rights and learned courage.Within a few years the British planters gave up their estates. These now went back to the peasants. They became the masters of land. Thus, indigo sharecropping disappeared.

Q4. How did Gandhi work for rural uplift during his stay in ChamparantAns. Gandhi wanted to do something to remove the cultural and social backwardness in Champaran villages. He appealed for teachers. Two young disciples of Gandhi, Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh and their wives volunteered themselves for work. Several others responded from distant parts of the country. Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi and Devdas, Gandhi’s youngest son, arrived from the Ashram. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturba taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community cleanliness. She also talked to women about their filthy clothes.Health conditions were miserable. Gandhi got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months. Only three medicines were available: Castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment. Anyone who showed a coated tongue was given a dose of castor oil; anybody with malaria fever received quinine plus castor oil; anybody with skin eruptions received ointment plus caster oil.Thus, Gandhi never contented himself with large political or economic solutions. He worked for total uplift of villages and the poor sections of the society.

Q5. ‘Self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.’ Elucidate on the basis of reading ‘Indigo’ by Louis Fischer.OR‘The Champaran episode was a turning-point in Gandhi’s life. Explain with examples from ‘Indigo’ by Louis Fischer.Ans. Gandhi stayed in Champaran for a long time. The Champaran episode was a turning point in his life. It was during this struggle in 1917 that he decided to urge the departure of the British.Champaran episode did not begin as an act of defiance. It grew out of an attempt to make the sufferings of large numbers of poor peasants less severe. Gandhi concentrated on their practical day to day problems. He analysed the root cause of the problem-fear, and tried to eradicate it. The voluntary demonstration of the poor peasants against the government for putting Gandhi in trouble was the beginning of the end of their fear of the British.In everything Gandhi did, he tried to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free. He taught his lawyer friends a lesson in self-reliance by opposing the involvement of C.F. Andrews, an Englishman in .their unequal fight. His help would be a prop. This would reflect their weakness. Their cause was just and they must rely on themselves to win the battle. Thus self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.

Q6. Justify the appropriateness of the title ‘Indigo’ to this extract.Ans. The title ‘Indigo’ is quite appropriate, to the point and suggestive. It at once focuses our * attention on the central issue-the exploitation of the indigo sharecropper peasants at the hands of cruel British planters. They compelled them through a long term agreement to raise indigo on 15 per cent of their landholding and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent.After the development of synthetic indigo by Germany, the British planters extracted money from the peasants as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent agreement. The peasants who wanted their money back had filed civil suits. The planters who behaved as lords above the law and were dreaded by the poor were obliged to surrender part of money and with it part of their prestige.The extract also points out the work done by Gandhi and his associates to improve the economic, political, cultural and social fife of the indigo sharecroppers. Their education, health and hygiene also received due attention. The plight of indigo sharecroppers, then- struggle under Gandhi’s leadership and ultimate victory when Indigo sharecropping disappeared from important landmarks. Thus, the title ‘Indigo’ is highly suggestive and apt.

Q7. What impression do you form about Gandhi on reading the chapter ‘Indigo’ ?Ans. The chapter ‘Indigo’ pays a tribute to the leadership shown by Mahatma Gandhi to secure justice for oppressed people through convincing argumentation and negotiation. Gandhi had a magnetic attraction and great persuasive power. He could draw people of all classes to himself and make them partners in the freedom movement. Even ordinary people were inspired to make contribution to the freedom movement.Gandhi emerges as a champion of the downtrodden and the oppressed. Rural uplift was his favourite programme. His knowledge of legal procedure and respect for law is also highlighted. He does not want to be a lawbreaker. At the same time he wants to render the humanitarian and national service in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience. He also appears as a polite and friendly person. Gandhi’s ability to read the minds of others made them speechless. He believed in self-reliance, just cause and purity of means to achieve India’s Independence.

Q8. Why is the Champaran episode considered to be the beginning of the Indian struggle for Independence? [All India 2014]Ans. The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of a large number of ’ peasants. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. Gandhi declared that the British could not order him about in his own country. Under his leadership, the peasants became aware of their rights. Raj Kumar Shukla, a farmer of Champaran helped him a lot in bringing about the change. Other peasants too fought courageously and contributed in their own way to the movement. It resulted in their winning the battle of Champaran. The effects of Gandhi’s method of non-violence and non-cooperation proved very fruitful in this movement. Hence, it can be said that the Champaran episode is the beginning of the Indian struggle for independence.

VALUE-RASED QUESTIONSQ1. Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion. John F Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Those who sacrifice their comfort for the welfare of the state get recognition. Write an article on the topic ‘Patriotism’. You can take ideas from the following hints:“They thought, amongst themselves, that Gandhi was totally a stranger, and yet he was prepared to go to prison for the sake of the peasants; if they, on the other hand, being not only residents of the adjoining districts but also those who claimed to have served these peasants, should go home, it would be shameful desertion.”Ans.                                                                    Patriotism

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, this is my own native land! —Scott

Patriotism implies love for one’s nation. A patriot is ready to sacrifice his comfort for the service of his nation. It was for his country’s sake that Sardar Bhagat Singh kissed the gallows. It was for the love for their land that Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Govind Singh suffered untold hardships. True patriots respect other nations and religions but don’t allow anyone to insult their nation. A great philosopher said, “It is not gold that makes a nation great. It is the sacrifice and martyrdom of patriots that raises a nation to the heights of glory.” India is a land where patriots are in abundance. It got its freedom only because of the efforts of its patriots. Patriotism is a religion and an ideal. It is an ideology that guides the people of a nation. It is a feeling and a bond that unites the people of various sects, beliefs and backgrounds together. A patriot must not be narrow minded. He should develop an international progressive outlook. It would be pertinent to quote the words of Seneca here “No one loves his country for its size or eminence, but because it is his own.”

Q2. Undoubtedly, only a socially just country has the right to exist. In the modern world justice is a concept. Muscle is the reality. Corruption has become the way of the world. The destitute are exploited ruthlessly. People feel that ‘to make a living, craftiness is better than learnedness’. Write an article on the topic mentioned above taking ideas from the given lines:“Gandhi protested against the delay. He read a statement pleading guilty… when the court reconvened, the judge said he would not deliver the judgement for several days.”Ans.                                              Corruption in Contemporary IndiaCorruption has engulfed all the educated, skilled and semi-skilled workers. Corruption means dishonesty and illegal behavior especially of the people in authority. A person resorts to corruption because of his poverty, lack of moral strength and other psychological and financial problems. Moreover, the path of righteousness is full of thorns. Some of the youngsters are misguided by the friends to multiply their benefits within a short span of time. One should always remember that corruption starts from the top. If the head of the family is corrupt, the other members will also imitate his actions. Our politicians and bureaucrats are corrupt and unscrupulous. They don’t have any moral authority. Such corrupt politicians and bureaucrats should be punished and the honest persons should be rewarded if we intend to create a congenial atmosphere in our country. The system of justice is outdated and obsolete. It is said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. People do not get justice in the court of law. If corruption is not checked, the poor will be exploited without any inhibition.

Q3. Obstacles determine the quality of life. Hermits feel convinced that ‘sweet are the uses of adversity’. Problems are opportunities. Elucidate the saying taking ideas from the given lines: “Events justified Gandhi’s position. Within a few years the British planters abandoned their estates, which reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.”Ans.                                                            Sweet are the Uses of AdversityThe Bible proclaims that ‘Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward’. Adversity is the first path that leads towards the truth. Emerson opines that ‘every calamity is a spur and valuable hint’. But one cannot forget the truth that ‘there is no wind that always blows a storm’. Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. Every individual aspires to attain phenomenal success in this era of consumerism. No one can refuse to accept the fact that material pleasures and prosperity bring happiness. But one cannot dare to ignore the significance of trying circumstances. One wishes to be away from the situations which can be troublesome and irksome. But one must not despair in those situations and should face the music of life. Prosperity makes a person lazy and ease loving. Adversity, on the other hand, though trying and full of hardships, has a chastening effect. One’s character and personality become dynamic and vibrant if one fights bravely against the odd circumstances. It will not be wrong if we say that “as gold shines in fire, man shines in adversity.

“If you are distressed by anythingexternal, the pain is not due tothe thing itself, but to your ownestimate of it; and this you havethe power to revoke at any moment” —Marcus Aurelius

Q4. Education sets the tone of a nation. Joseph Addison has rightly said, “What sculpture to a block of marble, education is to the soul”. But the quality of education is deteriorating gradually. Discuss the defects of our education system in your own words. Do remember the following expressions:“Gandhi never contented himself with large political or economic solutions. He saw the cultural and social backwardness in the Champaran villages… He appealed for teachers.”Ans.                                                   Defects of our Education System“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence”. Education does not mean teaching people to know what they do not know; it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave, says John Ruskin. The prime objective of our education system is to develop a child’s over all personality. It should train not only the mind, but also the body and soul. Unfortunately, our present education system fails to achieve these objectives. The present education system does not make a child creative. It makes him a crammer. A child/pupil has to mug up nearly 200¬300 pages a year to pass his examination. Students are not given any practical training. They never go to laboratories to verify the theories. Moreover, the present admission system has become the laughing stock of society. The school authorities have a provision for those tiny tots who seek admission to pre-nursery. This is the height of absurdity. We need not the people who can only read and write. Our nation requires engineers, scientists, technicians and doctors. Vocational education is the need of the hour but not at the cost of values. An educated man should not have only bookish knowledge. He must have the knowledge of practical things. Maria Montessori conceived that ‘The first idea that the child must acquire in order to be actively disciplined is that of the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity.

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[dist-the-rose]

