Raj Kumar Shukla: Difference between revisions

{{Use Indian English|date=June 2016}}

| name = Raj Kumar Shukla

'''Raj Kumar Shukla''' (23 August 1875 – 20 May 1929) was the person who convinced [[Mahatma Gandhi]] to visit [[Champaran]] which later led to the [[Champaran Satyagraha]].<ref>[http://champaransatyagrah.org/facts/ A struggle for freedom]. Champaransatyagrah.org (5 March 2016). Retrieved on 2018-11-21.</ref> Shukla at the time worked under [[Hafez|Hafiz Din Mohammad]] and was sent to meet Gandhi.  

Raj Kumar Shukla was born in 1875 at Satwaria village, in [[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-6nGA4JzvA&t=24s Champaran]]], where his ancestors lived for 200 years. His family owned several acres of farming land in Murli Bharahwa, another village in the same district. His father's name was Kolahal Shukla.

During the 31st session of the Congress in Lucknow in 1916, Gandhiji met Raj Kumar Shukla, a representative of farmers from Champaran, who requested him to come and see for himself the miseries of the indigo ryots (tenant farmers) there. Gandhi later wrote in his autobiography “I must confess that I did not then know even the name, much less the geographical position, of Champaran, and I had hardly any notion of indigo plantations.”<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-6nGA4JzvA&t=24s]. Champaransatyagrah.org. Retrieved on 21 November 2018.</ref> Shukla thus met Gandhi to make him aware of the plight of the cultivators in [[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-6nGA4JzvA&t=24s Champaran]]] and persuaded him to go there. He was a known Indigo cultivator of the area as he was a money lender from village Murli Bharahwa near Narkatiyaganj in West Champaran, earning, according to his own statement before the enquiry committee set up by the provincial government, a sum of two thousand rupees a month from interest <ref>{{cite book |title=Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life |last=Tidrick |first=Kathryn|author-link=Kathryn Tidrick|year=2006 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-166-3 |page=117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pp-gZ5OVkuUC&pg=PA117&dq=%22Raj+Kumar+Shukla%22 |accessdate=6 October 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://tirhut-muzaffarpur.bih.nic.in/District/Bettaih.htm |title=West Chaparan District at a Glance |work=Tirhut Division |accessdate=6 October 2008 }}</ref> Bhatt Brahmins in Champaran had earlier revolted against [[indigo]] cultivation in 1914 (at [[Pipra]]) and 1916 ([[Turkaulia]]).