Preface to the Fourth German Edition (Engels, 1890) The fourth edition required that I should establish in final form, as nearly as possible, both text and footnotes. The following brief explanation will show how I have fulfilled this task. After again comparing the French edition and Marx’s manuscript remarks I have made some further additions to the German text from that translation. They will be found on p. 80 (3rd edition, p. 88) [present edition, pp. 117-18], pp. 458-60 (3rd edition, pp. 509-10) [present edition, pp. 462-65],1 pp. 547-51 (3rd edition, p. 600) [present edition, pp. 548-51], pp. 591-93 (3rd edition, p. 644) [present edition, 587-89] and p. 596 (3rd edition, p. 648) [present edition, p. 591] in Note 1. I have also followed the example of the French and English editions by putting the long footnote on the miners into the text (3rd edition, pp. 509- 15; 4th edition, pp. 461-67) [present edition, pp. 465-71]. Other small alterations are of a purely technical nature. Further, I have added a few more explanatory notes, especially where changed historical conditions seemed to demand this. All these additional notes are enclosed in square brackets and marked either with my initials or “D. H.” 2 Meanwhile a complete revision of the numerous quotations had been made necessary by the publication of the English edition. For this edition Marx’s youngest daughter, Eleanor, undertook to compare all the quotations with their originals, so that those taken from English sources, which constitute the vast majority, are given there not as re-translations from the German but in the original English form In preparing the fourth edition it was therefore incumbent upon me to consult this text. The comparison revealed various small inaccuracies. Page numbers wrongly indicated, due partly to mistakes in copying from notebooks, and partly to the accumulated misprints of three editions; misplaced quotation or omission marks, which cannot be avoided when a mass of quotations is copied from note-book extracts; here and there some rather unhappy translation of a word; particular passages quoted from the old Paris notebooks of 1843-45, when Marx did not know English and was reading English economists in French translations, so that the double translation yielded a slightly different shade of meaning, e.g., in the case of Steuart, Ure, etc., where the English text had now to be used – and other similar instances of trifling inaccuracy or negligence. But anyone who compares the fourth edition with the previous ones can convince himself that all this laborious process of emendation has not produced the smallest change in the book worth speaking of. There was only one quotation which could not be traced – the one from Richard Jones (4th edition, p. 562, note 47). Marx probably slipped up when writing down the title of the book.3 All the other quotations retain their cogency in full, or have enhanced it due to their present exact form. Here, however, I am obliged to revert to an old story. I know of only one case in which the accuracy of a quotation given by Marx has been called in question. But as the issue dragged beyond his lifetime I cannot well ignore it here. On March 7, 1872, there appeared in the Berlin Concordia, organ of the German Manufacturers’ Association, an anonymous article entitled: “How Karl Marx Quotes.” It was here asserted, with an effervescence of moral indignation and unparliamentary language, that the quotation from Gladstone’s Budget Speech of April 16, 1863 (in the Inaugural Address of the International Workingmen’s Association, 1864, and repeated in “Capital,” Vol. I, p. 617, 4th edition; p. 671, 22 Preface to the Fourth German Edition (Engels 1890) 3rd edition) [present edition, p. 610], had been falsified; that not a single word of the sentence: “this intoxicating augmentation of wealth and power ... is ... entirely confined to classes of property” was to be found in the (semi-official) stenographic report in Hansard. “But this sentence is nowhere to be found in Gladstone’s speech. Exactly the opposite is stated there.” (In bold type): “This sentence, both in form and substance, is a lie inserted by Marx." Marx, to whom the number of Concordia was sent the following May, answered the anonymous author in the Volksstaat of June 1st. As he could not recall which newspaper report he had used for the quotation, he limited himself to citing, first the equivalent quotation from two English publications, and then the report in The Times, according to which Gladstone says: “That is the state of the case as regards the wealth of this country. I must say for one, I should look almost with apprehension and with pain upon this intoxicating augmentation of wealth and power, if it were my belief that it was confined to classes who are in easy circumstances. This takes no cognisance at all of the condition of the labouring population. The augmentation I have described and which is founded, I think, upon accurate returns, is an augmentation entirely confined to classes possessed of property.” Thus Gladstone says here that he would be sorry if it were so, but it is so: this intoxicating augmentation of wealth and power is entirely confined to classes of property. And as to the semiofficial Hansard, Marx goes on to say: “In the version which he afterwards manipulated [zurechtgestümpert], Mr. Gladstone was astute enough to obliterate [wegzupfuschen] this passage, which, coming from an English Chancellor of the Exchequer, was certainly compromising. This, by the way, is a traditional usage in the English parliament and not an invention gotten up by little Lasker against Bebel.” The anonymous writer gets angrier and angrier. In his answer in Concordia, July 4th, he sweeps aside second-hand sources and demurely suggests that it is the “custom” to quote parliamentary speeches from the stenographic report; adding, however, that The Times report (which includes the “falsified” sentence) and the Hansard report (which omits it) are “substantially in complete agreement,” while The Times report likewise contains “the exact opposite to that notorious passage in the Inaugural Address.” This fellow carefully conceals the fact that The Times report explicitly includes that self-same “notorious passage,” alongside of its alleged “opposite.” Despite all this, however, the anonymous one feels that he is stuck fast and that only some new dodge can save him. Thus, whilst his article bristles, as we have just shown, with “impudent mendacity” and is interlarded with such edifying terms of abuse as “bad faith,” “dishonesty,” “lying allegation,” “that spurious quotation,” “impudent mendacity,” “a quotation entirely falsified,” “this falsification,” “simply infamous,” etc., he finds it necessary to divert the issue to another domain and therefore promises “to explain in a second article the meaning which we (the non-mendacious anonymous one) attribute to the content of Gladstone’s words.” As if his particular opinion, of no decisive value as it is, had anything whatever to do with the matter. This second article was printed in Concordia on July 11th. Marx replied again in the Volksstaat of August 7th now giving also the reports of the passage in question from the Morning Star and the Morning Advertiser of April 17, 1863. According to both reports Gladstone said that he would look with apprehension, etc., upon this intoxicating augmentation of wealth and power if he believed it to be confined to “classes in easy circumstances.” But this augmentation was in fact “entirely confined to classes possessed of property.” So these reports too reproduced word for word the sentence alleged to have been “lyingly inserted.” Marx further established once more, by a comparison of The Times and the Hansard texts, that this sentence, which three newspaper reports of identical content, appearing independently of one another the next morning, proved to have been really uttered, was missing from the Hansard report, revised according to the familiar “custom,” and that Gladstone, to use Marx’s words, “had afterwards conjured it away.” In conclusion Marx stated that he had no time 23 Preface to the Fourth German Edition (Engels 1890) for further intercourse with the anonymous one. The latter also seems to have had enough, at any rate Marx received no further issues of Concordia. With this the matter appeared to be dead and buried. True, once or twice later on there reached us, from persons in touch with the University of Cambridge, mysterious rumours of an unspeakable literary crime which Marx was supposed to have committed in “Capital,” but despite all investigation nothing more definite could be learned. Then, on November 29, 1883, eight months after Marx’s death, there appeared in The Times a letter headed Trinity College, Cambridge, and signed Sedley Taylor, in which this little man, who dabbles in the mildest sort of co-operative affairs, seizing upon some chance pretext or other, at last enlightened us, not only concerning those vague Cambridge rumours, but also the anonymous one in Concordia. “What appears extremely singular,” says the little man from Trinity College, “is that it was reserved for Professor Brentano (then of the University of Breslau, now of that of Strassburg) to expose... the bad faith which had manifestly dictated the citation made from Mr. Gladstone’s speech in the [Inaugural] Address. Herr Karl Marx, who ... attempted to defend the citation, had the hardihood, in the deadly shifts to which Brentano’s masterly conduct of the attack speedily reduced him, to assert that Mr. Gladstone had ‘manipulated’ the report of his speech in The Times of April 17, 1863, before it appeared in Hansard, in order to ‘obliterate’ a passage which ‘was certainly compromising’ for an English Chancellor of the Exchequer. On Brentano’s showing, by a detailed comparison of texts, that the reports of The Times and of Hansard agreed in utterly excluding the meaning which craftily isolated quotation had put upon Mr. Gladstone’s words, Marx withdrew from further controversy under the plea of ‘want of time.’” So that was at the bottom of the whole business! And thus was the anonymous campaign of Herr Brentano in Concordia gloriously reflected in the productively co-operating imagination of Cambridge. Thus he stood, sword in hand, and thus he battled, in his “masterly conduct of the attack,” this St. George of the German Manufacturers’ Association, whilst the infernal dragon Marx, “in deadly shifts,” “speedily” breathed his last at his feet. All this Ariostian battle scene, however, only serves to conceal the dodges of our St. George. Here there is no longer talk of “lying insertion” or “falsification,” but of “craftily isolated quotation.” The whole issue was shifted, and St. George and his Cambridge squire very well knew why. Eleanor Marx replied in the monthly journal To-day (February 1884), as The Times refused to publish her letter. She once more focussed the debate on the sole question at issue: had Marx “lyingly inserted” that sentence or not? To this Mr. Sedley Taylor answered that “the question whether a particular sentence did or did not occur in Mr. Gladstone’s speech” had been, in his opinion, “of very subordinate importance” in the Brentano-Marx controversy, “compared to the issue whether the quotation in dispute was made with the intention of conveying, or of perverting Mr. Gladstone’s meaning.” He then admits that The Times report contains “a verbal contrariety"; but, if the context is rightly interpreted, i.e., in the Gladstonian Liberal sense, it shows what Mr. Gladstone meant to say. (To-day, March, 1884.) The most comic point here is that our little Cambridge man now insists upon quoting the speech not from Hansard, as, according to the anonymous Brentano, it is “customary” to do, but from The Times report, which the same Brentano had characterised as “necessarily bungling.” Naturally so, for in Hansard the vexatious sentence is missing. Eleanor Marx had no difficulty (in the same issue of To-day) in dissolving all this argumentation into thin air. Either Mr. Taylor had read the controversy of 1872, in which case he was now making not only “lying insertions” but also “lying” suppressions; or he had not read it and ought to remain silent. In either case it was certain that he did not dare to maintain for a moment the accusation of his friend Brentano that Marx had made a “lying” addition. On the contrary, Marx, it now seems, had not lyingly added but suppressed an important sentence. But this same sentence 24 Preface to the Fourth German Edition (Engels 1890) is quoted on page 5 of the Inaugural Address, a few lines before the alleged “lying insertion.” And as to the “contrariety” in Gladstone’s speech, is it not Marx himself, who in “Capital,” p. 618 (3rd edition, p. 672), note 105 [present edition, p. 611, Note 1], refers to “the continual crying contradictions in Gladstone’s Budget speeches of 1863 and 1864"? Only he does not presume à la Mr. Sedley Taylor to resolve them into complacent Liberal sentiments. Eleanor Marx, in concluding her reply, finally sums up as follows: “Marx has not suppressed anything worth quoting, neither has he ‘lyingly’ added anything. But he has restored, rescued from oblivion, a particular sentence of one of Mr. Gladstone’s speeches, a sentence which had indubitably been pronounced, but which somehow or other had found its way – out of Hansard.” With that Mr. Sedley Taylor too had had enough, and the result of this whole professorial cobweb, spun out over two decades and two great countries, is that nobody has since dared to cast any other aspersion upon Marx’s literary honesty; whilst Mr. Sedley Taylor, no doubt, will hereafter put as little confidence in the literary war bulletins of Herr Brentano as Herr Brentano will in the papal infallibility of Hansard. Frederick Engels London. June 25. 1890

[thetimetravellinggaybar]

Chapter Four: Bosom Friends

The women’s bathroom was overrun.

It was pandemonium, it was cacophony. It was confusion all around. Those at the center of the crowd - though the crowd itself could not have been larger than ten or fifteen strong - found themselves lost and tossed about by the surges of the mass. Everyone was talking. Yells and queries bounced off the walls unanswered, in what sounded like every language under the sun. Heads and bodies turned every which way, thumping against the doors of bathroom stalls and tripping over each other in the tangles of entropy.

Stunned, some had only begun to turn to each other, looking for a familiar face. But in a corner, what had been a whisper had now escalated to shrieks and giggles. Two women - one in a plain white dress and the other with exotic flowers in her hair - were in the middle of an animated discussion.

The more colourfully bedecked had introduced herself first - after a futile attempt in Spanish, which garnered only a reply in confused German, the two found common ground in their knowledge of Russian.

The plainer-dressed lady smiled. “Frida. What a beautiful name that is.”

“My given name was Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, if it pleases you to know.”

“God, how bourgeois.”

Both laughed.

“And you?”

“Rosa. Rosa Luxemburg.”

“I suppose your parents were revolutionaries.” Frida grinned.

Rosa looked skeptical. “I wouldn’t say so. Though my father had a penchant for liberalism.”

“But the name? They must have realized?” Kahlo looked surprised.

“I’m sorry? The name?”

“Rosa Luxemburg! Hero of the proletarian cause, martyr of socialism! Among the greatest theorists, philosophers, economists - ”

Rosa looked away awkwardly. “Well, I suppose I do have admirers.”

Frida grew pale, eyes widening. “Rosa?”

“Yes?”

“When were you born?”

Rosa giggled uncomfortably. “Erm, the fifth of March, 1871. Why?”

“And what year is it now?”

“1919. Are you alright?”

“Holy Mother of God.”

“I’m sorry… I don’t understand… ”

“Rosa, I don’t know what has happened,” began Frida, “but this… this is the year 1950.”

“I don’t…”

“Something has gone terribly wrong.” Frida was solemn.

There was a moment of silence.

Then - Rosa reached out, grabbed Frida’s hand.

“The Civil War,” she gasped. “Is it over?”

“The… oh, that’s right. The Russian Civil War. Is that what you mean?”

“Has it ended?” Rosa’s eyes were wide.

“Yes, yes. The Reds triumphed. In 1922, if I remember correctly.”

“Goodness, this is an odd conversation to be having.” Rosa was glowing with excitement. “And Lenin leads the Party?”

Frida grimaced. “Not any longer. He died in 1924.” 

“So soon!”

“Unfortunately. His successor is Stalin - do you remember him? Iosif Dzhugashvili? The outlaw from Pravda.”

“Yes, of course.”

“He has been horribly cruel. Torture even to read about. But he won the war.”

“The war?”

Kahlo’s eyes were ablaze. “God, this is going to be fun.”

Meanwhile, a slight woman in a black suit squirmed her way out of the squalor. Standing by the door, she clapped her hands, cleared her throat.

“Excuse me! Excuse me! My name is Virginia - ”

She was ignored. Spotting the enamel ledge where the sinks were placed, she tried to clamber up, reaching for an air of authority, something that would would attract attention... suddenly she wavered, the heels of her shoes slipping on the smooth surface. She gasped, flung an arm out in an attempt to stay balanced, but it was no use. She was about to scream and fall when a hand caught her from behind, helping her up.

From her new vantage point, Virginia looked down at her unnamed savior. “Thank you,” she breathed, relieved and astonished. 

“You are very welcome.” This guardian angel had a marked French accent. She gestured to the crowd. “Go on, ze floor is yours! Friends, Romans, Countrymen...”

Virginia giggled, then did as suggested.

“Everyone, please!” she began. “Please listen! We need to organize ourselves!”

“Revolution!” someone else yelled. There were a few laughs.

“Does anyone know where we are?” Virginia went on.

“A bathroom.”

“Not the cleanest.”

“God knows how we got here.”

“We can’t all have been blind drunk.” 

“Were we drugged?”

“She has a point.”

“Kidnappers?”

“I’m sorry, but - ”

Virginia struggled to orient herself amid the sea of voices. The scene was one of the most exotic she had ever witnessed. The crowd of women stood before her, in a display of the most wild variety. Some wore lavish dresses, others jackets and trousers. One in the corner boasted the most extravagantly colourful attire Virginia had ever seen; another, closer to the front, sat in a wheelchair that looked like something out of a science fiction magazine. In the crowd, dialects and accents of all sorts fought a fierce battle to the death.

Virginia had never even imagined such a range of cultures or personalities in such a small space - and she was quite the cosmopolitan, for her time.

“Does everyone here speak English?” she asked loudly, before realizing the futility of such a question. She reformulated: “Will everyone who speaks English step forward, please!”

Most shuffled forward. A few remained standing where they were, looking baffled. Beside Virginia, the lady who had broken her fall so soon before shot her a resigned grin. “I suppose I do. Rustily at best…”

“Alright. We may have to leave the rest of you for the moment… ” Virginia scanned the ranks of those who had stood still. “I do apologize. As for all of you,” she went on, gesturing to the women who had stepped forward, “could any of you - and if you could avoid drowning each other out, we must be civil - could any of you tell me who you are, and perhaps where it is we’ve all found ourselves, if any of you have any idea?”

“I… Miss Cather. Miss Willa Cather,” piped up a young lady in a brown dress. “I don’t know where we are. Or how I got here, either.”

Another joined in, the woman whose wheelchair Virginia had noticed earlier: “Well, my name is Anne-Marie Alonzo... as for the rest, I can’t say.”

“Seems like some sort of public bathroom.” somebody broke in from the other end of the room. “Oh, and - Ethel Waters. That’s me.”

“Marsha, Marsha P. Johnson. Does look like a bathroom,” another woman agreed, peering into one of the stalls. “There’s a door over there, too. Wonder if there’s somebody outside who could tell us where we are?”

“Should I go out and have a look?” Anne-Marie began making her way to the door, jointly with a woman who introduced herself as Gwendolyn Brooks.

“Wait!” Virginia frowned. “Let’s not be too quick about this. Where did you all come from? Do you know how you got here?”

“I was just walking down the street. And then all of a sudden, I wasn’t.”

“Waiting for a train… ”

“I opened the back door and here I was.”

Virginia sighed. “Seems we’re all in the same fix, then. As for myself, I only stepped for a moment into the hall, and all of a sudden…” she waved a hand at her surroundings. There was a pause, as each woman fell into deep contemplation of her own situation.

The kind, accented woman beside Virginia finally broke the silence. “Shall we not introduce ourselves? We may be here, ah, a long time. I am Simone - Simone de Beauvoir, if you prefer, but Simone alone is perfect.”

“De Beauvoir,” whispered a starstruck Virginia. Blue blood, she thought.

“Pardon?” Simone smiled up at her. Virginia crouched awkwardly so the two were nearly eye to eye, then positioned herself so as to be able to sit down on the enamel ledge.

“Are you - you will excuse me - are you from France, madam?” she asked.

“Madam! Ha! Yes, I am Parisian heart and soul, but make no mistake! I am a mademoiselle, and forever I will be.”

“Oh, please do forgive me,” Virginia apologized, reddening. Then she raised an eyebrow. “You say forever… a vow of maidenhood? You don’t strike me as the type.”

“Marriage is impossible for me,” shrugged Simone; Virginia smiled at that. “Et vous? Do you speak French? I have forgotten your name, how terrible,” the Frenchwoman went on.

“Oh dear, it’s no issue. I’m afraid my French may not be the most impressive, but I’ll have a go at it. As for my name - Virginia Woolf.” she extended a hand. “Enchantée.”

“Like the writer,” smiled de Beauvoir, switching to French. “How lovely. Come to think of it, you look like her as well.”

“I don’t believe I know of any other writer by my name…” Woolf hesitated. “Perhaps you are mistaken… unless you would care to enlighten me?”

“Ah, the Virginia Woolf? You do not know her? What a woman! You have not heard of her? Are you quite certain? Oh, you know… Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway… I don’t care much for The Waves, but I’m very, very fond of her book on Elizabeth Barrett Browning.”

“Excuse me - ” Virginia cut in, close to laughing. “Those are my books. I am that writer.”

“Virginia Woolf is dead,” frowned Simone, though with a certain measure of self-doubt.

“I certainly hope not,” giggled Virginia, now thoroughly baffled. “Who told you such a thing? I am alive, I am sitting here, wherever I am...”

“It is the year nineteen sixty-seven…” Simone hesitated.

“It is not.”

“I am sure it is. It must be.”

Virginia furrowed her eyebrows. “And I am sure it is only nineteen forty - ”

“Is it possible?” Simone interrupted her with a gasp.

“Is what possible?”

“One of us - or perhaps both of us - has… has separated from the timeline of our existence.”

“Oh. Oh, my goodness.”

“The question is - ”

“How?” wondered Virginia wide-eyed. “And why us?”

“The question is, where… when are we?”

Both gaped. For all their questions, they hadn’t an answer between them.

Meanwhile, the room had reverted to its former chaos. In the corner, Frida was still busy with the task of recounting the last half-decade’s history to her newfound comrade.

Trotsky - Lenin’s confidant? You know of him - he was exiled - ”

“Good god, why?”

“Stalin became paranoid. Some - myself included - believe has forsaken the socialist cause.”

“And to think I had so much hope.” Rosa sighed.

“But Russia is not finished! Stalin will die eventually, we all know that. Besides, the struggle is being carried out elsewhere! International Socialism is upon us!” Kahlo became agitated. “It has expanded to China! A nationwide revolution only last year! And Syria, and Southeast Asia - already Vietnam and Indonesia have declared themselves partisans to the cause! And South America, of course…”

“South America!” gasped Rosa.

Frida grinned. “Oh, yes! In Argentina and Bolivia, the governments themselves are involved! Here in Mexico, it is only a revolutionary movement, but it is vast.”

“Mexico?”

“Oh. Did you not leave Berlin?”

“Not recently. There have been conflicts. I haven’t had a moment’s peace.”

“And until a moment ago I was certain I had not left Coyoacán… where are we?”

The two heard a sound from the front of the room, and looked up. Virginia had begun to manoeuvre herself upright again. For a moment she wavered, and there again was Simone, reaching out to support her, an anxious look crossing her face. For a moment they touched, their fingers brushed lightly - and Virginia surprised herself with a blush. Something about that woman got to her.

She straightened and rapped the heel of her shoe on the enamel of the sink, silencing the crowd - at least to an extent.

“Among those of you who do speak English,” she began, “could any of you tell me, by any chance, what year this is?”

Discord rang out. Virginia nodded, in hesitant understanding.

“Do you know what this means?” she whispered, in French, looking back at Simone.

“The phenomenology of time… the fundamental mode of transcendence… I have a friend who writes about such things.”

“What year is this?”

 “I… I’m afraid I can’t say. How bizarre this all is...” Simone giggled, then gestured to the door. “Shall we have a look outside?”

 “Why not?” Virginia turned again to the crowd: “We have been… transported away from our time… or times. I’m sure you have all figured out something along those lines? Simone and I propose, on a bit of a whim, that we go out through that door… if the plan agrees with everyone - ” she paused. “Let’s all go out together. Try to keep an eye on somebody you can recognize. Don’t lose the group. Alright?”

There was a murmur of assent. Those nearest the exit - the adventurous Anne-Marie Alonzo, and her new companion Gwendolyn Brooks - pushed open the door and stepped, cautious but intrigued, out of the bar bathroom.

Then Simone reached out a hand, to assist Virginia back to firm ground. Still holding hands - neither quite willing to let go of the other - they followed the crowd out into the brilliant, dazzling lights and sounds of a brave new world.

#timetravellinggaybar #gay #fanfiction #Sci-Fi & Fantasy #virginia woolf #simone de beauvoir #frida kahlo #communism #marxist history #anne-marie alonzo #gwendolyn brooks #willa cather #ethel waters #marsha p. johnson #gay writers #lgbt history #rpf #time travel #writing #collaborative novel

[margdarsanme]

NCERT Class 12 English Chapter 5 Indigo

 NCERT Class 12 English :: Chapter 5 Indigo

(English Flamingo Prose)

QUESTIONS FROM TEXTBOOK SOLVED:

THINK AS YOU READ Q1. Strike out what is not true in the following:(a)Rajkumar Shukla was:(i)a sharecropper (ii)a politician(iii)delegate (iv)a landlord.(b) Rajkumar Shukla was:(i) poor (ii)physically strong(iii) illiterate.Ans: (a) (ii) a politician(b) (ii) physically strong

Q2. Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being ‘resolute’?Ans: He had come all the way from Champaran district in the foothills of Himalayas to Lucknow to speak to Gandhi. Shukla accompanied Gandhi everywhere. Shukla followed him to the ashram near Ahmedabad. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side till Gandhi asked him to meet at Calcutta.

Q3. Why do you think the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant?Ans: Shukla led Gandhi to Rajendra Prasad’s house. The servants knew Shukla as a poor yeoman. Gandhi was also clad in a simple dhoti. He was the companion of a peasant. Hence, the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant.

THINK AS YOU READQ1. List the places that Gandhi visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at Champaran.Ans: Gandhi’s first meeting with Shukla was at Lucknow. Then he went to Cawnpore and other parts of India. He returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Later he went to Calcutta, Patna and Muzaffarpur before arriving at Champaran.

Q2. 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 peasants paid the British landlords indigo as rent. Now Germany had developed synthetic indigo. So, the British landlords wanted money as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The prices of natural indigo would go down due to the synthetic Indigo.

THINK AS YOU READ Q1. The events in this part of the text illustrate Gandhi’s method of working. Can you identify some instances of this method and link them to his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence?Ans: Gandhi’s politics was intermingled with the day-to-day problems of the millions of Indians. He opposed unjust laws. He was ready to court arrest for breaking such laws and going to jail. The famous Dandi March to break the ‘salt law’ is another instance. The resistance and disobedience was peaceful and a fight for truth and justice…This was linked directly to his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence.

THINK AS YOU READQ1. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers?Ans: For Gandhi the amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the landlords had been forced to return part of the money, and with it, part of their prestige too. So, he agreed to settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers.

Q2. How did the episode change the plight of the peasants?Ans: The peasants were saved from spending time and money on court cases. After some years the British planters gave up control of their estates. These now reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXTQ1.Why do you think Gaffdhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning- point in his life?Ans: The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of large number of poor peasants. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. Gandhi admits that what he had done was a very ordinary thing. He declared that the British could not order him about in his own country. Hence, he considered the Champaran episode as a turning- point in his life.

Q2. How was Gandhi able to influence lawyers? Give instances.Ans: Gandhi asked the lawyers what they would do if he was sentenced to prison. They said that they had come to advise him. If he went to jail, they would go home. Then Gandhi asked them about the injustice to the sharecroppers. The lawyers held consultations. They came to the conclusion that it would be shameful desertion if they went home. So, they told Gandhi that they were ready to follow him into jail.

Q3. “What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of ‘home rule’?Ans: The average Indians in smaller localities were afraid to show sympathy for the advocates of home-rule. Gandhi stayed at Muzaffarpur for two days at the home of Professor Malkani, a teacher in a government school. It was an extraordinary thing in those days for a government professor to give shelter to one who opposed the government.

Q4. How do we know that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement?Ans: Professor J.B. Kriplani received Gandhi at Muzaffarpur railway station at midnight. He had a large body of students with him. Sharecroppers from Champaran came on foot and by conveyance to see Gandhi. Muzaffarpur lawyers too called on him. A vast multitude greeted Gandhi when he reached Motihari railway station. Thousands of people demonstrated around the court room. This shows that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement in India.

TALKING ABOUT THE TEXTDiscuss the following:Q1. “Freedom from fear is more important than Legal justice for the poor.”Do you think that the poor of India are free from fear after Independence?Ans: For the poor of India means of survival are far more important than freedom or legal justice. I don’t think the poor of India are free from fear after Independence.The foreign rulers have been replaced by corrupt politicians and self-serving bureaucracy. Power- brokers and moneylenders have a field day. The situation has improved in cities and towns for the poor but the poor in the remote villages still fear the big farmers and moneylenders. The police and revenue officials are still objects of terror for them.The poor, landless workers have to still work hard to make both ends meet. Peasants and tenant-farmers have to borrow money from rich moneylenders on exorbitant rates of interest, which usually they fail to repay due to failure of monsoon or bad crops. Cases of small farmers committing suicide are quite common. If this is not due to fear, what is the reason behind it?

Q2. The qualities of a good leader.Ans: A good leader has a mass appeal. He rises from the masses, thinks for them and works for them. He is sincere in his approach. He is a man of principles. Truth, honesty, patriotism, morality, spirit of service and sacrifice are the hallmarks of a good leader. He never mixes politics with religion or sect. He believes in working for the welfare of the nation and does not think in the narrow terms of class, caste or region. Corruption and nepotism are two evils that surround a leader in power. The life of a good leader is an open book. There is no difference between his words and actions. Such good leaders are very rare. What we find today are practical politicians, who think of achieving their end without bothering about . the purity of means. The law of expediency gets the better of morality.

WORKING WITH WORDS 1.List the words used in the text that are related to legal procedures.For example: depositionAns: Notice, summons, prosecutor, trial, plead, guilty, order, penalty, sentence, bail, judgement, prison, case, inquiry, evidence, commission.•List other words that you know that fall into this category.Ans. Complaint, complainant, decree, defendant, witness, prosecution, defence, sessions, jury, verdict, decision.

THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE Q1. Notice the sentences in the text which are in ‘direct speech’. Why does the author use quotations in his narration?Ans: The following sentences in the text are in ‘direct speech’.(а)He said, “I will tell you how it happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British. It was in 1917.”(b)Gandhi recounted. “A peasant came up to me looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated, and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran, and I want you to come to my district!”(c)Gandhi said, “I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a date. Come and meet me and take me from there”.(d)“It was an extraordinary thing ‘in those days,” Gandhi commented, Tor a government professor to harbour a man like me.’(e)He said, “I have come to the conclusion that we should stop going to law courts. Taking such cases to the courts does little good. Where the peasants are so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear.”(f) “The commissioner,” Gandhi reports, “proceeded to bully me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut”.(g)‘But how much must we pay?’ they asked Gandhi.(h)One woman took Kasturbabai into her hut and said, “Look, there is no box or cupboard here for clothes. The sari I am wearing is the only one I have”.(i) “What I did”, he explained, “was a very ordinary thing. I declared that the British could not order me about in my own country”.(j) He said, “You think that in this unequal fight it would be helpful if we have an Englishman on our side. This shows the weakness of your heart. The cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves to win the battle. You should not seek a prop in Mr ‘ Andrews because he happens to be an Englishman”.(k) “He had read our minds correctly,” Rajendra Prasad comments, “and we had no reply … Gandhi in this way taught uS a lesson in self-reliance”.The choice of the direct form strengthens the effectiveness of narration. The author uses quotations to highlight certain points which may not appear so effective in reporting indirectly.

Q2. Notice the use or non-use of the comma in the following sentences:(a) When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in Sevagram, he told me what happened in Champaran.(b) He had not proceeded far when the police superintendent’s messenger overtook him. (c) When the court reconvened, the judge said he would not deliver the judgement for several days.Ans: (i) When the subordinate clause comes before the main clause, a comma is used to separate it from the main clause.(ii) No comma is used when the main clause comes before the subordinate clause.

THINGS TO DO 1.Choose an issue that has provoked a controversy like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy or the Narmada Dam Project in which the lives of the poor have been affected.2.Find out the facts of the case.3.Present your arguments.4.Suggest a possible settlement.Ans: Extension activity : To be attempted under the guidance of the teacher.

MORE QUESTIONS SOLVED

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONSQ1.Who was Rajkumar Shukla? Why did he come to Lucknow?Ans: Rajkumar Shukla was a poor peasant from Champaran district in Bihar. He had come to Lucknow, where a Congress session was being held, to complain about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar.

Q2. Where is Champaran district situated? What did the peasants grow there? How did they use their harvest?Ans: Champaran district of Bihar is situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal. Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran peasants were sharecroppers. They had to grow indigo on 15 per cent of the land and give it to the English estate owners as rent.

Q3. How did the development of synthetic indigo affect the English estate owners and the Indian tenants?Ans: The English estate owners saw that indigo cultivation was no longer profitable.Ihey wanted money from the sharecroppers as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. They obtained agreements from their tenants to this effect and extorted money illegally and deceitfully.

Q4. How did the Indian peasants react to the new agreement released them from sharecropping arrangement?Ans: The sharecropping arrangement was troublesome to the peasants. Many of them signed the new agreement willingly. Some resisted and engaged lawyers. Then they came to know about synthetic indigo. The peasants wanted their money back.

Q5. Why do you think Gandhi was not permitted to draw water from Rajendra Prasad’s well at Patna?Ans: The servants of Rajendra Prasad thought Gandhi to be another peasant. They did not know him. They were not certain whether he was an untouchable or not. They feared that some drops from his bucket might pollute the entire well. So, he was not permitted to draw water from the well.

Q6. Why did Gandhi decide to go first to Muzaffarpur before going to Champaran:Ans: Gandhi wanted to obtain more complete information about conditions than Shukla was capable of imparting. Muzaffarpur lawyers, who frequently represented peasant groups in courts, brief Gandhi about their cases.

Q7. Why did Gandhi chide the lawyers? What according to him was the real relief for the sharecroppers?Ans: Gandhi chided the lawyers for collecting big fee from the poor sharecroppers. He thought that taking such cases to the court did little good to the crushed and fear-stricken peasants. The relief for them, according to Gandhi, was to be free from fear.

Q8. How did Ga n dhi begin his mission in Champaran ? How far did his efforts prove successful ?Ans: He began by trying to get the facts. First, he visited the secretary of the British landlord’s association. He told Gandhi that they could give no information to an outsider. Then Gandhi called on the British official commissioner of the Tirhut Division. The commissioner tried to bully Gandhi and advised him to leave Tirhut.

Q9. How did Gandhi react to the commissioner’s advice? Where did he go and how did people react to his arrival?Ans: Gandhiji did not leave Tirhut division. Instead, he went to Motihari, the capital of Champaran. Several lawyers accompanied him. At the railway station, a very large crowd of people greeted Gandhi.

Q10. Where did Gandhiji want to go? What happened to him on the way? Ans: Gandhiji wanted to go to a nearby village where a peasant had been maltreated. He had not gone far when the police superintendent’s messenger overtook him and ordered him to return to town in his carriage. Gandhiji obeyed the order and returned with him.

Q11. ‘In consequence, Gandhi received a summons to appear in the court next day.’Which events of the previous day led to this state of affairs?Ans: The police superintendent’s messenger served an official notice on Gandhi. It ordered him to quit Champaran immediately. Gandhi signed a receipt for the notice. He wrote on the receipt that he would disobey the order. Hence, he was summoned to appear in the court.

Q12. What according to Gandhi was the beginning of the poor peasants’ ‘Liberation front fear of the British’ ?Ans: The next morning the town of Motihari was black with peasants. They had heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them was in trouble with the authorities. They spontaneously demonstrated, in thousands, arround the courthouse. Gandhiji called their action of protest as their liberation from fear of the British.

Q13. Why did Gandhiji feel that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless?[Delhi 2014]Ans: Gandhiji felt that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless. Because the real relief for the peasants would come only when they become fearless. The peasants were in acute panic.

Q14. What was the “conflict of duties” in which Gandhi was involved?Ans: First, he did not want to set a bad example as a law breaker. Second, he wanted to render the “humanitarian and national service” for which he had come. He respected the lawful authority, but disregarded the order to leave to obey the voice of his conscience.

Q15. What according to Rajendra Prasad, was the upshot of the consultations of the lawyers regarding the injustice to sharecroppers?Ans: They thought that Gandhi was a total stranger. Yet he was ready to go to prison for the sake of the peasants. On the other hand, the lawyers were the residents of nearby districts. They also claimed to have served these peasants. It would be shameful desertion if they should go home then.

Q16. “Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.” How?Ans: A case against Gandhi was initiated for disregarding government orders. The spontaneous demonstration of thousands of peasants baffled the officials. The judge was requested to postpone the trial. Gandhi refused to furnish bail. The judge released him without bail. Several days later Gandhi received an official letter. The case against him had been dropped. Thus, civil disobedience had triumphed.

Q17. What do you think, led Gandhi to exclaim “The battle of Champaran is won”?Ans: Gandhi was ready to go to jail fighting against the injustice to the sharecroppers. Many prominent lawyers had come from all over Bihar to advise and help him. At first, they said they would go back if Gandhi went to prison. Later, they had consultations. They told Gandhi they were ready to follow him into jail. This support made Gandhi extremely happy and confident. This confidence led him to exclaim that the battle of Champaran was won.

Q18. How did Gandhi and the lawyers try to secure justice for the sharecroppers?Ans: They started conducting a detailed enquiry into the grievances of the peasants. Depositions by about ten thousand peasants were written down. Notes were made on other evidence. Documents were collected. The whole area came alive with the activities of the investigators. The landlords raised loud protests.

Q19. What was the reaction of Gandhi and his associates when he was summoned to the lieutenant governor?Ans: In June, Gandhiji was summoned to Sir Edward Gait, the Lieutenant Governor. Anything could happen. Gandhi met his leading associates before going. Detailed plans for civil disobedience were chalked out in case he should not return.

Q20. What was the outcome of the four protracted interviews Gandhiji had with the Lieutenant Governor? Ans: An official commission of enquiry into the sharecroppers’ situation was appointed. This commission consisted of landlords, government officials and Gandhi as the sole representative of the peasants.

Q21. Why did the big planters agree in principle to make refund to the peasants?Ans: The official inquiry assembled a huge quantity of evidence against the big planters. The crushing evidence forced the big planters to agree in principle to make refund to the peasants.

Q22. What amount of repayment did the big planters think Gandhi would demand? What did Gandhi ask? What amount was finally settled?Ans: They thought Gandhi would demand repayment in full of the money they had extorted from the sharecroppers. Gandhi asked only 50 per cent. The planters offered to refund up to 25 per cent. Gandhi was adamant on 50 per cent. The deadlock was broken when Gandhi agreed to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to peasants.

Q23. HQW did the refund-settlement influence the peasant-landlord relationship in Champaran?Ans: Before the settlement of the refund, the planters had behaved as lords above the law. Now the peasant saw that he had rights and defenders. He learned courage. Within a few years, the British planters abandoned their estates. The peasants became masters of the land. There were no sharecropers now.

Q24. Which other spheres besides political or economic fields received Gandhi’s attention during his long stay in Champaran?Ans:The cultural and social backwardness of the Champaran areas pained Gandhi. He appealed for teachers. Several persons responded to his call. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturba taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation. With the help of a doctor and three medicines, they tried to fight the miserable health conditions.

Q25.“This was typical Gandhi pattern” observes Louis Fischer. What do you learn about Gandhian politics from the extract ‘Indigo’?Ans:Gandhi’s politics was intermixed with the practical, everyday life of the millions of Indians. This was not a loyalty to abstractions. It was a loyalty to living human beings. In everything Gandhi did, he tried to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free.

Q26. How did Gandhi teach his followers a lesson of self-reliance?Ans. During the Champaran action, Gandhi’s lawyer friends thought it would be good if C.F. Andrews stayed on in Champaran and helped them. Gandhi opposed this idea as it showed the weakness of their heart. Their cause was just and they must rely upon themselves to win this unequal fight. They should not seek the support of Mr Andrews because he happened to be an Englishman.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONSQ1. What solution to the problems of the poor did Gandhi suggest? How far did the Champaran movement help in this direction?OR“The real relief for them is to be free from fear”, remarked Gandhi. What do you think, was “the beginning of their liberation from the fear of the British” ?Ans. The sharecropper peasants had to grow indigo on 15 per cent of their holdings and surrender the indigo harvest as rent to the landlord. When Germany developed synthetic indigo, the British planters started extracting money illegally and deceitfully as compensation from the peasants for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The peasants were made to sign new agreements and pay money. The planters behaved as lords above the law. Many peasants engaged lawyers at hefty fees and went to courts.The Muzaffarpur lawyers briefed Gandhi about the peasants for whom they frequently represented in courts. Gandhi realised that these peasants were badly crushed and fear- stricken. Freedom from fear was more important than legal justice for them. Gandhiji was ready to court arrest for them. Thousands of peasants demonstrated spontaneously around the court. The government had to release Gandhi without bail. This voluntary uprising of the peasants marked the beginning of their liberation from the fear of the British.

Q2. Why was Gandhi summoned to appear in the court? How did he gain his liberty ?OR‘Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.’Relate the events during Gandhi’s stay in Champaran that led to the triumph.Ans. Gandhi had reached Motihari, the Capital of Champaran, to study the problems of the sharecropper peasants. He was on his way to a neighbouring village, where a peasant was ill-treated. On the way, he was stopped by the police superintendent’s messenger and ordered to return to town. When he reached home, he was served with an official notice to quit Champaran at once. Gandhi wrote on the receipt that he would disobey the order. So Gandhi received a summons to appear in the court the next day.Next morning the town of Motihari was black with peasants. Thousands of peasants demonstrated voluntarily outside the court. The prosecutor requested the judge to postpone the trial. Gandhi protested against the delay. He read out a statement pleading guilty. He asked the penalty. The judge announced that he would pronounce the sentence after a two-hour recess. He asked Gandhi to furnish bail for that period. Gandhi refused. The judge released him without bail. After the recess, the judge said that he would not deliver the judgement for several days. Meanwhile he allowed Gandhi to remain at liberty.Several days later Gandhi received a letter. The case against him had been dropped. Thus, civil disobedience had triumphed, for the first time in India.

Q3. Give an account of Gandhi’s efforts to secure justice for the poor indigo sharecroppers of Champaran.OR“Indigo sharecropping disappeared.” Which factors do you think, helped to achieve freedom for the fear-stricken peasants of Champaran?Ans. Gandhi went to Champaran on receiving reports of exploitation of the poor sharecropper peasants at the hands of British planters. He began by trying to get the facts. The British landlords as well as the Commissioner of Tirhut were non-cooperative. Lawyers from MuZaffarpur briefed him about the court cases of these peasants.Gandhi and the lawyers collected depositions by about ten thousand peasants. Notes were made on other evidence. Documents were collected. The whole area throbbed with the activities of the investigators and forceful protests of landlords.The lieutenant governor summoned Gandhi. After four protracted interviews an official commission of inquiry was appointed to look into the indigo sharecroppers’ condition. Gandhi was the sole representative of the peasants. The official inquiry assembled huge quantity of evidence against the big planters. They agreed, in principle, to make refunds to the peasants. After consultation, a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers was agreed on. This was a moral victory of the peasants. They recognised their rights and learned courage.Within a few years the British planters gave up their estates. These now went back to the peasants. They became the masters of land. Thus, indigo sharecropping disappeared.

Q4. How did Gandhi work for rural uplift during his stay in ChamparantAns. Gandhi wanted to do something to remove the cultural and social backwardness in Champaran villages. He appealed for teachers. Two young disciples of Gandhi, Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh and their wives volunteered themselves for work. Several others responded from distant parts of the country. Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi and Devdas, Gandhi’s youngest son, arrived from the Ashram. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturba taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community cleanliness. She also talked to women about their filthy clothes.Health conditions were miserable. Gandhi got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months. Only three medicines were available: Castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment. Anyone who showed a coated tongue was given a dose of castor oil; anybody with malaria fever received quinine plus castor oil; anybody with skin eruptions received ointment plus caster oil.Thus, Gandhi never contented himself with large political or economic solutions. He worked for total uplift of villages and the poor sections of the society.

Q5. ‘Self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.’ Elucidate on the basis of reading ‘Indigo’ by Louis Fischer.OR‘The Champaran episode was a turning-point in Gandhi’s life. Explain with examples from ‘Indigo’ by Louis Fischer.Ans. Gandhi stayed in Champaran for a long time. The Champaran episode was a turning point in his life. It was during this struggle in 1917 that he decided to urge the departure of the British.Champaran episode did not begin as an act of defiance. It grew out of an attempt to make the sufferings of large numbers of poor peasants less severe. Gandhi concentrated on their practical day to day problems. He analysed the root cause of the problem-fear, and tried to eradicate it. The voluntary demonstration of the poor peasants against the government for putting Gandhi in trouble was the beginning of the end of their fear of the British.In everything Gandhi did, he tried to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free. He taught his lawyer friends a lesson in self-reliance by opposing the involvement of C.F. Andrews, an Englishman in .their unequal fight. His help would be a prop. This would reflect their weakness. Their cause was just and they must rely on themselves to win the battle. Thus self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.

Q6. Justify the appropriateness of the title ‘Indigo’ to this extract.Ans. The title ‘Indigo’ is quite appropriate, to the point and suggestive. It at once focuses our * attention on the central issue-the exploitation of the indigo sharecropper peasants at the hands of cruel British planters. They compelled them through a long term agreement to raise indigo on 15 per cent of their landholding and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent.After the development of synthetic indigo by Germany, the British planters extracted money from the peasants as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent agreement. The peasants who wanted their money back had filed civil suits. The planters who behaved as lords above the law and were dreaded by the poor were obliged to surrender part of money and with it part of their prestige.The extract also points out the work done by Gandhi and his associates to improve the economic, political, cultural and social fife of the indigo sharecroppers. Their education, health and hygiene also received due attention. The plight of indigo sharecroppers, then- struggle under Gandhi’s leadership and ultimate victory when Indigo sharecropping disappeared from important landmarks. Thus, the title ‘Indigo’ is highly suggestive and apt.

Q7. What impression do you form about Gandhi on reading the chapter ‘Indigo’ ?Ans. The chapter ‘Indigo’ pays a tribute to the leadership shown by Mahatma Gandhi to secure justice for oppressed people through convincing argumentation and negotiation. Gandhi had a magnetic attraction and great persuasive power. He could draw people of all classes to himself and make them partners in the freedom movement. Even ordinary people were inspired to make contribution to the freedom movement.Gandhi emerges as a champion of the downtrodden and the oppressed. Rural uplift was his favourite programme. His knowledge of legal procedure and respect for law is also highlighted. He does not want to be a lawbreaker. At the same time he wants to render the humanitarian and national service in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience. He also appears as a polite and friendly person. Gandhi’s ability to read the minds of others made them speechless. He believed in self-reliance, just cause and purity of means to achieve India’s Independence.

Q8. Why is the Champaran episode considered to be the beginning of the Indian struggle for Independence? [All India 2014]Ans. The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of a large number of ’ peasants. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. Gandhi declared that the British could not order him about in his own country. Under his leadership, the peasants became aware of their rights. Raj Kumar Shukla, a farmer of Champaran helped him a lot in bringing about the change. Other peasants too fought courageously and contributed in their own way to the movement. It resulted in their winning the battle of Champaran. The effects of Gandhi’s method of non-violence and non-cooperation proved very fruitful in this movement. Hence, it can be said that the Champaran episode is the beginning of the Indian struggle for independence.

VALUE-RASED QUESTIONSQ1. Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion. John F Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Those who sacrifice their comfort for the welfare of the state get recognition. Write an article on the topic ‘Patriotism’. You can take ideas from the following hints:“They thought, amongst themselves, that Gandhi was totally a stranger, and yet he was prepared to go to prison for the sake of the peasants; if they, on the other hand, being not only residents of the adjoining districts but also those who claimed to have served these peasants, should go home, it would be shameful desertion.”Ans.                                                                    Patriotism

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, this is my own native land! —Scott

Patriotism implies love for one’s nation. A patriot is ready to sacrifice his comfort for the service of his nation. It was for his country’s sake that Sardar Bhagat Singh kissed the gallows. It was for the love for their land that Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Govind Singh suffered untold hardships. True patriots respect other nations and religions but don’t allow anyone to insult their nation. A great philosopher said, “It is not gold that makes a nation great. It is the sacrifice and martyrdom of patriots that raises a nation to the heights of glory.” India is a land where patriots are in abundance. It got its freedom only because of the efforts of its patriots. Patriotism is a religion and an ideal. It is an ideology that guides the people of a nation. It is a feeling and a bond that unites the people of various sects, beliefs and backgrounds together. A patriot must not be narrow minded. He should develop an international progressive outlook. It would be pertinent to quote the words of Seneca here “No one loves his country for its size or eminence, but because it is his own.”

Q2. Undoubtedly, only a socially just country has the right to exist. In the modern world justice is a concept. Muscle is the reality. Corruption has become the way of the world. The destitute are exploited ruthlessly. People feel that ‘to make a living, craftiness is better than learnedness’. Write an article on the topic mentioned above taking ideas from the given lines:“Gandhi protested against the delay. He read a statement pleading guilty… when the court reconvened, the judge said he would not deliver the judgement for several days.”Ans.                                              Corruption in Contemporary IndiaCorruption has engulfed all the educated, skilled and semi-skilled workers. Corruption means dishonesty and illegal behavior especially of the people in authority. A person resorts to corruption because of his poverty, lack of moral strength and other psychological and financial problems. Moreover, the path of righteousness is full of thorns. Some of the youngsters are misguided by the friends to multiply their benefits within a short span of time. One should always remember that corruption starts from the top. If the head of the family is corrupt, the other members will also imitate his actions. Our politicians and bureaucrats are corrupt and unscrupulous. They don’t have any moral authority. Such corrupt politicians and bureaucrats should be punished and the honest persons should be rewarded if we intend to create a congenial atmosphere in our country. The system of justice is outdated and obsolete. It is said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. People do not get justice in the court of law. If corruption is not checked, the poor will be exploited without any inhibition.

Q3. Obstacles determine the quality of life. Hermits feel convinced that ‘sweet are the uses of adversity’. Problems are opportunities. Elucidate the saying taking ideas from the given lines: “Events justified Gandhi’s position. Within a few years the British planters abandoned their estates, which reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.”Ans.                                                            Sweet are the Uses of AdversityThe Bible proclaims that ‘Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward’. Adversity is the first path that leads towards the truth. Emerson opines that ‘every calamity is a spur and valuable hint’. But one cannot forget the truth that ‘there is no wind that always blows a storm’. Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. Every individual aspires to attain phenomenal success in this era of consumerism. No one can refuse to accept the fact that material pleasures and prosperity bring happiness. But one cannot dare to ignore the significance of trying circumstances. One wishes to be away from the situations which can be troublesome and irksome. But one must not despair in those situations and should face the music of life. Prosperity makes a person lazy and ease loving. Adversity, on the other hand, though trying and full of hardships, has a chastening effect. One’s character and personality become dynamic and vibrant if one fights bravely against the odd circumstances. It will not be wrong if we say that “as gold shines in fire, man shines in adversity.

“If you are distressed by anythingexternal, the pain is not due tothe thing itself, but to your ownestimate of it; and this you havethe power to revoke at any moment” —Marcus Aurelius

Q4. Education sets the tone of a nation. Joseph Addison has rightly said, “What sculpture to a block of marble, education is to the soul”. But the quality of education is deteriorating gradually. Discuss the defects of our education system in your own words. Do remember the following expressions:“Gandhi never contented himself with large political or economic solutions. He saw the cultural and social backwardness in the Champaran villages… He appealed for teachers.”Ans.                                                   Defects of our Education System“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence”. Education does not mean teaching people to know what they do not know; it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave, says John Ruskin. The prime objective of our education system is to develop a child’s over all personality. It should train not only the mind, but also the body and soul. Unfortunately, our present education system fails to achieve these objectives. The present education system does not make a child creative. It makes him a crammer. A child/pupil has to mug up nearly 200¬300 pages a year to pass his examination. Students are not given any practical training. They never go to laboratories to verify the theories. Moreover, the present admission system has become the laughing stock of society. The school authorities have a provision for those tiny tots who seek admission to pre-nursery. This is the height of absurdity. We need not the people who can only read and write. Our nation requires engineers, scientists, technicians and doctors. Vocational education is the need of the hour but not at the cost of values. An educated man should not have only bookish knowledge. He must have the knowledge of practical things. Maria Montessori conceived that ‘The first idea that the child must acquire in order to be actively disciplined is that of the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity.

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NCERT Class 12 English Chapter 5 Indigo

 NCERT Class 12 English :: Chapter 5 Indigo

(English Flamingo Prose)

QUESTIONS FROM TEXTBOOK SOLVED:

THINK AS YOU READ Q1. Strike out what is not true in the following:(a)Rajkumar Shukla was:(i)a sharecropper (ii)a politician(iii)delegate (iv)a landlord.(b) Rajkumar Shukla was:(i) poor (ii)physically strong(iii) illiterate.Ans: (a) (ii) a politician(b) (ii) physically strong

Q2. Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being ‘resolute’?Ans: He had come all the way from Champaran district in the foothills of Himalayas to Lucknow to speak to Gandhi. Shukla accompanied Gandhi everywhere. Shukla followed him to the ashram near Ahmedabad. For weeks he never left Gandhi’s side till Gandhi asked him to meet at Calcutta.

Q3. Why do you think the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant?Ans: Shukla led Gandhi to Rajendra Prasad’s house. The servants knew Shukla as a poor yeoman. Gandhi was also clad in a simple dhoti. He was the companion of a peasant. Hence, the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant.

THINK AS YOU READQ1. List the places that Gandhi visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at Champaran.Ans: Gandhi’s first meeting with Shukla was at Lucknow. Then he went to Cawnpore and other parts of India. He returned to his ashram near Ahmedabad. Later he went to Calcutta, Patna and Muzaffarpur before arriving at Champaran.

Q2. 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 peasants paid the British landlords indigo as rent. Now Germany had developed synthetic indigo. So, the British landlords wanted money as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The prices of natural indigo would go down due to the synthetic Indigo.

THINK AS YOU READ Q1. The events in this part of the text illustrate Gandhi’s method of working. Can you identify some instances of this method and link them to his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence?Ans: Gandhi’s politics was intermingled with the day-to-day problems of the millions of Indians. He opposed unjust laws. He was ready to court arrest for breaking such laws and going to jail. The famous Dandi March to break the ‘salt law’ is another instance. The resistance and disobedience was peaceful and a fight for truth and justice…This was linked directly to his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence.

THINK AS YOU READQ1. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers?Ans: For Gandhi the amount of the refund was less important than the fact that the landlords had been forced to return part of the money, and with it, part of their prestige too. So, he agreed to settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers.

Q2. How did the episode change the plight of the peasants?Ans: The peasants were saved from spending time and money on court cases. After some years the British planters gave up control of their estates. These now reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXTQ1.Why do you think Gaffdhi considered the Champaran episode to be a turning- point in his life?Ans: The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of large number of poor peasants. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. Gandhi admits that what he had done was a very ordinary thing. He declared that the British could not order him about in his own country. Hence, he considered the Champaran episode as a turning- point in his life.

Q2. How was Gandhi able to influence lawyers? Give instances.Ans: Gandhi asked the lawyers what they would do if he was sentenced to prison. They said that they had come to advise him. If he went to jail, they would go home. Then Gandhi asked them about the injustice to the sharecroppers. The lawyers held consultations. They came to the conclusion that it would be shameful desertion if they went home. So, they told Gandhi that they were ready to follow him into jail.

Q3. “What was the attitude of the average Indian in smaller localities towards advocates of ‘home rule’?Ans: The average Indians in smaller localities were afraid to show sympathy for the advocates of home-rule. Gandhi stayed at Muzaffarpur for two days at the home of Professor Malkani, a teacher in a government school. It was an extraordinary thing in those days for a government professor to give shelter to one who opposed the government.

Q4. How do we know that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement?Ans: Professor J.B. Kriplani received Gandhi at Muzaffarpur railway station at midnight. He had a large body of students with him. Sharecroppers from Champaran came on foot and by conveyance to see Gandhi. Muzaffarpur lawyers too called on him. A vast multitude greeted Gandhi when he reached Motihari railway station. Thousands of people demonstrated around the court room. This shows that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement in India.

TALKING ABOUT THE TEXTDiscuss the following:Q1. “Freedom from fear is more important than Legal justice for the poor.”Do you think that the poor of India are free from fear after Independence?Ans: For the poor of India means of survival are far more important than freedom or legal justice. I don’t think the poor of India are free from fear after Independence.The foreign rulers have been replaced by corrupt politicians and self-serving bureaucracy. Power- brokers and moneylenders have a field day. The situation has improved in cities and towns for the poor but the poor in the remote villages still fear the big farmers and moneylenders. The police and revenue officials are still objects of terror for them.The poor, landless workers have to still work hard to make both ends meet. Peasants and tenant-farmers have to borrow money from rich moneylenders on exorbitant rates of interest, which usually they fail to repay due to failure of monsoon or bad crops. Cases of small farmers committing suicide are quite common. If this is not due to fear, what is the reason behind it?

Q2. The qualities of a good leader.Ans: A good leader has a mass appeal. He rises from the masses, thinks for them and works for them. He is sincere in his approach. He is a man of principles. Truth, honesty, patriotism, morality, spirit of service and sacrifice are the hallmarks of a good leader. He never mixes politics with religion or sect. He believes in working for the welfare of the nation and does not think in the narrow terms of class, caste or region. Corruption and nepotism are two evils that surround a leader in power. The life of a good leader is an open book. There is no difference between his words and actions. Such good leaders are very rare. What we find today are practical politicians, who think of achieving their end without bothering about . the purity of means. The law of expediency gets the better of morality.

WORKING WITH WORDS 1.List the words used in the text that are related to legal procedures.For example: depositionAns: Notice, summons, prosecutor, trial, plead, guilty, order, penalty, sentence, bail, judgement, prison, case, inquiry, evidence, commission.•List other words that you know that fall into this category.Ans. Complaint, complainant, decree, defendant, witness, prosecution, defence, sessions, jury, verdict, decision.

THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE Q1. Notice the sentences in the text which are in ‘direct speech’. Why does the author use quotations in his narration?Ans: The following sentences in the text are in ‘direct speech’.(а)He said, “I will tell you how it happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British. It was in 1917.”(b)Gandhi recounted. “A peasant came up to me looking like any other peasant in India, poor and emaciated, and said, ‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran, and I want you to come to my district!”(c)Gandhi said, “I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a date. Come and meet me and take me from there”.(d)“It was an extraordinary thing ‘in those days,” Gandhi commented, Tor a government professor to harbour a man like me.’(e)He said, “I have come to the conclusion that we should stop going to law courts. Taking such cases to the courts does little good. Where the peasants are so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts are useless. The real relief for them is to be free from fear.”(f) “The commissioner,” Gandhi reports, “proceeded to bully me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut”.(g)‘But how much must we pay?’ they asked Gandhi.(h)One woman took Kasturbabai into her hut and said, “Look, there is no box or cupboard here for clothes. The sari I am wearing is the only one I have”.(i) “What I did”, he explained, “was a very ordinary thing. I declared that the British could not order me about in my own country”.(j) He said, “You think that in this unequal fight it would be helpful if we have an Englishman on our side. This shows the weakness of your heart. The cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves to win the battle. You should not seek a prop in Mr ‘ Andrews because he happens to be an Englishman”.(k) “He had read our minds correctly,” Rajendra Prasad comments, “and we had no reply … Gandhi in this way taught uS a lesson in self-reliance”.The choice of the direct form strengthens the effectiveness of narration. The author uses quotations to highlight certain points which may not appear so effective in reporting indirectly.

Q2. Notice the use or non-use of the comma in the following sentences:(a) When I first visited Gandhi in 1942 at his ashram in Sevagram, he told me what happened in Champaran.(b) He had not proceeded far when the police superintendent’s messenger overtook him. (c) When the court reconvened, the judge said he would not deliver the judgement for several days.Ans: (i) When the subordinate clause comes before the main clause, a comma is used to separate it from the main clause.(ii) No comma is used when the main clause comes before the subordinate clause.

THINGS TO DO 1.Choose an issue that has provoked a controversy like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy or the Narmada Dam Project in which the lives of the poor have been affected.2.Find out the facts of the case.3.Present your arguments.4.Suggest a possible settlement.Ans: Extension activity : To be attempted under the guidance of the teacher.

MORE QUESTIONS SOLVED

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONSQ1.Who was Rajkumar Shukla? Why did he come to Lucknow?Ans: Rajkumar Shukla was a poor peasant from Champaran district in Bihar. He had come to Lucknow, where a Congress session was being held, to complain about the injustice of the landlord system in Bihar.

Q2. Where is Champaran district situated? What did the peasants grow there? How did they use their harvest?Ans: Champaran district of Bihar is situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, near the kingdom of Nepal. Under an ancient arrangement, the Champaran peasants were sharecroppers. They had to grow indigo on 15 per cent of the land and give it to the English estate owners as rent.

Q3. How did the development of synthetic indigo affect the English estate owners and the Indian tenants?Ans: The English estate owners saw that indigo cultivation was no longer profitable.Ihey wanted money from the sharecroppers as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. They obtained agreements from their tenants to this effect and extorted money illegally and deceitfully.

Q4. How did the Indian peasants react to the new agreement released them from sharecropping arrangement?Ans: The sharecropping arrangement was troublesome to the peasants. Many of them signed the new agreement willingly. Some resisted and engaged lawyers. Then they came to know about synthetic indigo. The peasants wanted their money back.

Q5. Why do you think Gandhi was not permitted to draw water from Rajendra Prasad’s well at Patna?Ans: The servants of Rajendra Prasad thought Gandhi to be another peasant. They did not know him. They were not certain whether he was an untouchable or not. They feared that some drops from his bucket might pollute the entire well. So, he was not permitted to draw water from the well.

Q6. Why did Gandhi decide to go first to Muzaffarpur before going to Champaran:Ans: Gandhi wanted to obtain more complete information about conditions than Shukla was capable of imparting. Muzaffarpur lawyers, who frequently represented peasant groups in courts, brief Gandhi about their cases.

Q7. Why did Gandhi chide the lawyers? What according to him was the real relief for the sharecroppers?Ans: Gandhi chided the lawyers for collecting big fee from the poor sharecroppers. He thought that taking such cases to the court did little good to the crushed and fear-stricken peasants. The relief for them, according to Gandhi, was to be free from fear.

Q8. How did Ga n dhi begin his mission in Champaran ? How far did his efforts prove successful ?Ans: He began by trying to get the facts. First, he visited the secretary of the British landlord’s association. He told Gandhi that they could give no information to an outsider. Then Gandhi called on the British official commissioner of the Tirhut Division. The commissioner tried to bully Gandhi and advised him to leave Tirhut.

Q9. How did Gandhi react to the commissioner’s advice? Where did he go and how did people react to his arrival?Ans: Gandhiji did not leave Tirhut division. Instead, he went to Motihari, the capital of Champaran. Several lawyers accompanied him. At the railway station, a very large crowd of people greeted Gandhi.

Q10. Where did Gandhiji want to go? What happened to him on the way? Ans: Gandhiji wanted to go to a nearby village where a peasant had been maltreated. He had not gone far when the police superintendent’s messenger overtook him and ordered him to return to town in his carriage. Gandhiji obeyed the order and returned with him.

Q11. ‘In consequence, Gandhi received a summons to appear in the court next day.’Which events of the previous day led to this state of affairs?Ans: The police superintendent’s messenger served an official notice on Gandhi. It ordered him to quit Champaran immediately. Gandhi signed a receipt for the notice. He wrote on the receipt that he would disobey the order. Hence, he was summoned to appear in the court.

Q12. What according to Gandhi was the beginning of the poor peasants’ ‘Liberation front fear of the British’ ?Ans: The next morning the town of Motihari was black with peasants. They had heard that a Mahatma who wanted to help them was in trouble with the authorities. They spontaneously demonstrated, in thousands, arround the courthouse. Gandhiji called their action of protest as their liberation from fear of the British.

Q13. Why did Gandhiji feel that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless?[Delhi 2014]Ans: Gandhiji felt that taking the Champaran case to the court was useless. Because the real relief for the peasants would come only when they become fearless. The peasants were in acute panic.

Q14. What was the “conflict of duties” in which Gandhi was involved?Ans: First, he did not want to set a bad example as a law breaker. Second, he wanted to render the “humanitarian and national service” for which he had come. He respected the lawful authority, but disregarded the order to leave to obey the voice of his conscience.

Q15. What according to Rajendra Prasad, was the upshot of the consultations of the lawyers regarding the injustice to sharecroppers?Ans: They thought that Gandhi was a total stranger. Yet he was ready to go to prison for the sake of the peasants. On the other hand, the lawyers were the residents of nearby districts. They also claimed to have served these peasants. It would be shameful desertion if they should go home then.

Q16. “Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.” How?Ans: A case against Gandhi was initiated for disregarding government orders. The spontaneous demonstration of thousands of peasants baffled the officials. The judge was requested to postpone the trial. Gandhi refused to furnish bail. The judge released him without bail. Several days later Gandhi received an official letter. The case against him had been dropped. Thus, civil disobedience had triumphed.

Q17. What do you think, led Gandhi to exclaim “The battle of Champaran is won”?Ans: Gandhi was ready to go to jail fighting against the injustice to the sharecroppers. Many prominent lawyers had come from all over Bihar to advise and help him. At first, they said they would go back if Gandhi went to prison. Later, they had consultations. They told Gandhi they were ready to follow him into jail. This support made Gandhi extremely happy and confident. This confidence led him to exclaim that the battle of Champaran was won.

Q18. How did Gandhi and the lawyers try to secure justice for the sharecroppers?Ans: They started conducting a detailed enquiry into the grievances of the peasants. Depositions by about ten thousand peasants were written down. Notes were made on other evidence. Documents were collected. The whole area came alive with the activities of the investigators. The landlords raised loud protests.

Q19. What was the reaction of Gandhi and his associates when he was summoned to the lieutenant governor?Ans: In June, Gandhiji was summoned to Sir Edward Gait, the Lieutenant Governor. Anything could happen. Gandhi met his leading associates before going. Detailed plans for civil disobedience were chalked out in case he should not return.

Q20. What was the outcome of the four protracted interviews Gandhiji had with the Lieutenant Governor? Ans: An official commission of enquiry into the sharecroppers’ situation was appointed. This commission consisted of landlords, government officials and Gandhi as the sole representative of the peasants.

Q21. Why did the big planters agree in principle to make refund to the peasants?Ans: The official inquiry assembled a huge quantity of evidence against the big planters. The crushing evidence forced the big planters to agree in principle to make refund to the peasants.

Q22. What amount of repayment did the big planters think Gandhi would demand? What did Gandhi ask? What amount was finally settled?Ans: They thought Gandhi would demand repayment in full of the money they had extorted from the sharecroppers. Gandhi asked only 50 per cent. The planters offered to refund up to 25 per cent. Gandhi was adamant on 50 per cent. The deadlock was broken when Gandhi agreed to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to peasants.

Q23. HQW did the refund-settlement influence the peasant-landlord relationship in Champaran?Ans: Before the settlement of the refund, the planters had behaved as lords above the law. Now the peasant saw that he had rights and defenders. He learned courage. Within a few years, the British planters abandoned their estates. The peasants became masters of the land. There were no sharecropers now.

Q24. Which other spheres besides political or economic fields received Gandhi’s attention during his long stay in Champaran?Ans:The cultural and social backwardness of the Champaran areas pained Gandhi. He appealed for teachers. Several persons responded to his call. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturba taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community sanitation. With the help of a doctor and three medicines, they tried to fight the miserable health conditions.

Q25.“This was typical Gandhi pattern” observes Louis Fischer. What do you learn about Gandhian politics from the extract ‘Indigo’?Ans:Gandhi’s politics was intermixed with the practical, everyday life of the millions of Indians. This was not a loyalty to abstractions. It was a loyalty to living human beings. In everything Gandhi did, he tried to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free.

Q26. How did Gandhi teach his followers a lesson of self-reliance?Ans. During the Champaran action, Gandhi’s lawyer friends thought it would be good if C.F. Andrews stayed on in Champaran and helped them. Gandhi opposed this idea as it showed the weakness of their heart. Their cause was just and they must rely upon themselves to win this unequal fight. They should not seek the support of Mr Andrews because he happened to be an Englishman.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONSQ1. What solution to the problems of the poor did Gandhi suggest? How far did the Champaran movement help in this direction?OR“The real relief for them is to be free from fear”, remarked Gandhi. What do you think, was “the beginning of their liberation from the fear of the British” ?Ans. The sharecropper peasants had to grow indigo on 15 per cent of their holdings and surrender the indigo harvest as rent to the landlord. When Germany developed synthetic indigo, the British planters started extracting money illegally and deceitfully as compensation from the peasants for being released from the 15 per cent arrangement. The peasants were made to sign new agreements and pay money. The planters behaved as lords above the law. Many peasants engaged lawyers at hefty fees and went to courts.The Muzaffarpur lawyers briefed Gandhi about the peasants for whom they frequently represented in courts. Gandhi realised that these peasants were badly crushed and fear- stricken. Freedom from fear was more important than legal justice for them. Gandhiji was ready to court arrest for them. Thousands of peasants demonstrated spontaneously around the court. The government had to release Gandhi without bail. This voluntary uprising of the peasants marked the beginning of their liberation from the fear of the British.

Q2. Why was Gandhi summoned to appear in the court? How did he gain his liberty ?OR‘Civil disobedience had triumphed, the first time in modern India.’Relate the events during Gandhi’s stay in Champaran that led to the triumph.Ans. Gandhi had reached Motihari, the Capital of Champaran, to study the problems of the sharecropper peasants. He was on his way to a neighbouring village, where a peasant was ill-treated. On the way, he was stopped by the police superintendent’s messenger and ordered to return to town. When he reached home, he was served with an official notice to quit Champaran at once. Gandhi wrote on the receipt that he would disobey the order. So Gandhi received a summons to appear in the court the next day.Next morning the town of Motihari was black with peasants. Thousands of peasants demonstrated voluntarily outside the court. The prosecutor requested the judge to postpone the trial. Gandhi protested against the delay. He read out a statement pleading guilty. He asked the penalty. The judge announced that he would pronounce the sentence after a two-hour recess. He asked Gandhi to furnish bail for that period. Gandhi refused. The judge released him without bail. After the recess, the judge said that he would not deliver the judgement for several days. Meanwhile he allowed Gandhi to remain at liberty.Several days later Gandhi received a letter. The case against him had been dropped. Thus, civil disobedience had triumphed, for the first time in India.

Q3. Give an account of Gandhi’s efforts to secure justice for the poor indigo sharecroppers of Champaran.OR“Indigo sharecropping disappeared.” Which factors do you think, helped to achieve freedom for the fear-stricken peasants of Champaran?Ans. Gandhi went to Champaran on receiving reports of exploitation of the poor sharecropper peasants at the hands of British planters. He began by trying to get the facts. The British landlords as well as the Commissioner of Tirhut were non-cooperative. Lawyers from MuZaffarpur briefed him about the court cases of these peasants.Gandhi and the lawyers collected depositions by about ten thousand peasants. Notes were made on other evidence. Documents were collected. The whole area throbbed with the activities of the investigators and forceful protests of landlords.The lieutenant governor summoned Gandhi. After four protracted interviews an official commission of inquiry was appointed to look into the indigo sharecroppers’ condition. Gandhi was the sole representative of the peasants. The official inquiry assembled huge quantity of evidence against the big planters. They agreed, in principle, to make refunds to the peasants. After consultation, a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers was agreed on. This was a moral victory of the peasants. They recognised their rights and learned courage.Within a few years the British planters gave up their estates. These now went back to the peasants. They became the masters of land. Thus, indigo sharecropping disappeared.

Q4. How did Gandhi work for rural uplift during his stay in ChamparantAns. Gandhi wanted to do something to remove the cultural and social backwardness in Champaran villages. He appealed for teachers. Two young disciples of Gandhi, Mahadev Desai and Narhari Parikh and their wives volunteered themselves for work. Several others responded from distant parts of the country. Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi and Devdas, Gandhi’s youngest son, arrived from the Ashram. Primary schools were opened in six villages. Kasturba taught the ashram rules on personal cleanliness and community cleanliness. She also talked to women about their filthy clothes.Health conditions were miserable. Gandhi got a doctor to volunteer his services for six months. Only three medicines were available: Castor oil, quinine and sulphur ointment. Anyone who showed a coated tongue was given a dose of castor oil; anybody with malaria fever received quinine plus castor oil; anybody with skin eruptions received ointment plus caster oil.Thus, Gandhi never contented himself with large political or economic solutions. He worked for total uplift of villages and the poor sections of the society.

Q5. ‘Self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.’ Elucidate on the basis of reading ‘Indigo’ by Louis Fischer.OR‘The Champaran episode was a turning-point in Gandhi’s life. Explain with examples from ‘Indigo’ by Louis Fischer.Ans. Gandhi stayed in Champaran for a long time. The Champaran episode was a turning point in his life. It was during this struggle in 1917 that he decided to urge the departure of the British.Champaran episode did not begin as an act of defiance. It grew out of an attempt to make the sufferings of large numbers of poor peasants less severe. Gandhi concentrated on their practical day to day problems. He analysed the root cause of the problem-fear, and tried to eradicate it. The voluntary demonstration of the poor peasants against the government for putting Gandhi in trouble was the beginning of the end of their fear of the British.In everything Gandhi did, he tried to mould a new free Indian who could stand on his own feet and thus make India free. He taught his lawyer friends a lesson in self-reliance by opposing the involvement of C.F. Andrews, an Englishman in .their unequal fight. His help would be a prop. This would reflect their weakness. Their cause was just and they must rely on themselves to win the battle. Thus self-reliance, Indian independence and help to sharecroppers were all bound together.

Q6. Justify the appropriateness of the title ‘Indigo’ to this extract.Ans. The title ‘Indigo’ is quite appropriate, to the point and suggestive. It at once focuses our * attention on the central issue-the exploitation of the indigo sharecropper peasants at the hands of cruel British planters. They compelled them through a long term agreement to raise indigo on 15 per cent of their landholding and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent.After the development of synthetic indigo by Germany, the British planters extracted money from the peasants as compensation for being released from the 15 per cent agreement. The peasants who wanted their money back had filed civil suits. The planters who behaved as lords above the law and were dreaded by the poor were obliged to surrender part of money and with it part of their prestige.The extract also points out the work done by Gandhi and his associates to improve the economic, political, cultural and social fife of the indigo sharecroppers. Their education, health and hygiene also received due attention. The plight of indigo sharecroppers, then- struggle under Gandhi’s leadership and ultimate victory when Indigo sharecropping disappeared from important landmarks. Thus, the title ‘Indigo’ is highly suggestive and apt.

Q7. What impression do you form about Gandhi on reading the chapter ‘Indigo’ ?Ans. The chapter ‘Indigo’ pays a tribute to the leadership shown by Mahatma Gandhi to secure justice for oppressed people through convincing argumentation and negotiation. Gandhi had a magnetic attraction and great persuasive power. He could draw people of all classes to himself and make them partners in the freedom movement. Even ordinary people were inspired to make contribution to the freedom movement.Gandhi emerges as a champion of the downtrodden and the oppressed. Rural uplift was his favourite programme. His knowledge of legal procedure and respect for law is also highlighted. He does not want to be a lawbreaker. At the same time he wants to render the humanitarian and national service in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience. He also appears as a polite and friendly person. Gandhi’s ability to read the minds of others made them speechless. He believed in self-reliance, just cause and purity of means to achieve India’s Independence.

Q8. Why is the Champaran episode considered to be the beginning of the Indian struggle for Independence? [All India 2014]Ans. The Champaran episode began as an attempt to ease the sufferings of a large number of ’ peasants. He got spontaneous support of thousands of people. Gandhi declared that the British could not order him about in his own country. Under his leadership, the peasants became aware of their rights. Raj Kumar Shukla, a farmer of Champaran helped him a lot in bringing about the change. Other peasants too fought courageously and contributed in their own way to the movement. It resulted in their winning the battle of Champaran. The effects of Gandhi’s method of non-violence and non-cooperation proved very fruitful in this movement. Hence, it can be said that the Champaran episode is the beginning of the Indian struggle for independence.

VALUE-RASED QUESTIONSQ1. Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion. John F Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Those who sacrifice their comfort for the welfare of the state get recognition. Write an article on the topic ‘Patriotism’. You can take ideas from the following hints:“They thought, amongst themselves, that Gandhi was totally a stranger, and yet he was prepared to go to prison for the sake of the peasants; if they, on the other hand, being not only residents of the adjoining districts but also those who claimed to have served these peasants, should go home, it would be shameful desertion.”Ans.                                                                    Patriotism

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, this is my own native land! —Scott

Patriotism implies love for one’s nation. A patriot is ready to sacrifice his comfort for the service of his nation. It was for his country’s sake that Sardar Bhagat Singh kissed the gallows. It was for the love for their land that Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Govind Singh suffered untold hardships. True patriots respect other nations and religions but don’t allow anyone to insult their nation. A great philosopher said, “It is not gold that makes a nation great. It is the sacrifice and martyrdom of patriots that raises a nation to the heights of glory.” India is a land where patriots are in abundance. It got its freedom only because of the efforts of its patriots. Patriotism is a religion and an ideal. It is an ideology that guides the people of a nation. It is a feeling and a bond that unites the people of various sects, beliefs and backgrounds together. A patriot must not be narrow minded. He should develop an international progressive outlook. It would be pertinent to quote the words of Seneca here “No one loves his country for its size or eminence, but because it is his own.”

Q2. Undoubtedly, only a socially just country has the right to exist. In the modern world justice is a concept. Muscle is the reality. Corruption has become the way of the world. The destitute are exploited ruthlessly. People feel that ‘to make a living, craftiness is better than learnedness’. Write an article on the topic mentioned above taking ideas from the given lines:“Gandhi protested against the delay. He read a statement pleading guilty… when the court reconvened, the judge said he would not deliver the judgement for several days.”Ans.                                              Corruption in Contemporary IndiaCorruption has engulfed all the educated, skilled and semi-skilled workers. Corruption means dishonesty and illegal behavior especially of the people in authority. A person resorts to corruption because of his poverty, lack of moral strength and other psychological and financial problems. Moreover, the path of righteousness is full of thorns. Some of the youngsters are misguided by the friends to multiply their benefits within a short span of time. One should always remember that corruption starts from the top. If the head of the family is corrupt, the other members will also imitate his actions. Our politicians and bureaucrats are corrupt and unscrupulous. They don’t have any moral authority. Such corrupt politicians and bureaucrats should be punished and the honest persons should be rewarded if we intend to create a congenial atmosphere in our country. The system of justice is outdated and obsolete. It is said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. People do not get justice in the court of law. If corruption is not checked, the poor will be exploited without any inhibition.

Q3. Obstacles determine the quality of life. Hermits feel convinced that ‘sweet are the uses of adversity’. Problems are opportunities. Elucidate the saying taking ideas from the given lines: “Events justified Gandhi’s position. Within a few years the British planters abandoned their estates, which reverted to the peasants. Indigo sharecropping disappeared.”Ans.                                                            Sweet are the Uses of AdversityThe Bible proclaims that ‘Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward’. Adversity is the first path that leads towards the truth. Emerson opines that ‘every calamity is a spur and valuable hint’. But one cannot forget the truth that ‘there is no wind that always blows a storm’. Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. Every individual aspires to attain phenomenal success in this era of consumerism. No one can refuse to accept the fact that material pleasures and prosperity bring happiness. But one cannot dare to ignore the significance of trying circumstances. One wishes to be away from the situations which can be troublesome and irksome. But one must not despair in those situations and should face the music of life. Prosperity makes a person lazy and ease loving. Adversity, on the other hand, though trying and full of hardships, has a chastening effect. One’s character and personality become dynamic and vibrant if one fights bravely against the odd circumstances. It will not be wrong if we say that “as gold shines in fire, man shines in adversity.

“If you are distressed by anythingexternal, the pain is not due tothe thing itself, but to your ownestimate of it; and this you havethe power to revoke at any moment” —Marcus Aurelius

Q4. Education sets the tone of a nation. Joseph Addison has rightly said, “What sculpture to a block of marble, education is to the soul”. But the quality of education is deteriorating gradually. Discuss the defects of our education system in your own words. Do remember the following expressions:“Gandhi never contented himself with large political or economic solutions. He saw the cultural and social backwardness in the Champaran villages… He appealed for teachers.”Ans.                                                   Defects of our Education System“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence”. Education does not mean teaching people to know what they do not know; it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave, says John Ruskin. The prime objective of our education system is to develop a child’s over all personality. It should train not only the mind, but also the body and soul. Unfortunately, our present education system fails to achieve these objectives. The present education system does not make a child creative. It makes him a crammer. A child/pupil has to mug up nearly 200¬300 pages a year to pass his examination. Students are not given any practical training. They never go to laboratories to verify the theories. Moreover, the present admission system has become the laughing stock of society. The school authorities have a provision for those tiny tots who seek admission to pre-nursery. This is the height of absurdity. We need not the people who can only read and write. Our nation requires engineers, scientists, technicians and doctors. Vocational education is the need of the hour but not at the cost of values. An educated man should not have only bookish knowledge. He must have the knowledge of practical things. Maria Montessori conceived that ‘The first idea that the child must acquire in order to be actively disciplined is that of the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity.

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